Dorothy, we're not in New Hampshire anymore (Keira)

Alright, this road trip thing is kinda cool.  The camper feels like a tiny house and mom and dad let me sleep on the couch all the time now.  I get to see all kinds of new places and smell all kinds of weird things.  This past month I got to spend time with new people who fed me table scraps when mom wasn't looking and doted on how exceptionally cute I am with my new haircut.  So, all in all, I'm digging it. 

But something weird is in the air.  I grew up with trees and lakes and oceans and suddenly, we were here.

Badlands National Park!

It smells funny here and I can't stop snorting to take it all in.  And holy crap it's been hot.  Good thing I get to sit in the air conditioning while mom and dad go off hiking in this sweatfest.  After a few days in this weird place, we took a drive and YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT I SAW.  Tiny animals sitting up on the dirt and squeaking!  Oh, what fun I would have had if mom hadn't kept me contained.  Like a crazy game of Wack-A-Mole.  Talk about enrichment - I could have run for hours trying to eat these so called "prairie dogs" while they squealed and then dove in their holes. 

Nom Nom Nom

 

After a few hours of this frustration, we arrived at Wind Cave National Park just south of the Black Hills.  On the way, we passed by these really large and hairy dogs.  (I think I heard mom call them "bison".)  They were a bit big so I waited until we were driving away to start growling.  Hey, I know what I can take on!  Unfortunately, the 'rents are now doing this crazy tour of the National Parks and most of them won't let dogs hike on the trails - boooooo - so I'm relegated to the campground and roads.  But I have the best mom so she's now doing these things called "two-a-days" so I can go running but she can go hiking later.  We get up real early when it's still cool out so I can stretch my legs.

See.  Best mom eva.

Well, let me tell you something.  This morning we went for a run on the park road.  Mom seemed a bit on edge, constantly scanning the environment and making sure she remembered the mace.  I was happy as could be now that I was real close to those prairie dogs.  Suddenly, a car pulled over in front of us and I heard this nice lady say, "Dear, how far are ya going?  Cuz there's about 200 bison around the next curve and they'll eat your dog."

I could take one or two but not hundreds.

Well, that was the end of that - we turned right around (mom hates out-and-back runs so this was a big deal) and suddenly the pace was a bit faster.  As we turned onto the road where the campground was, I realized why she was scared.  There were two of those big, hairy dogs just staring at us.  Mom looked at the road, looked at the bison, looked at her mace and told me to "RUN".  So we went at an all out sprint until we got to the campground. 

Stupid hairy dog



Mom looked like she was going to vomit from running so hard but I thought it was a good time.  So I guess I can see now why dogs can't go hiking - mom and dad had to leave the trail twice today to avoid this:

Dog with antlers.

And this:

Bison right on the trail.  Can you imagine?

Not to mention the rattlesnakes.  So I'm content to just be the campground guard dog.