Today was long, hot and full of glare.
We drove south out of the twisty, climby roads that made me so sick-who thought a dog could suffer from motion sickness AND be affected by the altitude! Carol rubbed my throat with benadryl spray (SOMETHING) has affected my skin there, but today, no itching, plus, it makes me a little more sleepy, which isn't a bad thing, cause I have slept alot during this trip. Carol found me a delicious baked chicken breast here in Lone Pine-I enjoyed it so much I actually ate my vitamin and drank a big bowl of water!! We drove about 6 hours today-the highway was light and bright. The scenery changed alot-always rocky and dusty, big to small, to big again.
The phone rang alot but no connection was made-Carol said it was Lynda trying to get in touch and finally they did-seems there is a BIG day in store tomorrow-something about "finally seeing the Grand Canyon", sounds big, I don't get it. But I am looking forward to meeting Lynda-seems she has a dog friend named Bella (Alice wrote to me about her) back east staying with family. By the time I meet her, she will have been away from her for five days, and that is along time for friends to be apart sometimes. Hopefully, I can help fill Bella's place for a few days or at least make a new friend myself (you can never have too many good friends!!).
Well I've got to get to sleep again, that little bit of ham just put me over the top and I had a good gnaw on my water buffalo bone....gonna make a wee bit of history tomorrow-yep, not many dogs get to see the Grand Canyon, much less a curly white dog!!!!!
I hope to report from the Red Feather Motel tomorrow night after gazing upon one of God's (dogs backwards, remember..) great creations!!
G'nite-Jack

Oh! did I ever get revenge for being cooped up in that car today!! I was my sleepy, quiet self all the way to Lone Pine, Ca.-we got to the Alabama Hills Inn, and once in the room, Carol took off my leash but left the door open (we have a back door that looks over the mountains) and off I went, ZOOM--I was outa there!! It was funny watching the worried look on Carol's face as she walked quickly behind me. Always so scared I'm gonna go somewhere I'm not supposed to-I stopped and let her pick me up and it all made me feel so much better. I even played a game of Eddie and ate a big plate of chicken and potatoes-with organic carrots-I really feel like crashing but I will continue my recap of this 21st day on the road!!
None of us wanted to get out of THAT bed this morning, but they give you a $24. breakfast and it is over at 10:00, so you get up and get going-We all sat at the same table as last night out in the courtyard and Carol shared her over-easy eggs and bacon with me, the whole grain toast was so good.
After we checked out, Carol remembered that she could get the same wine she had the night before for 35% off the menu price, so she bought 4 more bottles to take to Arizona.
We drove to a car wash and Barney washed the car, seems as though the windows need to be real clean for the drive we are taking today and did he make them shine!! Did I mention what a beautiful day it was today?? WOW blue skies and slightly warm-we headed south for Yosemite National Park. There were many other cars going that way also, so we were all going up and down and around again (I just went to bed, after eating the milk bone that the park ranger gave me) but I could tell every time the car slowed down that one of them would grab the camera and jump out and "click" then off we go......Finally I got to get out and walk around for a smell and a pee-The mountains were bigger than any of the others that we had seen-huge towers of rock-many still had snow on them. Soon, they realized that we still had a long way till we got to our final destination (REALLY!! same story, different day). Now we were on the east side of the mountain range and the desert was starting to appear. We were finally on a highway and Barney is taking photos from inside the car-those should be interesting!!!not!!maybe!!!
As usual, 7:30 was coming fast and low and behold-we arrived.
Like I said, I'm ready to crash-tomorrow we drive to Kingman, Arizona, Carol says she is going to go to the casino and play the slots-hope she wins-then maybe we could fly home..... later J-

Last night was like a visit to the top of one of those cocktail umbrellas! I couldn't believe where we were going to stay.....we drove all day from Arcata, through the redwood forests and down through the napa wine valley...with tons of other cars (thank goodness most of them were going the other way), I just rolled over and slept most of the way. With all the turns and twists and up and down hills....the little narrow roads...gee..Carol said I looked green. About an hour before we got to Calistoga I lost the little bit of breakfast I cared to eat-but I felt better.
The Shangrala cabin at the Hillcrest B & B was high on a hill and had a great view of the vineyard. The little cabin transformed you to a Polynesian island, complete with plastic palm tree lights! A rainbow parrot hung from the ceiling and I could of sworn I heard him screech , but Carol said he was made out of felt and was "disgusting". The TV didn't work and there was no cell phone service and of course no high speed internet, so after we ate sandwiches and fresh cherries we went to sleep earlier than usual. We woke early and Barney gave me a bath in the jacuzzi, he let me dry on the palm tree bedspread-we left pretty soon after that. This place had some big and curious pit bull dogs so we didn't want to linger.
The drive to Groveland was to be "the quickest ever" but again, the roads!!! so little and curvy and up the hills and down the hills. I had decided not to eat the chicken this morning and opted for a strip of chicken jerky (Carol says it is fortified with good stuff) so the drive didn't make me sick today. The traffic was constant but kind and before you knew it, we were driving into Groveland (at the mouth of Yosemite Park) to stay at the Groveland Hotel. It was another renovated older hotel, but really, really nice!! The bed was so high, Barney had to pick me up to get me to the top-WOW it was worth it-so very soft-I had to bury my head in all the way.
There is a really nice restaurant here and they let me sit at the table outside with Carol and Barney. They each got a salmon and chicken dinner and shared it with me. They splurged and bought a bottle of wine, because they forgot to buy any wine when they were coming through the valley!!
I think I am really going to like sleeping here tonight, and tomorrow we go through the Yosemite Park and see some pretty incredible sights I hear. We will bunk down in Lone Pine , a little town off of hwy, 349 just west of Death Valley (that sounds really warm!! I just don't get it).
I sure miss my home and nice back yard-mostly running in the yard I think. Well, time to crash out on this feather bed----ahhhh life is good-J-