Staying with friends

Geez, J is a dope.  I could not blog last night because J left her wi-fi hot spot in Ivan.  She would not go back out for it no matter how much I stood by the door & stared at her.  Hmpf, humans.  I gave up & went to bed.

Both yesterday & today the mornings started off lots of fun, and the evenings have been fun, too.  We've had yards to play in.  The drives were long but Ivan has lots of cushions & each day had a diversion.

Sunday night we had spent with Maire Daugherty (J's friend) & family.  That night & in the morning, we got to play in the yard by the lake.  This was good, but I was a bit disturbed by the deck, which was being 'repaired'.   We had to cross some plywood panels to get from the back door to the steps.  Clearly, if any of the Daugherty pets were a double-agent, this could hide a trap door. (I suspected the Conyer bird).  The others were oblivious to this risk.  I kept an eye on it, and the trap was not sprung.

From Denver we drove to Wichita.  Ivanetta (Ivan's GPS route assistant) took us on an excursion off the interstate & onto state highways.  It may have been 'shortest' but it was not 'quickest'.  On the positive side, we found a fenced park to play in & do some 'business'.

In Wichita we met Lydia & Rio the WonderDog.  Lydia's Aunt Jessie & Uncle Jim have a fabulous yard with lush grass.  This was great for laps around an oval central garden.  At night some feral cats snuck onto the back porch, but I saw them & alerted the others.  OK, the cats came on the porch because Aunt Jessie leaves out food, but we made sure they did not break into the house.
For breakfast Jessie made bacon & eggs for the humans.  We got to eat some of Rio's special food plus scrambled eggs because he would not eat it.  Sweet!

I had not realized Rio & Lydia were joining us.  This added another dog AND a person in the back of Ivan.   I insisted that Lydia let me sit on her lap; this way I could look out the big window.  (Gilbert crowds me by my low window).   When J sat in the back, I returned to my cushion by the window & ignored her.  But then Bados got in her lap, so I jumped up & pushed him off.
I had reclaimed the seat for myself when the people got out of the car at a gas station.  Barb & I had a standoff when they returned, but I finally ceded the seat to her.

We stopped at the Greyhound Hall of Fame in Abilene, KS.  The people returned to the car with souvenirs & smelling of Greyhound.  2 retired Greys actually live there.  We could not go inside, but we were allowed to play in the Greyhounds' exercise pen.

The last bit of excitement we had was on the back roads approaching Crystal's place outside of St. Louis.
J slammed on the breaks at a light & luggage on the upper platform shifted forward abruptly.  Had J not added extra bungee cords when packing Ivan that morning & had Barb not been quick to leap up to push things back up, I am sure there would have been a suitcase on my head!  Hmm, perhaps a double agent had loosened the bungees . . . but which of my fellow travelers could that be?  Maybe one of those feral cats had snuck in Ivan to sabotage J's packing efforts.

Anyway, Crystal & Sam's property is in the country outside St Louis & is lovely.  Lots of space to play & run about.  They have a tall, handsome Whippet as well as Silken's Willow, Ruby, Apple, & Penelope.  Bados & Gilbert are all goo-goo eyed & tooth-chattery over these bitches.  Boys!

They also have ticks.  Yuck!  The stuff that Vet Sherry prescribed us seems to be working, but Barb found some on Mini & Gilbert; one was on Rio's foot, too.  We will stop for extra tick stuff tomorrow.