September 16, 2009 – Albany, OR

Hi, it’s me, I’m back on the blog again! Oh, you say I’ve got some ‘splainin to do? Well, I guess I do. Some of you (the sane portion of my followers) may have looked at my last post and came to the conclusion that I was delusional and ready for the doggy looney bin. Well, I was a little crazy; from boredom! Aside from a nice walk in a woodsy area with Don in the morning, we did almost nothing all day! Oh, a little cleaning, a little shopping, but nothing involving ME! So, when it came time to do the blog, and Don asked me what I wanted to say, I just made up a bunch of stuff that I had dreamed of before, things that I hoped might happen some day. At first, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it, as he didn’t want people to think that he hung out with a crazy retriever. I cajoled him, and told him to have another scotch, and finally he relented and typed up my stories, and sent them to the blog. When he re-read them the next morning, he had unkind words for me for making him publish such garbage. Well, I thought it was kinda fun, and, besides, what else was I going to say? That I laid around all day watching them do next to nothing? Phooey on that!

The next day, I got to stay with Gary at his house while Geri and Don went with Carol and Mikey into Seattle for some sightseeing. I enjoy time with Gary now, since he treats me much more nicely than he did when I was an untrained puppy. Boy, those were tough times. He actually shows some respect now for my good manners and my knowledge of worldly things. We went for a very good walk on one of my favorite paths, and several squirrels were foolish enough to cross my path; put a good scare into them! When the sightseers returned, they told me about visiting the Pike Place Market, where guys throw big fish around and there is every kind of food in the world to eat. Wonder why they didn’t take me? They also went on a tour of Underground Seattle, down in the oldest part of town. They explained to me that after most of the buildings had been constructed there, the city decided to raise the level of the streets, so that the lower story of all the buildings would now be underground and abandoned. Don loves to go on this tour, because it connects him with his distant cousins, the Denny brothers, who founded Seattle back in the 1850’s. He’s also told me about some of the adventures that he’s had in Seattle many years ago, but he’s made me promise not to tell Geri about them.

Yesterday, we spent the whole day over at Gary’s; Geri spent a lot of time trying to tame the roses in his front yard, but it proved to be too overwhelming a job. Gary made a batch of pizzelle, an Italian cookie that he’s kind of famous for, and taught Don how to make them. They had Ezell’s Famous Chicken for dinner; Geri said that some well-known person called Oprah has this stuff flown to wherever she is when she isn’t dieting. I didn’t get much of any of it.

Today we broke camp and left Lake Pleasant RV Resort. I’ve enjoyed it here, even when there wasn’t anything to do. It’s very quiet, the ducks are nice, and there’s great grass for rolling. Can’t complain. We hit the road about eleven, stopped for fuel in Tacoma, and headed south for Oregon again. We finally came to a halt here in Albany. Wonder why we stopped here? Could food have anything to do with it? For sure! This is the site of Novak’s Hungarian Bakery and Restaurant, a place they discovered years ago, and they will plan their itinerary around a stop in Albany, just to be able to eat at Novak’s. They came back from dinner bloated and speaking unintelligibly, with paprika oozing out of their pores. It was a little off-putting. It was tough working with Don to put this blog entry together, because he kept falling asleep. But we managed. Tomorrow we’re off for the coast, destination Port Orford. I’ll try to let you know how it goes.