Arizona

We awoke early among the giant trees, packed up (ie. put dog in truck), and started a long push eastward. Along the way, we spent one night in Nevada where it was all I could do to keep Oscar away from the slot machines! The next morning we crossed over Hoover Dam into Arizona. The Wonder Egg seems to be enjoying the view of the Lake Mead side of the dam.

Traveling on down to Lake Havasu City, AZ to visit Roger & Pat, we took time to drop by the London Bridge (which is no longer falling down). Built in 1831, it was slowly sinking into the clay of the Thames River under its own immense weight. It was purchased by Robert McCulloch for $2.4 million and moved brick by brick all the way from jolly old England. Oscar insisted I drive the Wonder Egg across London Bridge twice while he hung his head out the window and whistled the famous nursery rhyme. Everybody stared . . . the world is his stage, he is such a ham . . .
The evening was pleasant and cool with a beautiful sunset on display over Lake Havasu.
The next day, Roger, Oscar & I took a trip down old Route 66 to visit Oatman, AZ. Along the way we passed Ed's Kamp and the Kactus Kaffe. I'm sure it saw better business before the interstate highway was built.
A quaint little town rich with western flavor, Oatman is renown for the donkeys visiting main street to eat carrots out of the hands of tourists. Anyone see a tourist around here?

Sequoia National Park

A couple nights ago, I helped Oscar fulfill another of his canine dreams. I took him to see the worlds largest living thing . . . a tree . . . a very, BIG, tree . . . "General Sherman" in the Sequoia National Park.

Getting to "General Sherman" required 20 miles of continuous switchbacks at 10mph climbing to nearly 8000 feet elevation.
But the climb was worth it. Oscar couldn't believe the size of that giant. The trees he saw in the Redwoods may have been taller, but the amount of space taken up by the 275 foot General Sherman makes it the most massive living thing on the planet! He was speechless. Here's a view of the tree from far away . . . it's the one in the middle and it's more than a football field away, across a field.

Soon, we were settled down at camp. As Oscar soaked up the view, I relaxed with a good book.All of a sudden, Oscar put on his "big dog growl" just as a large, hungry coyote was about 50 feet from us . . . As I stood up, the coyote saw me and ran back to the road, turning around for another look at what he figured was just a foo foo dog on a rope waiting to be eaten. Little did he know he'd be mixing it up with the Sasquatch killer, Oscar the Brave! (after this encounter, I put Oscar in the trailer for the coyote's safety)
We didn't let a wild animal spoil our trip to the sequoias. Two of Oscar's favorite things were walking through a tree . . .and driving between two of the Giant Sequoias on our way down the long, winding road. You can see the Wonder Egg liked it too! (The trailer looks like a toy next to those giant trees)

More of the Oliver Travel Trailer family

Oscar is saying farewell to Steve and Elizabeth, of Sacramento, CA. Lifelong campers, they picked up their Oliver in July and look forward to heading out to the great American outdoors in style . . . Steve will be using it to attend astronomical viewings, far away from light sources and up where the air is clear.

Now, Oscar is saying hello to Roger and Pat, of Lake Havasu City, AZ. As we were topping off with fresh water, another Oliver pulled up beside us! This is a very unusual event since Olivers have only been for sale about a year and their numbers are still growing . . . Oscar made such a hit he's been invited to their house for a stopover! We'll be going there tonight! The Oliver Travel Trailer "family" sure is a friendly one.

:)

Two amazing women and the wonder dog . . .

As Oscar & I camped beneath the redwoods, he struck up a conversation with two amazing ladies in the campsite next to ours. Doris was a retired owner of a health food store in Germany, and Ann was a biologist from England who was on a year's sabbatical. They were long distance cyclists who met just that day on the road. Ann was following the coastal highway from Seattle, WA and I think Oscar said Doris' epic started in Boston, MA!! They carried all they needed for food and shelter in saddle packs on their bikes. My hat is tipped to these determined women. Ann had a slightly injured knee, so we gave her a lift down the road a bit to help her catch up to another friend. As we motored down through the redwoods, Ann and I could hear Oscar muttering something about how big and strong HE could be. All of a sudden, his paw hit the window down button and he LEAPED out of the rear window yelling "Hiiiiiiyakaaaa!!!" I pulled the Wonder Egg over and we could hear a loud rustling coming from the bushes. Then out comes Oscar, proudly displaying his death defying capture of the ever elusive Sasquach! That's right, ladies, and gentleman, Bigfoot has been captured, stuffed, and mounted by none other than Oscar the Brave. We even have the picture to prove it. (Thanks, Ann) This bear cub wanted to have his picture taken with "Oscar, the Bigfoot Wrestler" so he'd have proof to show his bear buddies.

So many Redwoods . . . So little time . . .

Poor Oscar. I had him blow into a brown paper bag to stop hyperventilating after telling him about the Redwoods. I almost had to give him the bag again as we entered the forest, but he said he could handle it.

Our first night amongst the Giants was at Jedediah Smith State Park, where we relaxed in the evening to some Native American flute music and Irish whistle whafting through the trees.

Then we moved down to the Humbolt Redwoods State Park, along the Avenue of Giants!
Oscar couldn't stand it . . . he grabbed the leash, put it on and said "Times wasting Pete! Let's get a move on!!!" Off we went through a doggy heaven of 600-700 year old trees everywhere you could lift a leg.

Here were two of Oscar's favorites. He'll have happy dreams for years just thinking of them!He looked so proud standing next to this one - like he was claiming it for his own!

On the way back to the campsite, Oscar found this cool tree that started to grow waaaaaay back in 1148 AD. It was 300 feet tall and 839 years old when it fell in 1987. It weighed 650,000 lbs!!!! That's an awful lot for a 13 lb dog to water . . . Oscar was sure he'd be up to the task. (yeah, right)
So that was our trip to the Redwood Forest. It is very humbling to walk among these giant sentinels who have stood firm over the test of time. Kind of puts our brief moments on earth in perspective. We'd better make the best of them. Oscar & I are working on it . . . time to head eastbound, towards home . . .