Category: Dog Parks and Brew Pubs

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Well we made a quick pit stop in Pensacola before heading off to Galveston. Styx River RV Resort to be exact, which is actually in Alabama, 30 minutes from Pcola. And as always there was fun to be found. We met up one night with Belinda and her sister Angela [AKA Oodie] It started slow, we had dinner (great quesadillas by Belinda) and then penned up the Puggles and headed out. First stop was the Islander on Pensacola Beach, followed by the Break, and finally to the Tiki bar at The Hampton Inn. Our buddy Anthony was tending bar that night and he always hooks us up, and he did not disappoint. Whatever rum drink he gave us was STRONG! And got us, well, let’s say “loopy”. So that was my last for the night. He was closing so we waited for him and went to Flounder’s and to Bamboo Willies. Shots and beer were in abundance, every time I turned around the girls were doing another shot. So finally we headed home after getting a jump to start Belinda’s car. Allegedly I left the headlights on [whoops]. We made it back to Angela’s but not after someone, who will remain nameless, threw up outside and inside the car. While I packed up the dog’s I heard someone laughing, apparently Jinjer escaped her pen and went into Belinda’s room on her bed and pooped. I felt so bad and cleaned it up quickly. We apologized and then headed back to the coach. It was 4:30 a.m. when we finally got to bed. The next morning we had to check out by noon, which would seem no problem normally but we were tired from the night before and it was almost 100º outside. I got up at 9:00 and by 1:00 I got us ready to head out to Galveston. But it was no even 5 miles down the road when I had to stop the coach at a rest area and sleep for a few hours, 3 hours to be exact. At which point I felt much better and we were off for great state of Texas. Sharon got a phone call from Angela (aka Oudie) and Sharon listened for a bit and then started uncontrollably, she finally stopped enought o start apologizing for something that happened the night before, she put her on hold for a second and turned to tell what happened: Angela stated that “I woke up this morning to a nasty smell in my room, I looked around. ‘What is that smell’ I asked. Then I found it. Apparently Jinjer may have pooped on Belinda’s bed, but she wiped her butt on my PILLOW!!”. We burst out laughing together hysterically, the image of her discovering that was hilarious. I felt bad, but come on, that is funny stuff! We arrived at 1:30 in the morning at our destination of Galveston and it was so dark we had no idea what it looked like on the island but there we lots of mosquitoes, and I mean tons. This place did not get off to a good start. And it seemed warm hot still, even in the middle of the night. I could not wait to go to sleep and see what this island will have in store for us…

Well we arrived at Atlanta and we were to stay at the Brookwood RV resort but only stayed a night because the Pageant we were shooting was at the Westin which was dog-friendly! So we stayed there for the pageant weekend. Jack and Jinjer hung out with us the whole time down in the ballroom area while we worked. They were perfect angels, not sure if the were our crazy dogs or someone replaced or drugged them. It was a great weekend, the pageant went smoothly, we relaxed at the hotel some nights and even got to park our motorhome at the hotel so we could get stuff from it if needed. But it was about to go downhill. Upon leaving the hotel we were cruising along just fine for an hour or so and then we hear a big bang. “What the hell was that!?” Sharon said. I think I knew, so I stopped the coach and went to have a look see. My suspicions were correct, a blowout. One of the rear tires was flat and we had used our spare in Florida a few months ago and not replaced it yet. So we got online and looked for tire companies in the area. One good thing is that it was still early in the day, around noon. We found one and we proceeded to limp along down the emergency lane until we could get off at the next exit which was less than a mile drive. I then got out and proceeded to take the tire off, but of course i did not have socket large enough so i sent Sharon off to buy one at a nearby Wal-mart while I worked on finding a tire place again. I finally found a place where for $288.00 I could get a tire. This was a setback for us, there goes all the cash sales we had accumulated that weekend. It was also so damn hot, nothing like mid day in June in the deep south to shorten tempers. Taking off a large RV tire is no easy task, I wrestled and wrestled and finally won. Well everything worked out, we got the tire replaced and back on the road. But the day was to get worse. Due to the high traffic on our pageant photos website that morning, from parents and contestants wishing to view the pics we uploaded from the weekend, our site crashed and became temporarily suspended. And that is what the web host provider put on the homepage “This site has been suspended, please contact billing”. So this is what all the potential customers of ours had to see until we got it straightened out. I was livid!! This was going to be the only cash flow for us since we used all of our cash up on the tire. So we had to stop and get an RV site for the night and get it all straightened out. What seemed to be an easy fix, just pay for more bandwidth became a nightmare of upgrading and configuring my own virtual private server. Took 2 days before we were back online! BUt once we were, we pulled up stakes and headed to Pensacola, praying that karma would dish us some smooth travels for a bit.

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We read on the internet of an RV park just outside of Ocala, Florida with a dog park and we had to stop on our way to Atlanta. The Ocala Ranch RV Park to be precise. The park was open, not a lot of trees, but good level sites and the park was empty this time of year, all the snowbirds have migrated back north by now. SO since it was empty, the “kids” had no others to play with but still just had fun with each other. They still love to play with each other because they can be as rough as they want to be with no one getting mad. We will stop back again when it is more full in the winter. And also to go to our favorite Thai restaurant we had found to date, Spicy Thai. It had incredible food combined with perfect ambience, a real treat to find! We also found a great tucked away little tropical paradise known as Rainbow Springs. We went kayaking and hiking with the dogs one day there and had a great time, we were amazed how clear the water was. It was a beautiful emerald green, teaming with fish swimming through the tall sumbmerged strands of algae. Reminds me of the kelp beds I saw on the discovery channel. Just a gorgeous place, a must see off-the-beaten path place.