Supreme Moochdocking, the Perfect Puppy, and our Eleven Month Update

We’ve spent the last couple weeks visiting family and it’s been great! After leaving Folsom Lake, we stopped for one night in Danville, CA to visit Rog’s sister, Nancy, and her family. Dave grilled some excellent steaks for dinner. He has been lobbying for a Traeger and Rog’s description of his “Traegerlicious” smoked meats and BBQ should speed up that purchase. Lol. I know it’s a cliché to talk about how fast the kids are growing, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Lexi is now 15 and Max is 13. I still have an inch or so on Lexi, but she’s taller than all the other women in the family. Finally some height in the family! In our wedding pictures with Rog’s mom, grandma, and sister I looked like an Amazon. Lol.

Dave, Max, Lexi, and Nancy

We visited the Danville farmer’s market on Saturday morning. Lots of yummy fruit, veggies and several food trucks. Both the kids are athletic and involved with sports and Max had baseball tryouts later in the afternoon.  We said our good-byes and headed to St. Helena to spend a few days with Grandma Ardys.

Flowers and berries at the farmer's market.

We parked in Grandma’s driveway and spent the next five days just hanging out. Saint Helena is prime wine country so our walkies took us by beautiful vineyards. The weather was perfect – hot during the day, but cooling down at night with a bit of coastal fog curling over the mountain in the early morning. 

St. Helena vineyards.

Not wine yet.

We took Grandma shopping so she could pick out a new recliner for the living room and upgrade her TV. Her chair is all the way across the room from her television and she was having trouble seeing the 32” screen. We took her to Costco where she debated between a 49” and a 55” and then decided to go big or go home. Lol. Rog got it all set up for her and she shouldn’t have any trouble seeing this one. 😊

Grandma Ardys picking out her new recliner. 

On Thursday, 6/29, we left St. Helena for Redding, CA. Our plan was to moochdock at Rog’s Mom’s house through the 4^th of July. Grandma Ardys came along and rode shotgun. Years ago, Grandma Ardys and Grandpa Oscar had a little Dolphin Class C motorhome and she loved our rig. It was a fun ride down memory lane for her as she pointed out many of the places they’d camped with their Viking club. (Those Norwegians stick together, ya know. 😊)  We also have many wonderful memories of camping with Rog’s parents and grandparents at Diamond Lake in Oregon when the girls were little.  

Grandma Ardys riding shotgun in the RV.

Rog’s Mom has an absolutely deluxe moochdocking spot and we planned to make good use of it. When they built their house, they had a small motorhome and put in water, electric, and sewer hookups. Moochdocking with full hookups??!! Wow, how cool is that!  The short bus is a tight fit, but we are thrilled with our digs.

Supreme moochdocking. Thanks Mom!

On Friday, Rian came to visit and brought along her roommate, Laura, and friend, Ellie, along with their guys – Floyd, Ralph, and Bentley. Don’t worry, all the boys are four-legged and furry. Lol. The girls were looking forward to just hanging out and relaxing by the pool for the weekend. Mission accomplished. 😊

Just the girls (Laura, Rian, and Ellie) enjoying the pool.
Ralph, Floyd and Bentley wanted nothing to do with it. Lol. 

Old folks enjoying the pool too. :)

Rog’s Mom, Barb, and her partner, Ed, are wonderful hosts. And did I mention that our deluxe moochdocking spot also has free wifi? Yesssssssssssssss!  I wasted no time and began to actively search for a mastiff puppy. It has been nearly a year since Callie passed away and I am ready for a new addition to the family. Since we were only a few weeks away from home, I figured the timing was right. I didn’t want to look sooner since we could only fit the smallest mastiff-sized puppy crate in the RV. Mastiff puppies grow so fast you need an array of crate sizes and the only way we might be able to fit in one of the larger ones would be to take out the dining table. Lol.

I spent hours on-line and on the phone talking to breeders, researching litters and trying to locate the perfect puppy. My preference was for a male, English Mastiff puppy from a reputable breeder that was under 10 weeks old. We were thrilled to find a litter only 30 minutes from Redding. Rog and I visited and spent three lovely hours talking to Judy at Rustic Rose Mastiffs and playing with the litter of 4-week-old puppies. She had three males still available and it was hard not to fall in love! They were total sweethearts!!!  The timing was a little challenging since the puppies would be ready to go home about the time we needed to be back in Washington.

Three boys available. Soooooo sweet.

Hard not to fall head over heels. 

We were undecided and Judy referred us a breeder in the Seattle area that might have puppies available. I spent some time looking at the sire and dam online and was super impressed with the dogs and the breeding. We called Tim at Alki Mastiffs and he said there might be a male still available – the puppies were just 3 weeks old and they weren’t sure if they wanted to place him in a pet or show home. Would we be willing to show or make the puppy available to show? My initial response was no. I had shown one of our girls to her championship back in 1989 and wasn’t really interested in doing that again.

Puppies!!!!!

Proud Parents - Aslan and Blu.

Tim co-owns the litter with Cheryl at Mountainview Mastiffs in Bellingham so he suggested I contact her. After spending quite a bit of time on the phone with Cheryl and then talking to Rog, we felt comfortable allowing them to show the puppy if they want to. The sire, Aslan, just won best of breed at the Mastiff Club of America National Specialty in June – and he is absolutely gorgeous. Mom is also an International Champion and beautiful. Both have sound temperaments, passed their genetic testing, and are much-loved family pets. All my boxes have been checked and then some. The bottom line – we have a puppy waiting for us in Bellingham and I am over the moon excited!!! 

Our little guy has the green collar (front, right).

Dad: Aslan - GCH Beowulf's Heart of Narnia CGC, TDI

Mom: Blu with a puppy from a previous litter.
INTL CH Mountainviews Make Me Smile

11 Month Update - We’ve passed the eleven-month mark and are now well and truly on the homestretch. One of the highlights of this past month was having both Randi and Rian join us at Folsom Lake. Our focus has shifted from visiting national parks to visiting family and we are enjoying it tremendously.

Our plan was to be home no later than August 1^st. In truth, I was feeling reluctant to end our year-long adventure, but the prospect of a new fur baby has changed all that and I can hardly wait to get home! All it took was the right incentive. Lol.  The puppy will be 8 weeks old on August 7^th, so be prepared for gushing updates. If you don’t like dogs, you might just want to stop reading the blog now. Lol.

The heat here in Redding has been brutal. A delightful 111° today. It has been well over 100° every single day. I’m melting…  We try to walk early in the day, but by 11am it’s too hot to do anything outside but sit in the shade, hop in the pool, rinse, repeat. We have not decided on a route home yet. Without reservations, finding a spot in the summer can be challenging. We aren’t sure if we’ll have better luck along the coast or further inland. We need to make up our minds soon though, we plan on leaving Monday, 7/10, and all I can say for sure is we’re going north. Lol.

Shade then swim, repeat as needed.

Best way to beat the heat!

During our 11^th month on the road, we put in 1054 miles. That brings our total to 13,625 miles in the RV, we’ve pumped 1656 gallons of diesel and stayed at 94 different places. We added just one national park (Great Basin) to our list this month.  So, our totals stand at: 32 National Parks/Monuments, many state/local parks plus Disney and Universal Studios. We added Nevada and California this month, bringing our final total to 35 states.