Camper and Sierra go to Lake Tahoe!

Hope Valley, near South Lake Tahoe, CA

We recently went on a weekend getaway to Lake Tahoe with our two doggies, Camper and Sierra.  It was a beautiful winter wonderland with nearly 6 ft. of snow on the ground and a warm sun in the sky.  The pups were overjoyed with frolicking in the snow for the first time ever!  I finally had a chance to sit down with them and talk about the trip:

Jamie: So, Camper, how did you enjoy your first time in the snow?  

Camper: Whatz sno?

Jamie: Oh, um, it’s the cold white stuff you walked on.  When you got thirsty you licked it, remember?

Camper: O yeh, I reemembers.  Uh, it wuz fun!  I liked runnin in it.  And then I liked layin in it.  And then I liked licken it.

Camper prepares for his interview.

Jamie: Great! I knew you would.  You know, you’re a husky and huskies are made to withstand really cold temperatures.  But this was the first time you’d ever been anywhere really cold, wasn’t it?

Camper: Kan I lick youz face?

Jamie: What?

Camper: I wanna lick youz face.  Kan I?

Jamie: No.  We’re not licking faces right now.  Back to the snow...remember when we went to hang out with all the other huskies and you helped them pull the sleds around in the snow?  Was that fun?

Camper: Ya, dat wuz purty fun.  But I no like bein tied to stuffs, I just wants to run!

Sierra: That wasn’t fun.  That was animal cruelty.

Jamie: Sierra, you didn’t like dog sledding?

Sierra: No.

Jamie:  But you guys got to pull sleds with professional sled dogs!  Some of them still compete in the Iditarod.  Don’t you guys know what that is?  Don’t they cover that in your doggie newsletters?  It’s a big deal!

Sierra: When you said we were going dog sledding, I assumed the dogs would be riding in the sled, not pulling it.

Camper: Watz a ididerdod?

No idea what they're in for.

Jamie: It’s a famous dog sledding race held every year in Alaska.  Remember when you got to lead the team and ran next to the pretty white husky, Olive?  She used to race in it every year.

Camper: Yeh, she was purty. But teh doggies wuz loud! Barkin and jumpin and they goes fast!!

Sierra: They were offensive and loud.

Jamie: I know Sierra, you didn’t like dog sledding. Did you enjoy any other part of the trip?

Sierra: Well, lets see, you tied me to a pack of loud, rowdy, furry mongrels against my will, made me run around in a giant circle while tied to said mongrels, I was forced to lay on the cold ground with no blanket or tent to protect me from the elements...

Jamie: It was 45 degrees out, and all the dogs were laying on the ground.  Not just you.

Sierra: Don’t get lippy.  I also had to sleep in the truck with this hairy nincanpoop while you and the other humans were living it up in a hotel.

Jamie: You got to sleep on a giant fuzzy blanket in an extended cab truck that’s about 10 times the size of your kennel and it was plenty warm in there.

Sierra: Don’t get me started on the size of my kennel. 

Jamie: YOU’RE A DOG!

Camper: Kan I licks yo face now?  

Jamie: O.k. Let’s get back on track here.  Sierra, did you like hiking in the snow?  

Sierra: I liked it when Camper fell through the snow drift.

Jamie: Uh...yeah, that was a little funny.

Sierra: I saw you laugh at him when it happened.

Jamie: I saw you laugh at him too.

Camper: Woof! At leest I dint havs to wear a coat, Sierra!

Sierra: It was cold!  I have short hair!  

Camper: hehehehe...youz a weenie.

Sooo sleepy.  Must. Rest. Head.

Sierra: I don’t have to stand for this, I’m leaving.

Jamie: Okay, well, I guess the interview is over.  Seems a good time was almost had by all.  I know I had fun hiking and throwing snow balls at the dogs...

Sierra yells from the other room: That wasn’t o.k.!!  You could put an eye out with those things!

Jamie: ...and hopefully we’ll get to take another trip soon.  

Camper: Nowz I lick yer face?

Jamie: Fine.  Wait, didn’t you eat your own poop today?

This seems expensive for a camp sight.

Day 18 of living out of the same suitcase with no furniture or household items to speak of.  How did it come to this?  I’m so glad you asked.  Here’s some fun with calendars to get you up-to-date.

Tuesday, June 8^th – Movers pick up all of our belongings.  We are left with a spare mattress, a television, 2 bowls, 2 spoons, 2 forks, a dog and one suitcase each.

Saturday, June 12^th – We sell the spare mattress and head west.

Sunday, June 20^th – Pull up to new apartment, unload television, bowls, spoons, forks, dog, suitcases and are reduced to sleeping/eating/sitting on an air mattress until the movers show up with our stuff.

Monday, June 21^st – Dan places 647 calls to the moving company where it is apparently a national holiday because no one is working or answering the phone.

Tuesday, June 22^nd – A representative from the moving company calls to inform us they are unaware their contract reads “Must deliver household goods no later than 5 pm on Friday, June 25^th”, but they MIGHT be able to deliver our stuff by Friday, July 2^nd.

Friday, June 25^th – Dan professes his dire hatred for the air mattress and opts to sit in the dog bed on the floor instead.  The contract deadline for delivery silently passes by.

Saturday, June 26^th – A different representative from the moving company calls in the early morning hours to confirm our phone number and new address (in case it has changed in the last 4 days) but knows nothing of when our belongings will arrive. 

Sunday, June 27^th - I hunt down every person responsible for moving our stuff, kidnap them, hold them captive in the back of a truck for approximately one month with nothing but a television, 2 bowls, 2 spoons, 2 forks and an air mattress and see how they like it.

Monday, June 28^th – I go to jail.  But at least I have a cot to sit on.  

Passenger's Log

If Star Trek taught us anything it's that we should keep a detailed recording of our travels and explorations.  Following is such a recording of our travel from coast to coast which ended at 6:00 pm Pacific Time last night.

Passenger's Log
Start location: Merritt Island, FL
End location: Oakland, CA
Vehicle: Toyota Tundra towing a Mercury Milan on a questionable U-Haul tow dolly.
Travel Time: 8 days

64: Average MPH for the total trip

3,518: total miles traveled 

11: states traveled through 

2: hours spent wandering through the Grand Canyon

4: days in Kansas spent catching up with my family and being puked on by a baby

1: birthday party thrown for me with 1 butterfly balloon and 1 ‘Happy Birthday’ banner; 0: number of butterfly balloons and banners that should be at a 28-year-old’s birthday party

83: questions my Grandma asked Dan upon meeting him for the first time

24: hours spent in picturesque Durango, CO

45: minutes spent waiting on a new truck tire, at J/P Tires in Durango

6: Number of Dan’s family members throughout Colorado who kept us company and/or put us up for a night.  Thank you Beth, Joe, Judy, John, Frank and Char!

1: dog who joined us in the hot tub at Dan’s Uncle Frank and Aunt Char’s house, without realizing there was water in there

4: number of times the taillight fell out of the U-Haul tow dolly

375: number of times I thought the dolly was going to fall apart into a trillion pieces

16: times the dog looked at me like she wanted to chew my face off for making her go on such an epic trip

1: Native American that cursed and yelled at Dan for not buying a dream catcher in a McDonald’s parking lot in Navajo Country

8: times I thought I would kill us all driving through Downtown Atlanta

3: pairs of pants that still fit me after all that highway fast food and family gatherings; 4: pairs of pants that don’t

45: times Dan mentioned gas mileage (per day) (ok, not really)

46: times Jamie had to stop to go to the bathroom  

0: times I thought about turning back (sorry Jess)

3: weary travelers who finally made it home

Adios Florida!

Today is my last official day as a Floridian and tomorrow Dan and I embark on our cross-country road trip for California!  Coast-to-coast!!  Am I crazy?  Don’t answer. 

Things I will not miss about Florida:

1) Walking out the door at 7 am and breaking out into an immediate, full-body sweat.

2) I-4 and the five thousand toll roads I am forced to drive on to get in and out of the city.

3) Strip malls

4) Strip malls

5) Theme parks, all of them and everything about them.

6) Sunburns even after repetitive and liberal applications of sun block.

Things I will miss about Florida:

1) Redneck dive bars, specifically Kings Duck Inn where the draft beer is so cold there are icicles floating in it!!

2) Park Ave CD’s and their willingness to special order anything my heart (and ears) desire.

3) Mellow Mushroom Pizza (perhaps I’ll open a franchise in California) 

5) Jess Egan

6) Jess Egan’s food

Jess, if I give you my new address will you mail me Thanksgiving dinner?

Speed dating with apartments.

Ain’t change grand?  Or is it love?  Either way, the sarcasm applies to how I feel about this week.  Dan and I flew to the Bay Area this week to find our new home in only five days time.  In theory, it sounded easy peasy.  In reality, not so much.  We started looking in East Bay (uh…for those of you geographically challenged, that’s east of San Francisco, across the bay), which had lots of options for people who hate dogs and loving paying to do your own laundry because hardly anywhere allowed pets or came with a washer and dryer.  Side note: I find it interesting that landlords will allow you to have a child in your apartment, but not a 40lb furry friend.  I suspect the kid would be louder and do more damage.  They’d probably end up peeing on the floor too. 

We narrowed our search to Downtown Oakland and the Lake Merritt area.  Both have lots to do and offer easy public transport into the city.  By the way, did anyone lose their ghetto?  If so, you may try looking for it in Oakland.  They have a few there.

A funny thing about living in the Bay Area, people who live in San Fran say, “Oh you HAVE to live in the city, no one ever goes out to East Bay.” People who live in East Bay say, “It’s so not worth living in the city, everyone’s flocking to East Bay.”  Oy.  We thought for about a minute to switch our home hunting efforts to the city.  After all, San Francisco is very pet friendly, there’s tons of shops, restaurants, parks…and it’s a good thing because the apartments are so small you don’t have room to actually live there.

By the end of the week we settled on a loft in Downtown Oakland (pics below).  It was the purtiest one we found, with the most amenities and space for the cash-money.  Plus there’s about 573 coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and a train station (that goes into the city) within walking distance.   Take that snobby San Fran dwellers!

You're doing what?!

In the summer of 2005 I moved from my rural home in eastern Kansas to the city of Orlando, Florida.  What did I know about Orlando? I knew it was hot, that it rained once a day and that it offered a wide variety of vacation options for you and your family.  I went there looking to broaden my horizons, experience new things and to see how people live outside the farm.  What I found was a bunch of white dudes from the northeast driving around in their big expensive cars, throwing parties in their big expensive houses and showing off their super skinny, expensive wives.  Alas, Orlando was not all bad.  I also found Park Ave CDs, Brian’s Restaurant, the Winter Park Farmer’s Market, and Jess Egan (the only known offspring of June Cleaver and Martha Stewart).  But then, Orlando, you went too far.  You built one too many strip malls.  You franchised one too many Starbucks.  You almost had me back when you opened two H&M locations, but then you put them at opposite ends of the city and nowhere near my house.  Orlando, I gave you five years of my life; you gave me some good times, some good friends, and probably skin cancer from all the sunburns, but that remains to be seen.

And so, I am venturing out again to find a new place to call home and to see how people live outside of strip malls.  My new home will be in the land of the Bay Area in California.  Or more specifically the East Bay/Oakland area, which is across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco.  (I'm poor and the price per square footage on rental units is much less there compared to San Francisco.)

Return here each week as I chronicle the epic move from coast to coast (LITERALLY!) and all my new experiences as a Californian!