July 30, Ogden and Layton UT (Jim).   An internet friend, Terry, invited Annie and me for a morning hike up Adams Canyon above Layton.  It was a beautiful morning and a great hike, so Terry took lots of pictures.   Our objective was to make it up to the famous waterfall, but apparently we stopped short of our goal. 

July 29, Park City UT (Jim).  I had a two-day retreat to attend, so Annie got another crack at Domination of Ruffledale Pet Resort.  I dropped her off Thursday, July 28, and things started off badly because I forgot her thyroid meds so I had to go back home to get them.  That made me late for my retreat, which was up in Park City, which should be an hour's drive away but is not if you take I-84.  I was mad because I had left myself plenty of time and then used up my extra time and then used up other people's time, but I eventually found the Park City Marriott and we got things started.

(Just an aside here.  Some time ago, in my "old" job, someone wrote a report that said our objective was to deliver "enervating" lectures to medical students.  I don't think that was the word that was meant.  Maybe the author meant "innervating" but that's not quite right either.  It was funny to me, though.)

So, we had a productive two days at our retreat, and I was jazzed and — dare I say it — energized by the experience.  Not at all enervated, and not even innervated.  Energized.   The only bad thing was that we didn't get to have lunch at the Blind Dog because they don't open until 5 pm.  I got done with the retreat about 2 pm, and based on a tip from Chris Millard, this time I went back through Salt Lake on I-80 and I-15 instead of taking I-84.  So, I actually made it down to Ruffledale in about an hour.

While I was driving, this incredible thing happened.  Liquid water fell from the sky.  It made little drops on my windshield.  They say it's rain, but it's nothing like Mississippi rain.  It hasn't rained here in 63 days, they say, so that means it hasn't rained since I moved here.

Back to Ruffledale to get Annie, and there she is in the "living room" area under a desk, having apparently achieved her goal of Domination and now taking a well-deserved rest.  I'm going to take a picture of her greeting me — but where is my digital camera?  At the Park City Marriott, of course.  So, after a brief decision-making process, I decide to schlep back to Park City and get my camera.  That bites.  The good part of it was, Annie got to see Park City and have her picture taken in front of the Blind Dog.  She enjoyed the ride up in the mountains, as well.

A Blind Dog and a Double-Masked Female

July 21-25, Jackson MS and Layton UT (Jim).  This was Annie's first big boarding experience since moving to her Pioneer Cabin.  On Wednesday, July 20, I took her by Ruffledale in Layton, about a half-hour drive southwest of the Ogden home.  The trip was just to spend the day, so she could get used to the idea of being boarded and be confident that I would come back to get her.

On Thursday, she was pretty happy in the car with her seat belt harness and getting to ride shotgun.  We went in with her bed and toys, and got her settled into her room.  Then, as I drove away, the last thing I saw was her staring through the window at me, so I waved merrily and drove off. 

That made me sad and worried though, so I called Ruffledale a couple of times on the trip out to Jackson just to check on her.  They were nice about that.

Rosemary's got the details of the Jackson trip below, so I won't go into that much more than to say that I was sorry to have ridden on the Pharoah, but not sorry that I got to spend time with Jenny.  Her center of gravity is much closer to the seat of the Pharoah ride than mine was. 

Back to Ogden on Monday, which was a Pioneer Day holiday here.  Annie was hanging out in the "living room" with the other dogs, and seemed to have achieved World Domination which probably made her happy.  She was grinning from ear to ear as we left, so I think she was happy to have stayed there but even happier to go.

Riding Shotgun

Annie's Room

Come Back, Dammit

Dad!  Get Me Out of Here!

Let's Go Now.

July 27, Jackson, MS (Rosemary).  Our internet friends from England, the Skipper family (Alison, John, and daughters Jenny and Ellen) stayed with us for a few days as part of their "Southeastern US experience" and we had a great time!  They had made these plans a long time ago and Jim flew back from Ogden to spend a few days with all of us.

We took the Skippers to the Neshoba County Fair outside of Philadelphia (MS).  It was HOT as only Mississippi can be in mid-summer and we were having a heat wave besides!

They looked at the prize-winning crafts and produce (in an air-conditioned building), ate lunch at a cabin belonging to an acquaintence of ours, and watched the mule races as well as the pacers and trotters.  Jenny and Ellen liked the petting zoo ("Petty Zoo" according to the published schedule of activities.)  and wanted to take chicks and bunnies home to England with them.  Since mom is a veterinarian, her official "NO WAY" carried extra clout.

Can you spot 3 of 4 British tourists?

Jenny likes scarey rides and Jim likes Jenny, so he went on the Pharaoh ride with her.  I noticed that he didn't rush to join her on any rides after that.  Her father accompanied her on an even worse ride which Jenny enjoyed immensely.  As John staggered off it, I asked if he'd foreseen doing this when his first daughter was born.

Happy Jenny and a sorry Jim ride the Pharaoh.

Ellen and Roxy play tug.

Jenny is wearing a shirt that would never be found here: "Girls have more brains than boys."

The reason you can't see her from the waist down, according to Jim, is because she's wearing camouflage.

Jenny and Roxy tug too!

John also misses his cattledogs.

July 17, Ogden, Utah (Jim).  I don't have enough room in my office at work for all my books.  There is no need for most of them, so I re-packed them on Friday (which was a drag in itself) and since Diana was gone, I decided to make a wall around her desk.  That was pretty funny, and it didn't matter, since I was going to go up to work on Saturday and retrieve them. 

Unfortunately for me, the campus was closed off on Saturday afternoon for the Sunday fireworks show and pops concert.  They told us about closing the buildings on Sunday, but I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to take a car on campus Saturday afternoon.  Oh well.  No choice but to go in early Monday and clear out The Great Wall of Diana so she can actually work.  Plus, it's pretty ugly so I don't want everyone at work to have to look at it for much longer.

I did manage to coax the camera to work in "fireworks mode" and the resulting photos are here.  These photos are taken from our deck.  It's pretty cool to be able to watch and enjoy a fireworks show without having to leave home or worry about parking.  It will probably be midnight before all the cars get cleared out and everyone gets to go home.

Annie had a good day today.  We went to an agility trial down in Farmington, hung out for a while, and met some other cattle dog people.  Debbie Jacques, Marley, and Rita from Montrose, Colorado were there.  She thinks I am "famous" and I suppose that's slightly better than "infamous".  Rita is her puppy, about 7 months old, and so cute that I almost wanted another cattle dog puppy.  She had some good runs with Marley, who is 4 years old.  Annie is really enjoying visiting agility trials without actually having to work — especially since it involves a rousing game of fetch out on the lawn. 

Today was much cooler than yesterday, so she also enjoyed tooling around in the Subaru watching from the shotgun seat.

On the way back we stopped at Grounds for Coffee on Highway 89, which is in a little trailer I had not seen before amongst the fruit stands.  I asked for a cup of water for Annie, and the barista said, "bring her in", so I did.  There were biscuits and obedience "tricks" involved.  The "finish" was a big hit.  Then we went out on the deck to enjoy the gorgeous weather and view. 

I've almost got the boxes unpacked.  I spent some time organizing stuff in the garage, and getting the tools and stuff organized and mounted on the wall.  I cleared out the "spare" rooms that I'm not currently using, and have almost finished unpacking all the boxes.  I had made quite a mess of bills and paperwork on the kitchen counter, so I got that all picked up and filed away.  It's beginning to look, and feel, like a home now. 

Rosemary sends along this photo of a Roxy-related injury.  I just want to state, for the record, that I was 1900 miles away when this injury occurred.  I did not do it. 

Fireworks on the Job

Eye Didn't Do It

The I-frame.

Dylan, hypnotized by his toy.

July 10, Sandy, Utah (Jim).  Annie feels much better today: she got to attend an agility trial.  Wasatch Agility was having a USDAA trial in Sandy, so we headed down so I could work and hang with my peeps.  It's all good.  I bought Annie a tennis ball tug toy and she got swung around and yanked and I threw it for her and we walked around and said hello to everyone and it was generally fun times.  So now she is resting peacefully in the kneehole of the desk as I type this.  She was so tired that she was resting her chin on my hand while I was trying to shift gears in the car on the way home.

July 9, Ogden, Utah (Jim).  See, I promised Annie after the Continental Divide pictures that there would be no more Pioneer Annie photos.  She was sorely pissed at having to wear that stupid bonnet (no matter that it's called a 'Poke Bonnet' and she is 'Poke Salad Annie').  I swore that if she just maintained for the Continental Divide photo, that I would lay off the stupid Pioneer Annie pictures.

Then, near the house, this wagon appeared to promote Ogden's upcoming Pioneer Day festivities. 

(For non-Utahns, or those who aren't even sure what happened to the vowels in 'Utahn', Pioneer Day commemorates the arrival of Brigham Young's party through Emigration Canyon.  I think it should be called 'Immigration Canyon', but I digress.  Pioneer Day is traditionally July 24 but that falls on a Sunday this year, so we are celebrating Pioneer Day on the 25th.)

So, Annie was subjected to one more set of Pioneer Annie pictures.  It's the last group, I swear.  Really.

Annie has been fairly glum.  She's never moved before, and she's not sure what caused all this disruption in her world.  Worst, she has no minions to subjugate.  She perked up a little when we went out to Weber's Animal Day this morning.  She got to do the out and back on the catwalk thing, so it stimulated her latent Doggie Supermodel juices.  But what really made her Saturday worthwhile was finding that a bucket of toys had followed her 1900 miles to Utah.  Oh Bliss!   Tonight, she got to play with the glow-in-the-dark ball.

After the pictures, we went out for a drive as I had a couple of short errands to run.  It's traditional for me to get totally lost after moving to a new city, and I carried out that tradition.  The bad news was, we ended up in Fruit Heights and Kaysville when we wanted Layton.  The good news was, that Kaysville has a burger joint named "Dylan's" with a little train engine logo.  So it made the RoxyLog.

Imagine my surprise and disgust when the Miss Clinton pageant was cancelled tonight.  I made it all the way out to Roy High School, home of the Roy Royals, and I even asked for directions which of course diminishes me as a man.  (I was looking for the Large Auditorium and I only found the baseball diamond, so Coach Randall pointed me in the right direction.  Coaches are still very large men who can break you in half, even when you are 29 years past high school.)

If anyone knows where I can get a "Utah...but I'm taller" t-shirt, please let me know.  I struck out on a Google search.

Pioneer Annie Finds Her Wagon,

Already Painted

Paradise Found

Dylan Owns a Burger Joint

July 7, Ogden, Utah (Jim).  It's taken a while, due to a lack of Internet access (don't ask), but here are the pictures from the last leg of the trip.

Yesterday morning, Annie went into one of the spare bedrooms and started barking wildly.  Thinking that some intruder had arrived, I went in to see what was the matter.  It was a pair of ski gloves.  It seems she had mistaken the gloves for a huge black spider and was protecting me from this Evil Foe.

Annie was bored most of the trip, but did get excited when we pulled into the driveway of her new home.

We marked the crossing of the Great Divide (see song references in last month's Roxylog) by taking a final Pioneer Annie photo, with poke bonnet.  A little-known geographic fact: I-80 actually crosses the Continental Divide twice.  The divide splits and forms a Divide Basin through southern Wyoming.  I didn't think Annie would sit still for two Great Divide photos, so we took just the one.

Before that, we stopped at a wind farm halfway between Rawlings and Laramie while Annie pondered a career change. 

Evil Black Ski Gloves

This Is the Place

O Bored Pioneer! Day 4:

Annie Catches a Cool Breeze from the A/C

Pioneer Annie Astride the Divide

Pioneer Annie Considers Wind Farming

July 5, Jackson, Mississippi (Rosemary).  Jim and Annie report that they have arrived safely in Ogden, UTAH.  This Ogden has mountains and a big salty lake.  I'll let Jim fill in the details, but everything is unloaded thanks to many helpers.  Annie thinks her new house is neat! and when she saw the back yard with HER agility equipment in it, she started gamboling around like a puppy with a huge grin on her face.  "I didn't know this place had bathroom facilities too!"  Annie also wants everyone to note that she no longer has to wear that stupid bonnet.   "Why couldn't it have been Trucker Annie and Pioneer Jim?", she says.

July 2, Lakewood, Colorado 9 pm (Jim).   Pioneer Annie and I made it to the Denver area about 5:30 pm.  Crossing the Kansas prairie was both boring and terrifying.  There was a lot of wind and the truck got kicked around a good deal.  The gas mileage is hideous — between 7 and 9 mpg depending on whether I am climbing hills or not.  It's not fast, either.  True, I'm making frequent stops to take pictures of Pioneer Annie, but we are taking about 12 hours to make drives that normally can be done in 8 hours.  I will have to adjust my departure time on Tuesday to make sure I reach Weber before close of business.

The next two days and three nights will be spent here in the Denver area where I grew up.

At about 5 pm, we made it to Castle Rock, Colorado, and Pioneer Annie posed for yet another picture in front of the titular rock.

Pioneer Annie Discovers Castle Rock

Outside Kiowa, Colorado, Pioneer Annie was the first to spot Pike's Peak.  (Or, for Duane, we'll call it 'Pike Peak' since Zebulon Pike was an explorer and not a mountain.)  You can't see it in this picture, but it's there on the horizon.  We were about 50 miles out when we spotted it, which was a thrill for me.  There were thunderstorms popping up also, which made for an interesting cloud pattern. 

Pioneer Annie Spots Pike's Peak

One feature of the prairie that the pioneers never had to contend with is the roadside attraction.  Pioneer Annie insisted that we stop and see the five-legged cow (I could swear some of the signs said it was a 6-legged cow, but I digress).  When we got to Prairie Dog Village, however, all we found was a dog.  Annie says she knew already that she was a dog.

Annie the Dog

Annie quickly got bored again and slept most of the way through Kansas.

O Bored Pioneer! Day 3

Every freeway entrance in Kansas has a sign like the one at right.  I'm not sure, but I think since Annie was being driven to Utah that her presence on I-70 was illegal.

Illegal Annie

Our first misadventure happened when Pioneer Annie insisted on getting off at the Ogden exit from I-70.  It seemed too short a drive for me, but she said, "This is the place" so we drove up to the Ogden City Limits.  The lack of mountains or a Great Salt Lake was a quick tipoff, though, and she and I both ascertained that we had the wrong Ogden.  A quick survey of the locals confirmed that Ogden, Kansas has no Weber State University (although Kansas State is just up the road, in the other Manhattan) and no Edgehill Drive.

I Told You This Was the Wrong Ogden

July 2, Topeka, Kansas 6 am (Jim).  Up and at 'em, and Annie and I are ready to hit the road.  Spent a lovely evening with Royce and DeeDee Rose and their houseguest Tina Moran. 

Pioneer Annie Watches the Sun Rise

on the Agility Prairie

Jim and Pioneer Annie

July 1, Topeka, Kansas (Jim).  Annie is bored with the Pioneer Life.  She has given up on her struggle with The Evil Seat Belt Harness, and now is trying to rest up for the trip.  She started laying her head on the center console, the better to get a cool breeze from the air conditioning vent.  So I cleared off all my stuff and put a towel down for her as a pillow for her chin.

Nothing of note happened today, except that I have 800 miles of the 1800 mile trip knocked off.  I stopped at a Wal-Mart in Cape Girardeau, Missouri for some pioneer supplies (a favorite bumper sticker of mine: "Mall-Wart: Your Source for Cheap Plastic Crap").  Wow, that is a weird weird town.  What a benighted place.  Not as peculiar as Peculiar, Missouri, but awfully close.  The guy at the sporting goods counter took umbrage because I made note of the knives with "assisted opening" blades.  I told him in my day, we called those switchblades.  He said, "they're not technically switchblades", although he could not articulate the exact difference.  So we agreed to disagree.

July 1, Jackson, Mississippi (Rosemary).  Without Pioneer Princess Annie around to keep everything running PROPERLY, Roxy has quickly started to copy Dylan's sleeping habits. 

June 30, Blytheville, Arkansas (Jim).  Pioneer Annie and I set out about 2 pm.  There was a delay while I looked up and down the truck before even leaving Jackson; I heard some sort of rubbing noise and I couldn't figure out what it was.  Turns out it was the mudflaps, which were relatively new and dragging on the pavement.  I did find a set of Vice-Grips someone had left in the wheel well. 

I was about 10 miles downrange when I figured out I had loaded Annie's Cabana Crate (collapsable travel crate) in the front of the cargo area by mistake.  I also forgot to take my sunglasses in the cab with me.  So, I pulled over in lovely Vaughan, Mississippi, got the sunglasses (which were in back, near the door, where I had left them) and climbed to the top of a stack of boxes and such and began body-surfing the narrow space between the roof and the cargo.  Finally, I got to where the Cabana Crate was located (lucky me! I remembered its location!) and pulled it out.  That was the most exciting thing that happened so far.

Annie loves to let the air conditioning blow in her face while she rides with her seat belt on.  Jim has his iPod, so they are both happy on the drive.  We share snacks; Annie especially likes carrots.

Before we left, we found a huge Manduca moth on the wall of the carport.  It must be some kind of portent, although I don't know of what.  For size comparison, note the ladybug on the right.

We are spending the night here in Blytheville, on I-55 north of Memphis.  It's about 5 hours north of Jackson.  Tomorrow night, we'll be in Topeka.  This motel has wireless high-speed internet, so I can upload and post my pictures from the trip so far.

June 30, Jackson, Mississippi (Rosemary). This morning, we loaded a Budget 15' rental truck for Jim and Annie's trip to Utah.  First on was agility equipment from the Dog Wash field, followed by household and office goods.  Dawna, Erin, and Jesse Cox came by and helped.

Fortunately, Jim got the one Ford truck on the lot with a cab just like our own van, so he won't have to hunt for the headlight and wiper controls.  Just as we were about to collapse from hauling boxes, Kathy and Jenise came over from Jim's office to say goodbye to Annie and Jim. This gave us a great excuse to sit down for a little while.  They also got to see Roxy and Dylan play Boomer Ball.  Jim burned enough calories hauling and lifting boxes that he was able to spring for a WhataBurger for lunch. Their motto is "There's one near you", but we don't know if that means they're in Utah or "If you're reading this there's obviously one near you."  Jim LOVES WhataBurger.

After lunch, Jim and pioneer Annie put their seatbelts on and headed off for the far West.  Annie was awfully glad to ditch the sunbonnet so she could get down to the business of riding shotgun.

June 30.  The RoxyLog has two parts now.  I will contribute my posts from the road, and from Ogden when I get there; Rosemary will publish to the page from Jackson.  Each will be datelined (i.e., have a place name), and mine will be in Arial (this font), while Rosemary's will be in Times Roman.

O Bored Pioneers!

Standards slip in Annie's absence.

Pioneer Annie Crosses the Mississippi

Pioneer Annie Has All the Comforts of Home

Pioneer Annie Prepares to Leave

Portentious Moth

A Uniquely Southern Problem

(actually, Rosemary took this on our trip back from the agility trial in Monroe, Louisiana last Sunday)

Pioneer Annie

Pioneer Annie and Trucker Jim