3 Hounds On the Road

Day 14 – Omaha, NE

Hi! It’s “ME”! The Funny Red Head! The morning started out pretty normal with “Super Dad” (or is it “Sleepy Dad”) responding to the early morning call of “Mother Nature” and taking us for our daily power walk. You would think that by now he would understand that as soon as that hotel room door opens, we are outta there! “Set me free why don’t cha Dad…Get us out of this room why don’t cha Dad. Wooo-A-Wooo-oooh!” Actually, we know the routine but love to mess with his head. He barely gets the door open and BAM! Off we go! It is funny to see him stumbling down the hallway, pulled by a team if hounds, trying not of fall forward. And best of all he thinks he can get control just by raising his voice. Doesn’t he know that all he does is attract attention to himself? How embarrassing! When people see him, he just repeats “I am in control…I am in control!” You would think that after 2 weeks…Awh…forget it. Poor Dad. Father’s Day is just around the corner so we will make it up to him…I am sure!

When it was time to load up, Dad opens the back of the jeep and while reaching in, hits his head on the tail gate.(That could leave a mark!) After “praising the Lord” (or something like that), he says to Mom that something is wrong with the gate because it would not open as high as it usually does. Of course pushing on it will fix it…NOT! Hey Dad, if you push really hard you might be able to bend it! Seriously!

Mom walks around the corner of the jeep and discovers that the right rear tire is completely flat! I am talking “rim on the asphalt” flat. Funny thing; Dad wasn’t even upset at her discovery. He just paused and actually said to Mom he couldn’t be mad because it could have happened while in the middle of South Dakota on the highway. That would have been a real mess. So after unloading what he had just loaded, getting out the tiny little tire jack and crawling half way under the car to find the exact right place to locate the tiny little tire jack…and then getting up and rummaging through the glove box to find the owner’s manual to locate where to locate…(get the picture???) and getting all full of dirt and scraping his knees on that same asphalt upon which said flat tire lay, I saw that Dad was seriously rethinking that comment about not being upset. Ya think?!!?

Before things deteriorated much more (it was VERY close), “Jerry Johannesen” (man of the moment and Best Western “Super Maintenance Man”) appeared on the scene. “Need a little help there do ya?” I thought for sure Dad was going to say “I am in complete control…I am in complete control…” but thank goodness he didn’t. Jerry said he would be right back and sure enough, he came back with a portable compressor. A VERY appreciative Dad filled up the flat tire, drove to exactly where “Super Jerry” told him to get the tire repaired and after a quick one hour delay, we were headed to Omaha! Dad gave Jerry a VERY nice tip! Whew!

The ride to Omaha was automatic: “Get In the car. Fight for position and off to sleep”. The only time we wake up is when the car stops. I think it is the vibration thing puts us right out! Dad is always saying that we are “SOOO GOOD!” in the car…but that is only when it is moving. Really! Stop the car and it is a whole different story. Example: Every time (and I mean at this point in the trip…EVERY TIME) they leave us in the car to go eat, (we are still upset over that 3 meals a day thing) we make a sport out of howling and barking and smearing our noses all over not just the back windows, but the windshield and driver’s window and passenger window as well. We do the whole car! I know Dad just loves it! Mom thinks it is funny that he uses that dripping wet gas station window washer thingy on the inside of the car as well as the outside of the car! Ahhh. Life on the road!

We arrived in Omaha just in time to unload, get walked, do our “do-do” thing, watch Mom and Dad get all pretty (so people think they travel looking like that all the time), get back in the car and go to dinner with friends ( oh yes…”THEY” go to dinner!) More howling…and barking… and window painting. When Mom and Dad returned to the car, they introduce us to their very good friends Kent and Stephanie. Of course they said we were so loveable because…well…WE ARE! And who wouldn’t love a face like mine? (Bella thinks that she is the prettiest but I distinctly heard Stephanie say that she liked me the best! Score one for the Red Head!)

Back to the hotel for bed. We did our little routine of trying to convince Dad that we had just as much right to sleep on the “Big Bed” that he had…but just as routinely, it didn’t work. We were sentenced to sleep on the beds on the floor once again…only to wait for them to drift off to sleep so we can slip back up, not to be detected until morning. Who said “Life wasn’t fair”???

Good night to all (and a very good night it will be!)