The dog nose

So from the tail of the dog to to the other end (being the nose) here ends my woofy two week adventure with my Mum and Dad as they finally took me with them on one of their blog worthy experiences.

The morning sun up next to the river was non-descript, it was cloudy and grey - possibly foggy and therefore nothing much seemed to be happening under the extremely large pine trees that we were camped under. This lack of sun rays streaming through the windows combined with barely realised time zone shift that some dogs call jet lag (Pistol and Boo told me about it) meant that we didn't really get up as early as we wanted and therefore the idea of getting the kennel underway at 9:00 am was a bit too ambitious. Besides - I wanted to play ball in the really cool location, while Mum and Dad seemed really intent on packing everything up. Honestly, if they hadn't have spent so much time putting it all out yesterday then they wouldn't have needed to spend so much time putting all back today. And that would be more ball time for me. There was no ball in sight though. There were, however, a couple of frisbee's lying around. There was the purple one I was retrieving in the sunset last night just ... there. And there is the glow in the dark floppy one I was catching on the beach last night just ... there. Can't you see that? I'm ready to go?!! Come on on you two ... really? Oh for goodness sake - I'll pick up this pine cone then and make a game out of that instead...Almost got their attention with that one as they slowly moved around making everything stowed away (like a bone in a pile of dirt), connected the car the kennel, and headed off. I was just sitting there on the hill watching, wondering if they would just leave me sitting on the hill with my pine cone in front of me, however of course there was the call - the open door and the instruction to get in - and we were off! 

The time-frame pressures fell apart even more when we realised that we couldn't just drive out of town, petrol was required as was coffee and brunch, so we turned right and went back into town (instead of left and scootin' outa there). 30 minutes later (and thus doubling the Pistol and Boo effect) we finally hit the highway and headed back eastwards. I nose this, this is where the sun comes from. I'm a Kelpie.

The drive back was a conglomeration of driving experiences. I could tell from my control seat (also known as the "dog lounge" - this is where I can choose to watch out either side, forwards, backwards (when there's no kennel blocking my view) or I can lay down and go to sleep. Pretty much do whatever I want whereas Mum and Dad up the front are tied down and can hardly move compared to my freedom. Pistol and Boo reckon'd they could ask for food as well by pressing a button when they were travelling... I reckon they were were full of it) that the roads were varied and with some interesting challenges for Dad to work his way though. Luckily the swaying issue was resolved, so he could artfully dodge the potholes and other crappy surfaces that continually appeared. roadworks were in full swing (obviously needed as they were in really bad condition in spots - sometimes even to the point of me having to adjust my comfortable position as the rig bounced around! ) and thus causing more delays.

We learnt a bit about the lady behind the dashboard and need to figure out how to remove "C" roads from her directions as she took us on some doozeys today. Dad stated at one stage "he was not happy about this" as we headed off down yet another weird back-road at the behest of her directions. We got there though, not sure if the time made up was lost by having to slow down due to the narrow roads. For all we know we may have missed some more major delays due to the "A" roads works going on.

We stopped for lunch in truck parking stop that had pot holes big enough to swallow the kennel whole. Had to mention that to justify the photo. Then we cruised/bounced our way down the Hamilton Highway and joined in the chaos known as the Geelong road, the bridge and tunnel at a crawl. Gaining a new appreciation for all those truck drivers that maneuver their huge rigs along narrow lanes with only inches to spare on each side.

Eventually we pulled up at our base kennel. Luckily no-one was parked out the front so we could. The the unload took place. really weird how much stuff we'd manged to get in there via the car on the way out, seems like we had so much more stuff now.

I (being the dog controller of the whole process) was directing from my position of being sprawled on the floor inside.

We then cleaned the kennel, I offered physically help as I'm really good at cleaning myself. Dad suggested that licking the whole kennel would be difficult for me, especially the higher up bits where even he needed a ladder. I acquiesced, even though I was feeling I was not pulling my weight (for the first time mind you). So here we are, home kennel. And that's my trip. Dad and I will take the kennel back to Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow but that's probably not post worthy. Guaranteed I'll be peeing on post somewhere though.