When we lived in Tennessee before, Jamie used to get very car sick.
When she first showed up on my doorstep in the country many years ago I did not want to keep her.
We had already (with some reluctance on my part initially) adopted one dog from the humane society a year or so before. A promise kept to my youngest son.
But I was working full time, raising two boys, living in the country, caring for farm animals, training for adventure racing, and did not want one more responsibility added to my already too busy life.
Four or five days after she showed up in our yard I found myself heading for the vet, with this still unnamed dog (who had decided that she was adopting US and was not going anywhere because this was her home now) sitting in the back seat of my car.
Half way to Tullahoma she threw up all over the back seat and all over the floor.
Oh boy....
A couple of times after she became our newest family member we took her out in the car again and the same thing. Dog vomit all over the seat and all over the floor.
When the boys were older and had moved out of the house and I had gotten divorced, I brought her with me to start my newly single life.
James traveled to Tullahoma in my truck with me without incident only because I had kept her dog food away from her overnight.
A couple of years later LC and I loaded Jamie into the truck very early in the morning and we headed down to north Georgia so that I could take part in a navigation training.
We were planning on camping overnight and had no-one to watch her so had no choice but to take her with us.
A few hours later, as we drove winding country roads in the north Georgia mountains my dog threw up in LC's lap.
Thew up a lot.
We pulled over, cleaned up the mess and continued on our way.
Ten minutes later she threw up in his lap again.
Oh boy....
After that we found someone who would both house-sit and dog-sit for us when we were away overnight or for days at races or training events.
Jamie never traveled in the truck again until she loaded into the truck with LC in June of 2010 and headed for Alaska.
Both LC and I were scared for her. Scared that she would get loose when LC pulled off the highway for breaks and we would lose her forever. Scared that she would become dehydrated during an extended drive. Scared that she might die.
Surprisingly, wonderfully, astoundingly she was not sick.
In fact, once she got over the initial "newness" of traveling in a vehicle she actually liked it.
And my previously car-sick dog, over the past couple of years, has turned into a wonderful and sweet and happy-go-lucky traveling companion.
An eager adventurer.
A trooper who seems to be OK as long as her people are close by................
Nowadays my sweet trooper is used to going places.
She has spent the past couple of years endlessly exploring by truck and on foot.
Climbing mountains to see antelope and bear and elk.
Driving through forests to see buffalo and deer and big horn sheep.
Walking unknown trails in Alaska and Wyoming and now Tennessee.
She has become used to traveling and if either LC or I dare to utter go-drive-walk in any combination she gets wonderfully and sweetly and laughably excited.
We have taken to occasionally even spelling out the words as if she were a small child, which sounds lame and silly but has none-the-less sometimes become necessary.
Because go-drive-walks (and naps) are her favorite things in the world.
And just like her humans Jamie sometimes wanders around the house, obviously bored and needing to move.
It was a few days ago, on a sunny and very warm morning, that I looked at my pup and realized that she needed to walk.
I grabbed her leash, made her begrudgingly sit just long enough to put on her the leash, and she bolted for the side door.
She and I headed for the Outdoor Classroom that is only a few blocks from the house, and which is a wonderful and educational outdoor space.
A fine place to walk and wander and quietly spend time together outside...............
James and I had not walked at the classroom since mid-February.
On that grey day it was freezing cold, the trees were bare and dormant, and the world was quiet.
As I approached the small bridge that accesses this outdoor space the other day I looked around me and was stunned at the transformation.
In just over a month the world had changed completely, and is rapidly moving from brown and grey to lush and very green.
The day was not warm.
It was hot.
Heat that neither Jamie nor I am used to anymore.
Within 15 minutes of hitting the classroom I was deeply beginning to regret that I had not brought water with me.
I was OK, but my dog was very hot.
I was hoping we would run into a puddle on the trail.............
Ten minutes later I found what I had been looking for.
This small wooden structure overlooks what I can only describe as a swamp, and I still do not know why it was built.
As Jamie and I approached it I was both eager to see what it looked like now that the world was again coming alive, and hoping that the water would be drinkable for my dog.
It was a pollen filled and muddy mess neither worthy of a picture nor a drink.
Moving on.................
In the end Jamie and I ended up cutting our walk short.
It was very hot and we both needed to drink.
I love many things about the Outdoor Classroom.
The fact that it provides both historical information and information about trees.
The fact that it is a beautiful natural outdoor area very close to the house.
The fact that it is a quiet and green space that I can happily share with a dog that has traveled all over the country with me.
It was a short walk. But a good walk...............
My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog already thinks I am..............Author Unknown
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