Road Trip!!!!

It's Christmas time, which means mom and I will be in Florida to celebrate with the family. Mom and I headed out very early Monday morning to start the drive from Tulsa to Melbourne, Florida. I made this drive before with mom and gramma over the summer, so I was prepared. We took Granddad's car! Granddad has a flashy red car, and I thought it suited me quite well. Mom loaded up my car seat, and even got me an extra dog bed so I could try to rest and relax during the journey. I did my best to rest, but well I know it's a dog's job to keep an eye on mom, so I did my best to do that too! It took a total of 22 hours in the car. Mom and I tried to stop at least once every 3 hours unless "nature called," if you know what I mean...Mom did her best to take some pictures of my adventure on the road. So here's all that I can recall:

As you can tell from this picture, I was in great spirits and really up for the journey. I am such a great companion. Recently, my mom has been quite busy with work so I was really excited to get to spend some time with her!!

Mom hit a part of the trip after Memphis Tennessee and before Birmingham Alabama where the road was pretty straight and simple to follow. She stated that even "I" could drive it. So I offered to take 2nd shift on the driving. I think it lasted like 20 minutes, I was wiped out!!

Okay, so I know in this picture it looks like I'm sleeping, but I'm not was just giving my eyes a chance to take a short break during the long trip. I kept a good lookout. When we got to Montgomery Alabama there was a wreck of some sort on 85 South. We had terrible timing, or maybe it was awesome timing for me, as we got to see 10 policemen head towards an accident that was in front of us while we hung out in the car. Now the really cool part about this for me, is the fact that 7 of those policemen were on motorcycles!!! I love motorcycles. Once we got to rolling again, I hung my head out the window and was commenting that I liked their motorcycles, mom told me to stop barking and then rolled my window up. I just grinned.

When we finally checked into the hotel, a Days Inn in Dothan, Alabama. It's pronounced (Doe than, with a long O sound), mom double checked because Pat was doubting her as she said the name of the destination.

I was stoked that the hotel had ESPNU so that mom and I could catch the 2nd half of the KU basketball game!

I was amped up and ready to go this morning! Mom was lolly-gagging around, and I just wanted to hit the road, and get the road trip done. So I hopped in the car, and mom went to turn in the room key. I tried to stare her down to get her to move quicker, but instead she snaps this photo. But as I said earlier, I have to say I looked pretty stylish in granddads ride!!

This morning mom met up with another KU Jayhawks, Carla! You know Jayhawks always stick together, and once a jayhawk always a jayhawk. Carla lives in Tallahassee, Florida. She works at Florida State University. Carla told my mom about a cool park: Maclay Park and Gardens. There was a cool recreation area. There wasn't anyone around, so mom let me off my leash and I got to run around and play for a little while. It was good to work the stiffness out of my legs. Mom took a video, but not sure how to upload that to my blog right now. I'll work on it.

Once I ran around a little bit, mom and I walked down towards the water. There was a beach-like area. I remember not liking the beach too much last time I was in Florida, but mom encouraged me to check it out and give it a try. Since there weren't any other two-leggeds or four-leggeds around I figured "why not"?

There appeared to be some seaweed on the beach, but later mom told me that it was the trees shedding some funky looking leaves.

I checked out the water a couple of times. Carla later told me that there are real live gators in them there waters. So gratefuly I didn't meet one of those nose to nose if you know what I mean!!

I got to meet mom's friend Carla. She of course thought I was adorable! I think we took a really cute picture. It was really nice to hang out with a fellow Jayhawk. Especially after the basektball loss last night to Davidson. She was a really great host and brought my mom some tea and a bagel from Panera. My mom was nice enough to give me a taste of her left over cream cheese. We had fun hanging out in the garden area, even though the sign said no pets allowed. I tried to point out the sign to my mom, but she ignored me...it was a very pretty garden. My gramma would probably like going there.

After all the excitment at the park, I have to admit that I was feeling exhausted! So I decided to catch a dog nap. I had a tough time getting everything in just the right place so that my head didn't get bounced around when we hit bumps in the road. I have to say that granddad's car really rides pretty smooth.

Mom was nice enough to wake me up a little before getting to Gramma and Granddads house so that I could look awake and alert. I'm sure that I will sleep well tonight. Mom says that I get to ride in a plane on the way home in a little over a week. I am a little nervous about that, but for right now I am going to keep sending good vibes to Santa Claus so that maybe I'll get some of the things on my wish list. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!! (my mom does too)