Dog Days of Summer

Ever been so excited about upcoming plans that your tail wags all day long? Well that’s me these days. I’m Angus. Black Angus. A proud mixed pedigree German Shepherd-Golden Retriever-Husky. Which pretty much means I look like a small but mighty lab. And the Shepherd/Retriever in me explains why I walk around with one ear up and the other down. It’s what makes me unique.

So, back to these exciting upcoming plans, I guess maybe I’m also a little apprehensive, but mostly ready and up for a new adventure. Yep, so Jennifer, my adoptive parent, is gonna do another pilgrimage of sorts and this time she’s gonna take me with her. Nope, we won’t be hiking 500 miles across Europe and it’s a good thing because I got blisters on my pads last time we hiked the Santa Monica mountains. And we’re not biking 500 miles across Iowa (Phew, because I’m way too big for that handlebar basket!). What we are doing, in a little over a week, is heading north in an RV to complete a ~2,500 mile pilgrimage.

Now here’s the scary thing… She’s NEVER driven an RV and doesn’t know the first thing about “hook ups.” Not THOSE kind of hook ups, the kind so I’ll have some water in my dish and electricity to nuke my food, hook ups. And what’s worse, I have such a sensitive tummy that I puke EVERY time I get into an automobile. Always have. Guess she thinks two weeks on the road will cure me. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. But I am counting on wider turns than those she takes in the Beamer.

Putting my aprehensiveness aside I’m super excited about the hiking, playing in the dirt, running on the beach, collecting sticks and hopefully meeting some nice canine pals along the way.

And let me tell you, living in this house the past 2-years I’ve learned a ton about pilgrimages. First off I know that a pilgrimage is a journey of great significance, either sentimental, spiritual or religious, second it’s usually quite long, ending at a place of great importance, and third a pilgrimage is often taken to respect or honor someone or in homage of somebody. That said, I’d say my adoption process was sort of a pilgrimage. It was a long significant journey to a happy home and that’s super important to me!

Listening to Jennifer describe our upcoming pilgrimage it sounds significant on several levels. See, her Dads’ BFF/cousin died just 5-months after Jennifer’s Dad died. To give you an idea of how close her Dad (Jim) and Cousin Jim were, Cousin Jim was the first member of the extended family Jennifer called to let him know that his cousin Jim had passed. Closer than brothers those two, for 79-years. So, a Celebration of Life in Bend, Oregon for Cousin Jim with a whole lot of family including at least one other canine pal named Lundy will mark the end of the northbound stint of our pilgrimage.

The round trip journey will take us through some of the same campsites that Jennifer visited on camping trips with her Dad and siblings in their VW van in the 70’s. This is the journey that Jennifer’s Dad would want her to take, in just this way, to celebrate the life of Cousin Jim.

So, while we’re going on this long, significant journey to pay homage to the Jim’s you might be wondering why the blog is called ‘Travels With Angus.’ Well, it seems that a guy by the name of Steinbeck from Salinas wrote a book about his travel adventures with his dog in a camper titled, ‘Travels With Charley’ and Jennifer has this fantasy of  doing her version of Steinbeck’s travels. Okay by me, don’t mind having my name on the cover. Makes me feel, well, pretty dog gone important! And I guess we’re taking the long way to Bend so she can write the book she’s been wanting to write {yawn}. Humans! They can be so boring and complicated. Unlike the fun-filled, simple life of a dog. My only goal on this pilgrimage is to keep Jennifer present and my food down.