A Sick Puppy and Gremlins

So, let's talk about Murphy. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong – and usually at the most inopportune time. Please note that we'd just spent over two weeks with family in major metropolitan areas with no hint of a problem. Get out into the hinterland with no cell service and things just start falling apart. Arrrrrrrrgh. Most critical was our sick puppy. Let me back up to Sunday, 4/8. Before we left Danville that morning, we noticed that Riley had a few quarter-sized hot spots on his head. We clipped the hair, cleaned and medicated the area.  He was also favoring his front leg, but we figured that was just a result of too much fun with cousin Rowdy. He didn't seem too bothered and slept most of the way to Pinnacles.  

We expected Riley to perk up by dinnertime, but by then he was so out of it he would barely lift his head.  He wasn't eating or drinking much either. This was not our happy puppy. The hot spots had quadrupled in size, spreading across the top of his head and on both sides of his face. I've never seen them spread that fast!  With no cell service we couldn't even find a vet or research symptoms. I was having horrific flashbacks to the start of our year-long trip when Callie got sick and passed away. We loaded Riley up in the CRV and headed back the way we'd come, figuring there had to be an emergency vet somewhere.    

Riley is not his happy self and Mom & Dad are worried.

As soon as I got a cell signal, I started searching and found an emergency clinic about an hour and a half away in San Jose. I called and described Riley's symptoms and they agreed he should see the vet. When we arrived the waiting room was full, including a mouthy Husky who was barking and lunging at Riley and generally acting a fool. The receptionist was very apologetic, but between our phone call and arrival they had six emergencies come in, including two surgeries. She suggested we go to another clinic or wait a really long time to be seen. While we were debating, some guy sticks his head in the front door and says, "Do you know your building's on fire?" Cue the stampede from the waiting room to the parking lot. Sure enough, there was ash and embers flying everywhere. I really could not make this stuff up! 

Fire behind the vet clinic. Really?? I do not need this!

Luckily the fire was behind the building, not the clinic itself. But we opted to get out before we were blocked in by the Fire Department. In the meantime, Riley had started to look a little livelier, but we had no intentions of leaving without seeing a vet. We located the other clinic and were happy to find an empty waiting room. While I filled out the new patient paperwork, Riley charmed the nurse. After a thorough exam, we opted to have the hot spots treated and start antibiotics immediately. The vet said Riley had a fever and that would account for his lethargy. Treatment started with shaving most of our handsome boy's head. With the hair gone, we saw the hot spots had spread even further than we thought. He wasn't happy with the process, but Mommy and Daddy held him and loved him up while the nurse shaved, scrubbed, and medicated all his owies. He got a shot to jump start the meds and a 7-day course of oral and topical antibiotics along with Benadryl for itching. The vet also put him on house arrest until his limp was gone. We pulled back into our campsite around 1am, tired but very glad we'd made the trip.  

My poor baby. The top of his and both sides of his face are a mess.

Nearly a week has passed and I'm thrilled to report that Riley is feeling much better. His hot spots are healing and we hardly ever call him Hamburger Head or Krusty Pup or Zombie Dog anymore.  Lol. His limp is gone and he is driving us nuts wanting to play nonstop to make up for lost time. In the meantime, however, other things haven't gone as smoothly. 

Looking and feeling so much better now.

Helping Mommy pick up the patio mat.

Apparently some gremlins have raccoon-like paws.
This guy tried every single window hoping to gorge himself on the 40 lb bag of dog food inside. 

Now, about those gremlins. I'm beginning to think all my electronics are jinxed. After our hike on Monday, I noticed my laptop charge was low so I plugged in and started uploading pictures. About half way through I went outside to take Riley for a short walk. When I returned my computer was off. Odd. I hit the power – nothing. Uh oh. I tried all the reset button combos to no avail. Before we left for our long trip, I splurged and bought a high-end Microsoft Surface Book. It's less than two years old, so I was pretty sure it was just a faulty charger. I was using a replacement since a certain puppy who would prefer to remain anonymous (RILEY) had chewed up the original.  I'm sure I've mentioned there is no cell service at Pinnacles, so without access to any other troubleshooting info, I was dead in the water.  

The pictures were piling up and I'm getting way behind on the blog. But there's not much that can be done about it, so I take a deep breath and read a lot. From Pinnacles, we'd planned to head to the desert, but I wanted to replace my charger before getting even further from civilization. Rog suggests spending a night at the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA.   We arrive on Thursday, 4/12, unhook the toad and head into town. I take my laptop and we hit Best Buy. The Geek Squad is pretty much useless, but it doesn't appear that the charger is the problem. Double uh-oh. I call several repair places and hear pretty much the same thing – it has to be shipped back to Microsoft for repair. Not happening when we're on the road.  

I make good use of the campground wifi, call my tech support (love you, bro) and try everything and anything to resurrect my very expensive, laptop-shaped paperweight. No love and it's now Friday the 13th. Arrrrrrrgh. Two months without a computer is not working for me. I have bills to pay and a blog to write! (Would you miss me?) So we pay for another night at Orange Grove and head back into town. We hit Costco and I am the proud, if reluctant, owner of a new HP Envy 360 laptop. Now the fun begins.  

I unbox the new baby and stay up until nearly midnight trying to get the system updates installed. I finally give up and go to bed. Hopefully it'll finish during the night. Thank heavens the RV park has half-way decent wifi! With a little more help from sibling tech support, we get email set up and start the arduous process of downloading all my files. Ahem, that is 94GB of data, over 21,000 files – on a campground wifi. This is going to take a while. We pay for a third night.  

I download all day long and at midnight I still have 16,387 files to go. Even half-way decent campground wifi doesn't cut it. I'll get as much downloaded as I can before we leave and do the rest as time and bandwidth allow. Sigh. The good news is Orange Grove is a great RV park. It really is an orange grove with orange trees between every space and all along the perimeter. In season, you can pick as much fruit as you want. Right now most of the fruit has dropped, but the trees are in bloom and it smells heavenly. 

Orange trees everywhere, it smells heavenly!

Rog trying out a date shake. Yep, that's a thing here. :) 

But wait, that's not all. Less critical, but no less annoying, on our second hike at Pinnacles, my camera froze twice. Both times I managed to get it working, but it is making some really creaky noises. I've already been researching replacements, but the model I'm most interested in was just released this month. I was hoping mine would hold out a little longer so I could see what the reviews look like before deciding. Fingers crossed.  

 

Oh, and let's not forget to mention that the RV has a dash alarm that buzzes intermittently as we go down the road at 60mph telling us to "set the parking brake". Yeah, that sounds like a plan.  

I hope all the gremlins will pack it in now that Friday the 13th is over, but I'm not going to put any money on it. Our plan is to leave Bakersfield, Sunday, 4/15, and find a spot in or near Death Valley. Rog has been checking the weather and so far the forecast is for temps in the 80's. That should be doable. We'll keep you posted (with my new HP laptop - grrrrrrr).   

Pinnacles National Park and Murphy's Law

Oh boy, do I have some stories to tell you. First though, I want to report on Pinnacles National Park. It is a beautiful park and there was plenty here to keep us busy. It deserves a blog post all its own, so I am going to save my weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth for my next post. (Now you have something to look forward to, right?)  

Pinnacles was designated a National Monument in 1908 and proclaimed a National Park in 2013. In addition to its namesake geologic features (which are totally cool), it also has Talus caves that are home to several bat species including Townsend's big-eared bats, and it is a nesting area of the endangered California Condor. At one time, the condor population in the wild was reduced to 25 by habitat loss, shootings, and lead poisoning. An aggressive captive breeding and release program has brought those numbers up to about 500. Every single bird is tagged and tracked. Pinnacles is one of only a few release sites in the US and Mexico. 

Pinnacles National Park

California Condor

We arrived on Sunday, 4/8, with reservations at the Pinnacles Campground for four nights. The campground is located right next to the visitor's center where you can access some of the trails or take the shuttle further into the park. One of the only downsides to this location is the complete and total lack of cell service. Of course, if things are going to go sideways, Murphy's law dictates you must not have easy access to civilization. That Murphy is such a sweetheart. Grrrrrrrrr. 

Anyhow, sticking with our activities at Pinnacles, we managed to do three hikes during our stay. No doggies on the trails, so Riley got to chill in the RV while we hiked. We started off on Monday with the Moses Springs/Bear Gulch loop. One of the things we love about the National Parks is that we always seem to learn something new. You typically think of caves as being created by water eroding subterranean mazes in the rock. Talus caves are created by huge boulders forming a roof over narrow canyons. The caves were fun to navigate – narrow, twisty passages that required us to scramble over rocks in some places and duck walk through shallow water in others. Flashlights required. It was a lot like the slot canyons in Utah, but in the dark!  

Rock formations on the Moses Springs trail.

Making friends with a blue bellied lizard.

The beautiful Bear Gulch Reservoir built by the CCC. 

The trail tunnels through the rock face - more work of the CCC.

Rog heading into the Bear Gulch caves.

Still light enough for pictures - once we were in the dark, no photos!

Waterfall in the cave.

A spot where we had to duck walk under the boulders. Glad the water wasn't higher. :)

Back into the sunlight.

There are two areas of caves in the park. On our second hike we did the Old Pinnacles Trail to the Balconies Caves. This was a scenic hike with an even more extensive system of Talus caves to explore. We searched diligently, hoping to see one of the Townsend's big-eared bats but had no luck. Still, this is a great time of the year to be here, the weather was warm and sunny during the day and cool in the evenings, the surrounding hills were green and the wildflowers were blooming.  

The Balconies formation.

Stone spires along the trail.

My hero!!

Into the Balconies caves.

Spring is beautiful here.

Wildflowers are blooming. 

Our final hike was the most challenging – the Condor Gulch/High Peaks loop. No caves, but some crazy steep, narrow trail. In the nearly 6 miles I don't think there was 10 consecutive feet of level ground. Up – down – up – down – up – down. Lol. 

View from the Condor Gulch Overlook.

We got a bird's eye view of the peaks.

I wasn't lying about the up, up, up!

Another spot of steep "stairs" (that's a generous term for these toe holds). 

One of the highlights of this route is the likelihood of seeing condors. We did spot several, but they were always too far away to get a decent picture. The condors are BIG birds, weighing in at around 20 pounds with a wingspan of 9 1/2 feet, but they soar high on the thermal updrafts at speeds of 55 mph and altitudes of 15,000 feet - way too fast and too far for my little pocket camera!  

Yes, that little black dot is a very large bird. :)

You can see this one's tag.

Pano from the High Peaks Trail.

Awesome solar corona.

Horned Lizard (aka Horny Toad) - talk about expertly camouflaged, good eye Rog!

Spring green!

Even with Murphy's input (yes, I will tell you all about it soon), this was another fabulous National Park. 

California Sunshine & Family Time

After leaving South Beach on Monday, 3/26, we stopped to refuel at the Fred Meyer in Florence, OR. Much to Riley’s delight (and ours) the Freddies backed up to a huge area of dunes. We had a great time racing up and down the sandy hills.

Dune Dog.

Puppy Portrait.

We pulled into Valley of the Rogue State Park without a reservation.  We didn’t realize this is spring break for Oregon schools and all the regular spots were full. We were very happy the park hosts had “unofficially” opened up a couple of extra loops. Holidays and school vacations can throw a wrench into the best laid plans, guess I better start paying attention! We stayed just one night and enjoyed an evening walk along the Rogue River.

Riley takes a quick dip in the Rogue River.

The next leg of our trip is all about moochdocking with family, so feel free to tune out here and tune back in for the next post at Pinnacles National Park. Our first stop, a visit with Roger’s Mom in Redding, CA. It didn’t hurt our feelings to bask in the sun with temps in the mid-80’s. Aaaahhhhhhhhhh. Finally!!

Riley on the other hand, is missing the cooler weather. He has his personal fan running at night and it didn’t take him long to remember how much he enjoyed a quick dip in the pool to cool off. He still doesn’t get off the top step (at least not intentionally!), but given time we might make a Splash Dog out of him yet. 😊

Pool time!

We spent four busy days in Redding and enjoyed visiting with Roger’s Mom and Ed. Rog did some maintenance on the coach, I caught up on the domestic goddess duties including more loads of laundry than I care to count, hit Costco and Camping World, and finally got all our gear in the side compartments cleaned and dried. Two weeks of rain and snow had left things decidedly squishy. Of course we also found time for several walks on the trail to Starbucks, a trip to the dog park, a new ice cream spot and dinner out.

On the trail to Starbucks.

What's a guy gotta do to get a muffin around here?

Our second moochdock stop was St. Helena, CA with Roger’s 94-year-old Grandma Ardys. We settled in on Saturday, 3/31, and then had a lovely family get together for Easter. Roger’s Mom drove down, our daughter, Rian, came up from Sacramento, and Roger’s sister and her family joined the crowd. We did what most families do – sat around yakking and eating. For entertainment, we took pictures of Riley. (Consider yourself warned.) 😊

Family time!

I am the Big Dog. :) 

Rian captures Riley as a handsome boy...

... and in total goof mode.
Hard to believe it's the same dog! Lol. 

We stayed in St. Helena six days and appreciated having the time to visit with Grandma. Rian stayed overnight with us in the RV and did her best to convince Riley the bed is more comfy than the floor. We made the 3 ½ mile roundtrip trek to the coffee shop several mornings. Riley is always a hit with the locals and he usually manages to score a bite of our morning muffin too. St. Helena is a beautiful town in the middle of wine country. Grandma Ardys has lived here over 60 years and it’s fun to listen to the stories of how things were before it became a mecca for wine tourists.  

Slumber party!

Lovely walk to coffee shop.

Ever hopeful.
Need any help with that muffin dad?

Our last family moochdock was a quick two nights in Danville, CA with Roger’s sister, Nancy, and her family. The weather took a turn for the worse and we arrived on Friday, 3/6, along with the wind and rain. Riley got acquainted with cousin, Rowdy, and they both had a blast.

Riley and Rowdy - fun times with the cousin.

We had a lovely dinner out and listened as the rain continued throughout the night. At the top of the agenda on this stop, Rog and his nephew, Max, wanted to tackle the Diablo Mountain trails on their mountain bikes. Max is an athletic 14-year-old, so Rog anticipated a challenge if not a spanking. 😊 By Saturday morning the skies had finally cleared and the boys even had some sunshine for their ride. That is not to say the ride was dry – yesterday’s rain had turned some of the trails into a mucky mess. This area is known for its adobe mud and the guys had to pick their route carefully to avoid the worst of it. Even so, they were smiling mud puppies by the end of their 13-mile ride.

Uncle Rog and Max - mountain bike buddies.

Max on the trail.

Gorgeous views of Diablo Mountain State Park.

Adobe mud sticks to everything!

Smiling mud puppies. 

Our family moochdocking ends tomorrow, 3/8, when we pull out and head for Pinnacles National Park.