Driving

I started driving just before 2 pm on Wednesday, stopped in Medford to sleep, and was in Spokane by 9pm on Thursday. Carter was carsick both days after too many hours of driving. Cleaning up dog vomit doesn't rate on my top ten list of "things I love about animals." My dad has this precious white carpet in our family room. He loves it, and guards it with his life. Carter puked on it within an hour of arriving. You know how dogs usually give you some warning about this kind of thing? They start looking a little wide-eyed, and making funny sounds, and kinda lookin' like "I'm gonna puke, I think I'm gonna puke," and you can hustle them out the door. Well, no warning. Carter didn't even know it was coming. And then there it was, bright yellow, full of bile. I know you don't want to know this, but these are the kinds of details veterinarians pay attention to. And the point is that the bright yellowness is even now threatening to become a permanent feature of the carpet. Right in the middle of the room. Two days of carpet-cleaning activities have yet to yield the former whiteness. We're still working on it.

Other than canine carsickness, the drive went really well. My favorite part of it was the Columbia River Gorge. That's a beautiful drive, and the weather was great for it. We stopped for a short hike at Multnomah Falls, and then drove on. I sang along with the stereo for hours, practicing my classical italian vocal technique as I soaked up the evening sun on the prairies of south eastern Washington. :-)