Home, Sweet Home

After 12 days on the road and traveling about 5000 miles, the MT Pug Pack is home safe and sound. We arrived in Missoula on the 4th of July at about 11:30 pm. It was very nice of everyone to greet us with such a beautiful fireworks display on our return! (LOL)

The last couple days of our vacation seemed to be telling us it was time to go home. After leaving Rockford, IL we made our way to Worthington, MN. Arriving there about 10:30 pm, all we wanted to do was get some food and a good nights rest, but it wasn't meant to be that simple. The bed that I had asked about in detail, not once but twice, was NOT right for us. It seems like a simple thing to ask whether a bed is open underneath. Many hotels/motels have gone to using a box frame that sits flat on the floor. Nice for the maids, and to keep people from losing things under the bed, not so great when we need to use a Hoyer lift to transfer Dustin into bed. We talked to three other motels, ran around town, and to make a long story short ended up back at the first place where they offered us a roll away and were very apologetic and helpful in getting us settled for the night.

After an uncomfy night for D. I opted for a splurge on the hotel the last night and we stayed at a very nice Holiday Inn Express in Gillette, WY. Before reaching our last comfy bed though, we drove across the entire state of South Dakota. It was an interesting state with changing landscapes, many sites to visit, and decent roads. We did however, drive all day with a storm often threatening, wind blowing and two occasions of a cloud burst with a downpour so hard the wipers couldn't keep up! Since we had to spend an extra day in Rockford, we weren't able to take the detour we'd planned to visit Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument. Dustin has already suggested we take another trip to the Dakota's next summer to see what we didn't have a chance to this time. I was surprised because after all the driving we've done I didn't think he'd ever want to leave the state again!

The drive from Gillette to Missoula was long, nearly 600 miles. It was good to be home and sleep in our own bed again. The Puggies that had stayed with Uncle Mark and Auntie Linda were very happy to see us and their siblings. The picture attached is what a travelin' Pug looks like after a 5000 mile road trip.

Thanks for following along on our cross country adventures. Stay tuned for further adventures of the MT Pug Pack!

Catch Up, Craziness & Current Events

Greetings from Rockford, IL...again!!! No, we didn't just decide to stay here for a week, but Rockford is the only place we decided to stay twice. This is a very nice town and I wish I did have more time to explore it.

I know I've been remiss the past week on writing "daily" blogs. My BAD! We had a couple long days of driving and a hit or miss net connection while in New York. In my last post I talked about driving around the Twin Cities, MN. Well, I've learned since then that they are nothing compared to driving around Chicago! On the was east, just getting around Chicago was almost 4 hours. Between the road construction that slowed everything down to a crawl and the toll booths every 5 miles it seemed that we would never get past the city. And this was on the by-pass route! On our way back through we went more directly through the city. My heart was racing the whole time because driving bumper to bumper at 70 mph just isn't my thing. But I must admit, getting a close up look at all the tall building lit up at night was amazing! The best part was that we didn't have to stop once for road construction and only hit a couple toll booths so it went much faster than the first time.

Our time in New York was wonderful. We drove most of a day through the state to reach Newburgh/Plattekill where we stayed. New York was not at all what I expected. I always envisioned people everywhere. Like NYC spread across the whole state. To my surprise though, it is very green, lush, and rural. It was beautiful. It is so rural though that poor Susan and Lois had to come out at midnight and rescue us to help us find the KOA we were supposed to be staying at. We never would have found it in the dark on our own. It was wonderful to see them and get real hugs!

The next day we got to see and meet many Pug friends. Jenn and Ian we had met before in Baltimore 3 years ago. Ian has grown up so much and is such a smart boy. It was wonderful to finally get to meet Witchy, Joann (who has Daisy's half brother, another Pizz Pug!), Lisa and Kobe, Sue and her crew, Chris and daughter Bridget and their Otis who made me miss my Ripley, Michelle and Manny and their cute little boy, Alex, Susan's mother "Nana", Kate's friend Felicia and others I'm sure I'm not thinking of right now. I know Dustin enjoyed seeing Kate (Susan's daughter) again. We would bring her back to MT with us if we could! She is a wonderful, brilliant, funny young woman! It was hard to say good-bye when it came time to leave on Monday as our time there seems way too short.

Now we are on the last push back to MT. We ended up staying an extra, unplanned day in Rockford to get some repairs done on D's wheelchair. We will be hitting the road this morning and hopefully make some good miles in the next couple of days.

My apologies to anyone who may have thought we fell off the face of the earth. I guess I've learned not to make commitments like "daily" when I may not be able to keep the. All is well with us and the Puggies who are going to be just as glad as us to reach home. Until then...Pug hugs to all!