Cutting Loose

When mom took me to the park for my Halloween photo shoot, she decided to take some "action" shots when we were finished. I love to jump, twist and spin.

These are just a few of my moves:

This is mom's favorite. She's says it looks like I'm "dancing like nobody's watching".

Gotta make sure I get every last, tasty morsel.

Whoa, flew right out of the shot.

Check out that air.

Gotta get that treat.

Who knew I could float?

I am soooo happy!

I look like a marionette, don't I?

Grab and go.

It was a whole lot of fun. I got to play AND eat. Win/win in my book.

Happy Halloween

Mom's favorite holiday, for sure. So yesterday she took me to the park to take pictures of me in my cute pirate costume. I like the costume because I get lots of cookies when I wear it.

So it's worth it to me to keep it on, even the hat.

On the way home, we drove by this place. It was soooooo awesome.

Most of our Halloween stuff is in storage. But this gives us something to shoot for next year.

In the meantime, remember these Zombieland Rules:

#1 - Cardio

#2 - The Double Tap

#3 - Beware of bathrooms

#4 - Wear your seatbelt

And always.....

#31 - Check the backseat

#32 - Enjoy the little things

Taking a break from talkin' about Texas for a bit. But it's still a little "cowboy" related. Before we left California, mom and dad went to visit dad's relatives in Arbuckle, CA. It's a little town north of Sacramento. His family has an almond farm up there, and since he hadn't been there in a long time, and mom had never been there, they headed up with dad's mom and her aunt.

This is the original farmhouse. The family lives in newer houses across and down the street, but a family member just moved in here.

The almond orchards are all around the house. This is literally right in their backyard.

There's a lucky dog that lives there. She gets to run and play in the trees all day long. But she mostly wanted to hang with the people. There was a big lunch celebration, so I'm sure that's what she was after. It's what I would have been after.

After lunch, they all went for a tour of the almond processing plant. It's really close to the house, too. This is from the driveway.

They were in the middle of the harvest, and the plant was going full steam. Mom said it was really noisy and really dusty, so she didn't bring her camera with her. This is a view from outside. That big pile is almond husks. Notice the small building in the lower left? That's a small carport. So you can see how big the pile is.

After the tour, it was on to more fun. They were going way over there to ride some horses.

Ropin and Ridin

To continue with the Arbuckle saga, the parental units were going horseback riding. Well, mom was going. And dad's mom. But not dad.

Here's mom on her horse.

Here's dad's mom. She just LOVES to ride.

They had to ride a long way to the pond they were heading to. Besides horses, there were golf-cart-riders and a walker.

This is how I would have been riding. Safely and comfortably in a cart.

This is the pond they rode to. It had a bunch of boats, but only the kids went swimming and boating.

After enjoying a few adult beverages, everybody headed back to the barn. Then it was time to head back to Lotus, where more packing was waiting.

Get along little dawgies

Well, the motorhome is set up, the stuff is in storage, and the miles are behind us. So mom and dad decided to take a break and check out the area. They weren't sure whether Dallas or Fort Worth was going to be a better fit (yes, there is a difference), so they wanted to get a "feel" for the place.

They decided to start in Fort Worth, so they headed down to the Stockyards to do a little touristy stuff. They started with lunch. Dad spotted a joint that had deep fried pickles, and just had to try them. Here's his first taste of deep fried pickles.

He said they were pretty good, but I'll have to take his word for it, since HE DIDN'T BRING ME A DOGGY BAG.

There weren't napkins at this place - only paper towels. They had to take a picture to send to mom's mom, Meme. She HATES that we only use paper towels, not napkins. So when she comes to visit us she buys a big thing of napkins. We use them until they run out, then it's back to paper towels. So far, Texas is our kind of place.....napkinless.

The big event at the Stockyards is the Daily Cattle Drive. So mom and dad finished their lunch and headed out to the street to see the action. Sure enough, right on time, the cattle headed down the street. These were some BIG cattle, and had really big horns. They were Texas Longhorns.

I'm glad we didn't go with them. After the State Fair cow/agility venue, I have to say I'm not big on cows. Their poop is pretty interesting, but they have sharp feet that could hurt me. And if Arnie had been there, he would have wanted to get them, for sure.

Not ready to relax yet

The first morning we woke up in Texas, we saw something I never thought I'd see - a drilling rig. Right in the middle of the city. And right next to our RV park.

But no rest for the wicked, as mom says. They still had to unpack the big truck and put it into a storage unit. So a week after they packed it all in the truck, they packed it all out of the truck. It was really hot and humid, and there was a ton of crap. They figured it was a good way to get ready for the "Texas weather". Here's all our stuff at the end of the day, ready for the door to close.

And just in the nick of time. That night was a HUGE thunderstorm. The motorhome was rocking from the wind, and you couldn't hear a thing inside because it was raining so hard. Mom and dad were SO glad it waited until after they'd unpacked to rain. What a mess it could have been.

The next morning, the rain was all done. It was still a little cloudy and very humid, but no rain. The perfect weather to start exploring our new home.

Made it to Texas

And still driving. I guess Texas is big. REALLY big. So getting to Texas didn't mean the end of the journey, it just meant lots more driving. But mom and dad did give a "shout out" on the walkie talkies when they crossed the border into Texas. Notice it's still raining. Yup, rained all the way from Arizona to Texas.

Eventually, we made it to Texas. Mom had made reservations at an RV park in Arlington. Since they didn't know anything about Dallas or Fort Worth, she picked a place exactly in between them. They set up the RV, and got to relax a little.

But they couldn't take it easy yet, because they still had to unpack the moving van and put their stuff into storage until they could find a house to live in. So the relaxing only lasted for a day. Here's dad watching some tube, and me chewing on my bed. Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona

To continue the adventure, we crossed over into Arizona. It was pretty much the same as California at this point. But pretty soon we started seeing more pine trees and our ears were popping from going up in elevation.

Yup, still same view for mom. But much nicer scenery. It was kind of familiar to mom, because she used to live in Arizona (I didn't know that until we drove there). She lived way south, in Tucson, but used to got to Flagstaff for dog shows. And we drove right through Flagstaff. She really wanted to stop at this cool German restaurant she went to once, but 2 giant vehicles just weren't the way to travel through this little town. So we kept on going.

Then, something started happening that hardly ever happens in September in Arizona - it started raining. And raining. And raining.

Then we went through Winslow, Arizona, and mom kept singing this silly song over and over again. Sheesh, humans.

We stopped at another rest stop, and spent the whole night listening to thunder and rain and wind. Kind of scary, but kind of cool. I guess the weather was "once in a century" kind of weather. Figures, huh?

Then on to another state, New Mexico. Except it looked almost exactly like Arizona. But flatter. And still we drove and drove. We were almost to Texas.

Texas - here we come

Gracie here:

Well, we finally made it to Texas. We stayed a little longer

in California, hoping to avoid the dreaded "Texas heat". Well, we succeeded, because the weather since we got here has been BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I'm going to take the next few posts to tell you about our trip here. There'll be pictures, stories and adventures, so bear with me.

First was the big pack up. Mom and dad spent 2 days packing a big moving van and the motorhome with all our stuff. And there was lots of stuff. After they squished it all in, and hooked the car to the van, we were off. The first leg was boring.....flat and hot, through the central valley of CA:

That's the view mom had the whole time. The butt end of dad's vehicle. We were in back, in our crates, so we didn't see a darned thing. But I guess it was pretty much what you see here.

We stopped for the night at the edge of California, right before you get to Arizona. We crashed at rest areas and truck stops (dad used to drive truck, so he knows the ropes). It was kind of exciting, because we could hear the trucks flying by all night long on the highway. We were all cozy and comfortable in the motorhome. Dad tricked out the place with a flat screen TV and HD antenna, so we hung out watching the tube on the couch and relaxed.

The next day we hit Arizona bright and early. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.