Getting Ready to Travel

The gimpy sister here, back from a six-day vacation that she needed sooo badly.

Meg is an organized traveler. She had lists and plans and had packed her dive gear long before I even thought about what to take. I started shopping for the things we needed on Tuesday (and threw in physical therapy and a doctor’s appointment, too, just for fun), then packed on Wednesday.

Then the fun really started. Wednesday afternoon we had to take all five puppers to the vet for boarding. They can all fit in the Tahoe, except that Shadow would rip off Lucky’s and Beau’s faces if they were ever that close. So we loaded up the little three first — easier said than done. Livy jumped right into the truck, but Chance was shaking so hard that we had to help him in. Shadow wasn’t having any of it. It took both of us to lift pony-boy into the truck, while he had all four long, strong legs spread trying to stay out.

We finally got him in, drove the 40 minutes to the vet, got each of them checked in and into a kennel, then returned home for Beau and Lucky. Beau was so eager to go for a ride that he hopped in practically before the cargo door was open. We had to lift Lucky in while he snarled, growled and tried to back up. (He’s always hated vehicles.) Another 40 minutes back to the vet, get them both unloaded and checked in, then Bob and I collapsed back into the truck. We were both scratched, covered with pupper hair, sweaty and smelling of pupper smell, and even more in need of a vacation than we’d been that morning.

We had to get up at 3:45 Thursday morning. As we left for the airport, I was mentally patting myself on the back for getting everything we needed packed and coming in well under the weight limit for our luggage. (Room to buy stuff and bring back!) I shouldn’t have been quite so smug: I found myself in Cozumel with one less shirt, pair of shorts, and set of underwear than I needed, and five freakin’ pairs of extra socks! (I wore flip-flops the whole time I was there and saved the Rocketdogs for travel days.) I had to buy a shirt (got a cool black Hawaiiaan shirt for practically nothing!) and rinse out the rest in the sink.

We got home late late Tuesday night and spent half of Wednesday ferrying the puppers back home. They were so thrilled to see us that Lucky and Chance jumped right into the Tahoe — the first time either of them’s done it voluntarily. Shadow still needed coaxing, but that was okay.

More on the trip to come . . .

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