#6 Horse Sense

Remember our last post where we had to go check out the horses next door? Boy did we learn a lot. Horses are almost as smart as we dogs are although not as cute. They keep up to date with the news through the built-in antennas on their tails. We always thought they were getting rid of flies when they switched their tails but they are just looking for a better signal. They are concerned about the economy and we told them they weren't alone. They had some ideas  that we thought we'd share with you and this is straight from the horse's mouth. They said if you hoof it more you'll save gas, although in Minnesota we take exception to that. You just can't walk in the winter. Then you can rein in your spending and you'll have more hay. The mane thing is to just say "Whoa" when you're shopping. All of this advice we passed on to our people. They told us to quit horsing around. Sigh.

We've been in Tennessee since October 11 and we hear we're leaving Monday for Texas and the big World War II thing. But before that we're going to have a family reunion this weekend and meet some more people. We met Pete and Kim the other night, they came out for dinner. Pete is Katie's brother, (the one who is going to have the 2 legged puppy) and Jeff & Laura's son and Jeff is Stew's youngest brother. We are having a hard time keeping all of this straight but we are trying.  We like them too.

We pulled a good one today.  Ceil went up to the house. We wanted to go too. We were up at the house last night and we were so good. We sat on either end of the sofa like little bookends. We did that after we looked for Snowball who is Gramp's cat. Anyway, Ceil didn't know that purple is our favorite color and left a ball of purple yarn right out in the open. We have been leaving her yarn alone because we didn't like the colors and she's not very good at crocheting so we felt sorry for her. But this purple yarn called us and boy did we have fun. When Ceil came in, (she surprised us because we were so busy) we knew she'd love our pattern. We tied each other up with purple yarn and we decorated the whole motor home with it. We didn't know there was so much yarn in a little ball like that. It's better than toilet paper. Now we know why cats love yarn, it is just so much fun. So that may be another point for cats. We're up to two now.

It's been raining all day, we got a little wet but then we get rubbed down with a towel just like at a spa. We have to go now. The bad news is that in our next post Ceil wants to put in a poem. It's pretty awful what we've heard of it but we have to humor her because we can't reach the treats. But if we could you wouldn't have to suffer through it. We'll try and stop her if we can. Love Roxy & Abby

#5 Do Snakes Bite Underwater?

Well, we've been in Tennessee for a week now and we like it fine when it isn't raining. We had a frost last night and thought that only happened in Minnesota but we were wrong.

We met some more relatives. Dave and Katie came out on Saturday from Knoxville for the weekend. It's about an hour drive to Madisonville. Now Katie is Jeff & Laura's daughter and Jeff is Stew's youngest brother. Jeff and Laura live up the hill from Gramps who is Stew and Jeff's dad. Whew! There is another brother in Knoxville and a sister in Florida and we'll meet them at the reunion.

Katie is going to have a 2-legged puppy real soon. She and Dave are naming the baby Abigail. That's one of our names too so we said it was all right with us.

So Dave told a story about when he and Jeff went fishing in the mountains. Now in Tennessee they have snakes we never heard of in Minnesota and they're poisonous too. A couple of them are called water moccasins and copperheads and they live in the water. So Dave said they were having a good old time fishing with some other people that went along. Jeff has the stringer tied to his waist and is standing in the water to keep the fish they caught fresh. He felt something nibbling on the stringer and pulled it up and attached to one of the fish was a giant copperhead snake. It  curled up around the stringer fish and wouldn't let go. So after everyone got done screaming and came back, brave Dave (keep in mind who we heard the story from) clubbed the snake with his fishing pole and it finally let go. So if we ever go on a game show we know the answer to the question, "Do snakes bite underwater?"

We have to go now. The horses are out next door and we have to check them out.  Love, Roxy & Abby

# 4 The Car Show

Saturday afternoon our people went to the car show they had at the campground. It was a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald house in Lexington, Kentucky so we thought that was very cool. There were about 1,000 cars there they said. We seemed to be on the main line of golf carts heading up to the car show. We tried to bark at them but there were just too many. We had never seen golf carts before. There was a really different one with ape hanger handlebars and those fringy things hanging out. We didn't go to the car show though. We didn't want to cause a distraction because we're so cute. We were afraid people would look at us instead of the cars.
There will be some pictures when we get a better connection. Now we've been in Tennessee since Sunday 10/11. We met Jake and he was very nice and told us to watch out for fire ants around here. He comes and talks to us because our people won't let us out to run with him. Yesterday Jake got shut in the shed. We were barking to let everyone know but they ignored us. There is another dog here too, her name is Belle. She was barking too but they all just walked around like we didn't know what we were barking about. Finally Ceil heard Jake barking inside the shed and let him out. We were all so tired out from trying to tell them Jake was in the shed that everyone had a nice nap. We keep meeting new people and we like them. They even let us in Gramp's house last night and we both sat on Sweetie Pie's lap to let her know she was OK with us. She was here for dinner last night and brought some bread that she baked. We heard it was good but we didn't get any. Sweetie Pie is Gramp's friend but her real name is Martha. We have to go now and check out a new noise. Roxy & Abby

# 3 We're Finally Camping

On our way here from Frankfort we saw a lot of four-leggeds around Lexington, Kentucky. They were horses and cows and sheep but they weren't cute like we are. Some of the horses are thoroughbreds and live in horse mansions. We even saw a beautiful retirement home for thoroughbreds. We figured they worked hard at the Kentucky Derby so that was OK with us.

So we finally got these people to camp. We are at Ft. Boonesborough State Park in Kentucky and it's only five miles off the interstate.  We are primitive camping because they don't want to pay for electric. We heard them say that they have a generator. They really like it because where we are camping is where Daniel Boone walked around and started to build a fort. Then they moved the fort 300 yards away because of flooding.  Don't worry, we're OK we haven't had that much rain yet, it's only been raining since we got here.You can go through the fort and see stuff but they probably won't because it costs $7.00. They have to buy us dog food and treats you know and today we got new flea collars.

This park is all decorated for Halloween. When we drove in we girls got a little freaked out by all these weird looking blow-up things. They have lights and stuff and people pay to drive through. Since we're here we can drive through for free if we can get them to go. They unhooked the car and we might go somewhere tomorrow. There are a lot of dogs here but we only get to bark a few words and then we have to be quiet. We are being very good. We saw a cat and we don't like cats so we told it to leave and it did so now we're thinking about liking them.

They had steak for dinner and we didn't. We tried to pout but we got a treat so we can live with that. We have to go now we just saw a squirrel. It's good being a dog. Roxy and Abby

# 2 We Getting Used To This

We girls are getting used to this traveling business. We thought we had to bark at everyone but there's too many of them so we just pick out a few here and there that we don't like and bark at them. We see a lot of other dogs at the rest stops and we talk to them, too.For the first time we didn't have any rain all day. We even saw some sunshine. But those people we're traveling with are just moseying along taking their sweet time. They sit around and look up camping spots on the computer and we still haven't camped yet. We think tomorrow we will be camping at Fort Boonesborough State Park in Kentucky for a few days. They are so cheap they didn't want to get there at 5:00 today to camp and pay for a day they could hardly use. So tonight we are parking in a Wal Mart in Frankfort, Kentucky which is the state capital.

They have posters of the Dear Sergeant Honey book in the windows on both sides of this rig. They block our view some and one of these days we might have to chew one up just to let them know we can't see everything.

We heard Tessa got to go to the Twins game, the last one at the Dome and we wish we could have gone too. Well, it's time for a walk. Bye now. Roxy and Abby

# 1 The Girls

Sunday October 4, 2009. From the Girls: Finally after all this fussing around and endless garage sales (where we were totally ignored by the way) and discussions about keep it, throw it, take it, sell it, donate it we left on October 2 in an RV. We've heard them (Stew and Ceil) talking about being homeless and we hope there's gonna be enough food for us. But you can rely on us to tell you stuff you need to know because they are in retirement mode and can't remember where they put stuff let alone where we're going. We do know we're going to Tennessee to meet Jake our dog cousin and then to Texas for some World War II thing. That's what started this whole deal of going on the road, that book that Ceil HAD to write. That darn Stew kept encouraging her too.

So they sold a lot of their stuff and gave some away and got some guy to buy their house on a contract for deed and we're off on some big adventure. We saw some rolling hills in Wisconsin which we girls have never seen and heard them talk about colors and leaves and we don't know what that is exactly but it is pretty. But they are so slow and sitting around talking and having coffee that we are still in Wisconsin and we left Minnesota Friday. We're gonna go for a walk now and sniff stuff. Roxy & Abby