Vacation accomplished
I have been away for a little more than a week, first to Hillside then up to P-Town in spite of for Bear Week, in our first true vacation in three years. I'm happy to say that, despite the circumstances with my health, we managed to have a great time. I managed the walks to and from the center of town using my walking stick, and I discovered that bicycling is not a lot different that when I was "healthy" by the simple fact that the hunched over riding position puts minimal stress on my spine and the low impact pedaling beats even light walking. I was unable to try out biking as a form of locomotion (not to mention as exercise) since the bikes had been stored up in PA at Jeff's parents' house since last year. While not nearly as energetic as I was in years previous, I still managed to surprise myself by having a minimum of problems until the end of the week, where it finally caught up to me. Still, the time to relax and get away for a bit was excellent therapy in itself. The weather was decent, with only one rainy Tuesday night to contend with. Despite not doing quite as much as years past, we did manage to take in our first Blowoff, where I watched Jeff sinfully gyrate on the dance floor while I managed to stand against a railing holding it for support and mildly sway to the beat. The walk home in the pouring rain replaced the shower I was going to take afterward, and was not entirely unwelcome either. In fact, it was a perfect Cooloff.
Our biggest surprise of the week came not from the excellent food, friends both expected and unexpected, acres of eye candy or other sights, but from Kodi, formerly known around Casa Mayhem as CrazyDogInsanityPooch. At our first weekend at Hillside, Kodi was the usual skittish bother with his typical separation anxiety any time either (or both) of us left the campsite as well as a bit too much barking at people and other dogs. This had us reconsidering our decision to take Kodi with us to Provincetown rather than leaving him with Jeff's mom and dad for the week like we had done prior. We decided to give it a try, with me thinking that he'd have a good time and not be too much of a bother. Well, we soon begun to question whether we had accidentally picked up someone else's dog. Since the beginning of the trip, Kodi was a bit calmer than usual, and during the dreaded 9+ hour ride from Hillside to P-Town Kodi quietly sat in our laps or napped quietly in Jeff's lap (a total first), not fussing one bit between the couple stops for food or fuel. More importantly, no tossing his dog biscuits all over the interior of the truck! He was perfectly behaved during stops, and once up to the campsite, pretty well behaved for completely unfamiliar surroundings. We were beyond impressed.
The surprises continued as we took him into town, where he was not only well behaved, but an absolute rock star with the people we encountered. This was magnified even more as Jeff carried him in an over-the-shoulder bag made expressly for carrying pets, and even more so when he rode in a specially designed bicycle basket. People stopped us to pet Kodi and ask about him, kids adored him, and the gheys even more. And the wake of comments, finger pointing and photos that accompanied him while he rode in the bike basket was unmistakable. And he soaked up every minute of it. When it came time for us to go into the center of town without us, he dutifully climbed into his crate without the slightest fuss or peep and cheerfully awaited our return. We were both totally dumbfounded. And this was a daily occurrence! We even took him to a restaurant (Bubulas) where we ate outside and Kodi sat next to Jeff near the sidewalk. The only disturbance came as a drag queen rode up on a little motorized tricycle and began making a loud, humorous fuss over Kodi to the delight of everyone nearby. Kodi did some barking, but it was all in the fun context. :)
Sadly, our time in P-Town had to draw to a close, and, for me at least, not such a bad thing. My legs were giving out on a regular basis, and the effort I undertook earlier in the week caught up to me and left me exhausted, but in a good way. Our trip home was uneventful, with our one and only Kodi Moment happening in Connecticut whereupon Kodi blasted the center console of the truck, along with my cell phone, one of two GPSs and everything else with the lunch he had about a half hour before. This was entirely our fault, as we had stopped to make ourselves some lunch at this midpoint of the trip, giving Kodi just a little bit too much food and delaying our rest stop just a bit too long. This resulted in at least a half hour of cleaning up stuff before heading back onto the highway, where our planned rest area lay about a mile further down the road. This is where Kodi's impeccable timing reigns supreme - he will usually lay waste to a vehicle interior within scant minutes before arriving at the destination. We could not be angry at the poor pooch, after all, it was our fault overfeeding him and delaying the break, and he continued to be his amazingly perfect self the rest of the trip. We ended up in PA where we spent one more night of trailer camping in mom and dad's driveway in air conditioned comfort, and today we headed home. All in all, it was a great trip, much needed, and therapeutic.
Since it's been over a week since I have checked my LJ f-list, the sheer number of posts is overwhelming. I am trying to catch up, but am only able to make it back a few days. I have several tabs full of posts to comment on, and will do so in the next day or two. Still, I missed out on a lot. If there is anything of note that you want to inform me of, let me know. I'll be making some P-Town-specific posts soon.
It's fun to take trips, but it's always good to be back home.
Our biggest surprise of the week came not from the excellent food, friends both expected and unexpected, acres of eye candy or other sights, but from Kodi, formerly known around Casa Mayhem as CrazyDogInsanityPooch. At our first weekend at Hillside, Kodi was the usual skittish bother with his typical separation anxiety any time either (or both) of us left the campsite as well as a bit too much barking at people and other dogs. This had us reconsidering our decision to take Kodi with us to Provincetown rather than leaving him with Jeff's mom and dad for the week like we had done prior. We decided to give it a try, with me thinking that he'd have a good time and not be too much of a bother. Well, we soon begun to question whether we had accidentally picked up someone else's dog. Since the beginning of the trip, Kodi was a bit calmer than usual, and during the dreaded 9+ hour ride from Hillside to P-Town Kodi quietly sat in our laps or napped quietly in Jeff's lap (a total first), not fussing one bit between the couple stops for food or fuel. More importantly, no tossing his dog biscuits all over the interior of the truck! He was perfectly behaved during stops, and once up to the campsite, pretty well behaved for completely unfamiliar surroundings. We were beyond impressed.
The surprises continued as we took him into town, where he was not only well behaved, but an absolute rock star with the people we encountered. This was magnified even more as Jeff carried him in an over-the-shoulder bag made expressly for carrying pets, and even more so when he rode in a specially designed bicycle basket. People stopped us to pet Kodi and ask about him, kids adored him, and the gheys even more. And the wake of comments, finger pointing and photos that accompanied him while he rode in the bike basket was unmistakable. And he soaked up every minute of it. When it came time for us to go into the center of town without us, he dutifully climbed into his crate without the slightest fuss or peep and cheerfully awaited our return. We were both totally dumbfounded. And this was a daily occurrence! We even took him to a restaurant (Bubulas) where we ate outside and Kodi sat next to Jeff near the sidewalk. The only disturbance came as a drag queen rode up on a little motorized tricycle and began making a loud, humorous fuss over Kodi to the delight of everyone nearby. Kodi did some barking, but it was all in the fun context. :)
Sadly, our time in P-Town had to draw to a close, and, for me at least, not such a bad thing. My legs were giving out on a regular basis, and the effort I undertook earlier in the week caught up to me and left me exhausted, but in a good way. Our trip home was uneventful, with our one and only Kodi Moment happening in Connecticut whereupon Kodi blasted the center console of the truck, along with my cell phone, one of two GPSs and everything else with the lunch he had about a half hour before. This was entirely our fault, as we had stopped to make ourselves some lunch at this midpoint of the trip, giving Kodi just a little bit too much food and delaying our rest stop just a bit too long. This resulted in at least a half hour of cleaning up stuff before heading back onto the highway, where our planned rest area lay about a mile further down the road. This is where Kodi's impeccable timing reigns supreme - he will usually lay waste to a vehicle interior within scant minutes before arriving at the destination. We could not be angry at the poor pooch, after all, it was our fault overfeeding him and delaying the break, and he continued to be his amazingly perfect self the rest of the trip. We ended up in PA where we spent one more night of trailer camping in mom and dad's driveway in air conditioned comfort, and today we headed home. All in all, it was a great trip, much needed, and therapeutic.
Since it's been over a week since I have checked my LJ f-list, the sheer number of posts is overwhelming. I am trying to catch up, but am only able to make it back a few days. I have several tabs full of posts to comment on, and will do so in the next day or two. Still, I missed out on a lot. If there is anything of note that you want to inform me of, let me know. I'll be making some P-Town-specific posts soon.
It's fun to take trips, but it's always good to be back home.