There's No Place Like Home!

Well, it turned out I was a little too hopeful. Mom and Dad drove as hard as they could, but the day kept getting longer and the traffic kept getting worse.
When we hit Newark New Jersey I looked out the window and it was crazy! We were driving on a 4 or 5 lane highway with 4 or 5 lanes on the other side, and right next to us was ANOTHER 8 or 10 lane double highway. By now I was just hoping the woman in the GPS would somehow get us through it ... but she did.
We went over the George Washington Bridge which was really cool, and my dad was saying it was one of the coolest bridges in the world and he'd loved it since he was a little kid. Then there was more traffic craziness but the GPS woman got us through it again and we were heading up into Connecticut on the Hutchinson and then the Merrit Parkways. My dad was saying that things got more mellow there.
Meantime the GPS was showing us getting home at 1:30 a.m. which none of us was looking forward to, believe me, between the cats getting excited and having to unpack the car. Then people started getting REALLY crazy on the parkway, including one time when we were doing 60 and a guy passed us at 75 on the left at the same time as a guy passed us about 90 on the right in the BREAKDOWN LANE!!! and Mom says to Dad I'm scared and tired, I want to stop, and much to our surprise he says yes.
So we ended up staying in a very nice Quality Motel just north of Hartford, getting to bed by 12:00 and I let everybody sleep until 7:00.
Today we woke up feeling good, a cool morning but the skies very clear, and got to our home at about 10:30. Actually I was a little surprised, because I had kind of thought that maybe this car/motel business was going to be my life ... but I was very happy and excited! and ran around a lot, and the cats ran around a lot.
When Mom and Dad opened the car, it almost exploded. Dad added it all up, and in 12 days we drove 6016 miles.
Later we went up to Meredith, NH to Grandpa and Grandma's where we were all glad to see each other, and they had a big Easter dinner and I ate what I could find.
Good to be back!
This ends my "Sundance Goes to Sundance" blog and thank you all for reading it! I've enjoyed being a blogging dog, and plan to do it again sometime soon.
Love,
Sundance and the Two Banditos

Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Right now we're riding in the car in West Virginia, on our way home!!! I'm writing this now because I'm told we'll be getting in around one in the morning and nobody will be doing any blogging.
One reason we're running so late is that after last night's party festivities, Dad stayed up to fix the GPS cord so now the woman is back, but in consideration of my sensibilities Dad has her turned down, and anyway we pretty much know how to get there. But we were slow getting going this morning and didn't drive away until 9:00.
(We just crossed over the Potomac River which I'm told is very important to our government, and now we're in Maryland.)
We drove through eastern Tennessee in beautiful sunshine and farms on all sides with a lot more of those cows. Then we crossed into Virginia, with low hills and more cows -- in fact, it was pretty much cows all day, with a few sheep and horses mixed in. Around noon we came to the city of Roanoke, and I hate to say it but I really did appreciate all the electronic gear, because Dad started up Mom's laptop computer and her radio broadband connection and got on the Internet and looked up Roanoke, got on the city's website, found a walking tour of downtown Roanoke, wrote down the name of a street, put it in the GPS, turned up the volume on the woman and before you could even figure out what was happening, we were walking around this really cool old downtown marketplace with people selling stuff out of booths -- plants and fruits and vegetables and candles and photographs and more candles.
(We just crossed over into Pennsylvania. Didn't see much of Maryland.)
Dad made me and Mom pose in front of a wiener sign. (I hate those jokes!) Then they had lunch and I had some of Dad's barbecue sandwich because I can leap so high, and to pay him back for the wiener photograph. I made friends with a Boston Terrier who was a little shy, but still nice.
Then it was back in the car and we spent the rest of the day in Virginia. Mom looked at the map and said we drove the longest distance it was possible to drive in Virginia and still stay on one road. The little hills became mountains running up either side of the valley we were in, including the Blue Ridge Mountains. Once we got out of Virginia, Mom and Dad stopped at a chilly picnic table and had some more birthday cake and I had dinner. Now it's snoozing as we drive into the night.
It sure will be good to sleep in our own bed and to see my friends the cats!!!
Sundance and the Two Banditos

To Make Trip Shorter I Chomped the Cord!

Yesterday was WAY too much! We ended up driving more than 900 miles, with that woman in the GPS talking the whole way. This morning started off the same way, and so I chomped the GPS power cord. She didn't shut up at first, I guess it has batteries, but by tonight she was gone. Mom and Dad weren't too happy, so I did other projects and slept.
We left Santa Fe yesterday very early and drove out of the nice hills into more and more flat country. It got more and more windy, and we saw these big white windmills all over the place making electricity out of wind -- which you have to admit is pretty cool. At one point, we pulled off the highway so Dad could get some pictures of the big huge windmills.
We got into Oklahoma and immediately pulled off into a welcome station, and I felt really welcome: they had a big caged area where I could run around without a leash and smell, and let me tell you, I could write a book about the smells! I wish other states made me feel this welcome, but they don't.
We then drove throught Oklahoma, where there were an awful lot of cows, which I think I know what they are but I've never really seen one up close. Overall, I was pretty happy to snooze in the car after a couple of hard days hiking. It got really windy, pushing the car around, so the windmills made sense.
Then it was up to Dad to drive the extra four hours through Arkansas to get to a place called Little Rock. There was a very pretty almost-full moon but I didn't see much of it, being asleep.
We found a very nice Super 8 motel, our favorite kind, and went to sleep about midnight, but I guess I didn't give Mom and Dad a very good sleep because as you know I wake up at 5:30.
Today has been Mom's birthday and we've all been excited about that. She and Dad managed to convince me to go back to sleep until about 6:30. Then we headed out of Arkansas into Tennessee. I guess there has been a lot of rain because all the rivers were overflowing, and a lot of low fields were flooded.
We went over this HUGE river called the Mississippi about 10:30 and got out of the car in this really cool city Memphis. We walked down and up this famous Beale Street, and then Mom went into this very famous Peabody Hotel where she was just in time to see these very famous ducks come out of the elevator and parade down to a fountain where they spend their days. Mom says there were hundreds of tourists snapping photos. I wasn't allowed in which was probably just as well, since I might have eaten one of the ducks.
We also had a tourist offer to take a picture of the three of us in front of a statue of this very famous guitarist Elvis.
Then we drove most of the afternoon to Nashville, and stopped to shop for dinner at a Whole Foods in this Hillsboro neighborhood where everybody seemed very rich and there were a lot of expensive stores. I was ADORED by mothers and children, but Mom and Dad seemed glad to get out of there.
We drove past dark and found another cool Super 8 close to the Virginia border, where we had a birthday feast for Mom. She and Dad had a yellow cake with extravagant butter cream frosting which they said was terrific, but of course dogs don't get that kind of thing!!!
It was amazing in Tennessee, green grass everywhere and people in shorts and sandels -- something I don't think I've ever seen! However, Mom and Dad tell me tomorrow that we're going back to New Hampshire, where there's just as much snow as when we left.
Oh well.
Sundance and the Two Banditos

From Hiking Tent Rocks to Picking Sage on the Rio Grande!

I have been a very busy dog today. We got up early and drove on this really bumpy road to a place called Tent Rocks for a hike. We got there and then climbed up through these really wild, winding canyons with these really weird rocks that looked like cones. I figured I was going to be a hiking dog again and so I ran and jumped my way up ... and then we were at the very top. It was pretty amazing, huge mountains everywhere I looked, not to mention smells of birds and squirrels and coyotes.
We headed back down and there were dozens and dozens of kids coming up; I was glad we got up ahead of them and had some quiet time to enjoy the view.
Then we went back into Santa Fe and Mom did some shopping for jeans; she got some she liked. We then went up north to near the town Taos, where we headed into the Rio Grande gorge because Mom knows this place to pick fresh sage, which she later sells at the same places we sell jewelry. She found great sage. Meanwhile, Dad took me down to the bank of the Rio Grande where I dug the best holes ever!! There was all this cool grass and I started nosing into it, and then I just had to dig, and then there was all this grass and bushes and I had to burrow under that, then there was another place where I had to dig and snort and then and dig and snort and ... well, I won't bore you with all the dog details, but it was a great time.
I'm not tired tonight. Other than I keep falling asleep all the time.
Sudance and the Two Banditos

The Rug!

Thought you might like to see the $12,000 rug!
Sundance and the two banditos

My First Hike !!!!!!

We've landed in Santa Fe, and today I had my first hike ever, in the hills called Cerillos, south of here.
Last night I was too tired to write anything, so here's what happened yesterday. Mom and Dad spent the day buying Indian jewelry for their traveling shop "Turquoise Trail Traders." The first stop was a place called Turneys, which only sells wholesale to dealers, and you sit in a booth and they bring boxes full of little paper bags full of jewelry. Mom and Dad pretty much pick out which each one wants and hope that they don't disagree later when they try to sell it.
Anyway I didn't care about that because the Turney folks have dachsunds and although they weren't there that day, it was a dachsund-friendly place and I got to run around! This was great until I had to pee, which I did on a rug in the trading room where the other dachsunds had peed (believe me, we know these things) and then I had to poop, which I did in the Navajo rug room. Fortunately I didn't choose the $12,000 rug (when Mom mentioned the prices, I got pretty nervous ...).
After that we drove down to the town of Zuni, New Mexico, which has many dogs that freely roam the town and I barked at a few of them. Mom and Dad went to different stores and bought a lot of these carvings of animals called "fetishes," which doesn't make a lot of sense to me when for a few more dollars you could have the real animal. These places were not dachsund-friendly so I spent a lot of time in the car watching and barking at the dogs.
Then we drove to our land north of Albuquerque. I didn't even know we had land. It was great! I ran all over. Got a few pricklers in my paws, but never mind. Finally we got to this place that's owned by a friend of ours called Joseph (I just met him today, but we're already friends), which has a kitchen and a bedroom and a cat and is really cool, and the best part is we get to stay here for THREE NIGHTS! so we can all calm down a little from all the driving.
Today we went out today for my first hike, which is something I've never done but I love it already because we went up and down all these pretty hills in the clear air and the sunshine and it made me feel great. We hiked about four miles, which felt like a lot once I got back in the car. Then we went back to our land and had lunch at our picnic table; then back to Santa Fe where Mom did some "sort of" shopping because she was a little tired out, and didn't want to buy much of anything.
Actually tonight we're all kind of tired, and probably going to bed early although Mom and Dad are taking themselves out to dinner at a place called Harry's Roadhouse. I get to stay in the car. That's all right -- I plan on sleeping.
-- Sundance and the Two Banditos

From Shiprock to Santa Fe!

My paws are so tired from such a busy trip so i am only going to show some of my favorite photos.
Shiprock- Gallup- Zuni and the Turquoise Trail. Tomorrow i will fill you in on my first Native American Jewelry buying adventure at Turney's, hint i did something bad on a Navajo rug.

More Photos From Sundance and Southern Utah

From the Mountains to the Desert!!

I had a VERY restful night at Sundance (after watching 1 & 1/2 movies with Mom and Dad, sleeping until 7 a.m. which I NEVER do. Our bungalow looked just as beautiful in the morning with the snow so high that all you could see out the windows was snow piles.
We had a nice walk down into the village and back, just for the hike, Mom and Dad not buying anything. (Fortunately for them, nothing was open!!)
The drive down the pass was very pretty in the morning. Then we pretty soon went up another pass, and today we drove through I guess the entire state of Utah. The mountains changed from all high and snowy to really dry, no snow, and very red rock.
We went up into this National Park called "Arches" where Mom and Dad tried to have lunch at a picnic table but ended up in the car because there was nothing but clouds and this cold wind. Then we drove up through the park, which looked really cool except they wouldn't let me out in it, except to walk around the parking lots, which I did several times before I decided that it looked like a good time to pee because Mom and Dad has this look like they were going to be driving for a LONG time.
Which we did and there's nothing to say about that except that they got out a few times to take pictures and at one time I thought that they were worried about whether they could get enough gas in an Indian reservation ... but I wasn't worried, and sure enough, they had plenty and we made it out.
We went to what's called "Four Corners" because Mom had this idea we could put my paws in each of four states, but it turns out Four Corners is a tourist site by the Navajo Indians and they had closed and went home at 5 pm. We drove out past Shiprock, which was this really cool big spiky mountain.
Now we are happy and cozy and about to go to bed in Gallup, New Mexico, at this old hotel called the El Rancho where a lot of movie stars stayed when they were doing pictures out in the red rocks, back before Mom was even born. (Even before Dad was even born, if you can imagine that!)

Sundance Arrives at Sundance the pictures!

Sundance Arrives at Sundance!!

Friday start miles: 9227 end miles: 9433

Well, we made it! Sundance is this just really beautiful place, which is right for a place I'm named after. I'll get to all that it a minute, but first I have to tell you about yesterday.
Yesterday (Friday) Mom got up early and found a great Curves in Rock Springs, Wyo., where the women warned her about these mountain ranges on the way to Salt Lake City called the Three Sisters, and said we should wait until there was plenty of light.
Mom was eager to get to Salt Lake City because she wanted to shop at the Sundance Outlet Store, so we programmed the store into the GPS and took off. I didn't think the Three Sisters were that big of a deal after some of the mountains we'd been through in Wyoming. At the end, we went down through this steep mountain pass with wild snow squalls -- and then we were in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City was really great because we finally got to get out of the car and do some walking! After Mom got finished at the store, we walked around the Sugarhouse district, which was a lot of stores and a nice park with a river. Then after Mom and Dad had lunch we found a motel; they drove all over the city trying to find one that wasn't a Motel 6 (which we hate because there's always something wrong), but we ended up in one anyway because -- I know this is hard to believe -- a lot of motels don't wat dogs!!
Then we took a big walk around where the Mormon Temple is, and an even bigger walk down to the old railroad terminal called "Union Pacific" and also "Gateway". The terminal has been fixed up and has these great stained glass windows about railroads. There was also this very nice family who patted me half to death, and even more stores, more stores than you've ever seen in one place.
All the walking tired me out, which was a good thing because the thing wrong with this Motel 6 was the people in the next room stayed up all night talking and partying and didn't quiet down until Mom and Dad had called the front desk three times, which by then was half a hour before my breakfast time, which is always 5 a.m.
Today Mom went to a Curves in Salt Lake City, and then we picked up some groceries and drove out to the Great Salt Lake. Mom and Dad weren't too impressed; the lake has been drying up and is a lot smaller than it used to be. I thought it was fine because I got to run all over the beach for almost an hour.
Then it was back in the car, but this was a short trip down the highway and, after lunch, we drove up into this really deep Provo Canyon, where the snow immediately started, and took a left turn, and there we were -- Sundance!
We are staying in a palace, which Mom says is our reward for all the Motel 6's. It's all wood and windows, with a big bed facing the fireplace and a separate kitchen and bathroom and I can run in a big circle around the place with Mom's sock or Dad's slipper in my mouth and they can never catch me. We took a walk down to the ski area which is where the restaurant, deli and general store are, and walked back -- a good walk, with it snowing harder.Then Mom and Dad drove back down so that I could stay in the car while they shopped, except that the snow was pouring and there were these people skidded on the road. Dad helped them get out.
Now we are cozy in for the night, at Sundance.

Lots of Cranes and Trains

Lincoln Nebraska temp 50- Rock Springs Wyoming temp 32, 712 miles
Gas mileage in Nebraska 41.2
Gas mileage in the Wyoming Rockies 38.9- trouble with the battery charging

Mom met some people from Center Sandwich, NH at a Rest Area yesterday and they told her they were going to see the migration of the Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska. Mom looked it up online and it was on our way to Wyoming so we decided to check it out . We pulled off the highway and went to an Audubon Sanctuary and they let us hike out to a blind on the Platte river to view them. They were making such a racket! Dad held me up so I could peer out through the openings of the blind that looked out on the marsh-like river. It was pretty cool -- there were thousands of them everywhere! Can you imagine, the cranes winter in Texas and summer in Alaska. I thought we had a long trip!!!!

We got back in the car and drove and drove. We stopped at a nice rest stop and we all hung out in the warm sun. We followed train tracks along I 80 all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming where we walked by a really neat old train station. A postman stopped and gave me a treat. Now we are in our room at Motel 6; they left the lights on.

-Sundance and the two Banditos

Omaha, but no steak!

Starting point: Toledo Ohio, Temp: 34, Gas Price Ohio:$3.59 per gallon, Gas Mileage Prius From NH to Toledo: 39.1 miles per gallon
Ending point: Lincoln Nebraska, Temp 57, Gas Price: $3:15 per gallon, Gas Mileage Prius from Toledo to Lincoln: 42 miles per gallon
Mileage Driven day 1: 735 miles from Dunbarton to Toledo

Just to set the record straight I didn't get a steak in Omaha today, but I did get a nice bone. What a beautiful city! We visited the Old Market Area and had a great walk down by the Lake at this wonderful park; there was no snow. Afterwards we drove out this long road and Mom and Dad went shopping for supplies at Whole Foods. We are staying in Lincoln, Nebraska tonight.

I could get used to traveling. Mom started the driving today and I rode in Dad's arms, cornfields everywhere for the morning ride. When Dad took ovet we were driving through southern Illinois just south of Lake Michigan and there was a lot of traffic. Mom took over in the afternoon and drove through Iowa where the countryside changed to beautiful rolling hills with farms everywhere. A highlight was passing over the Mississippi River. Dad took over late afternoon and we drove across a bridge over the Missouri River into Omaha. It was a beautiful sunny day.

- Sundance and the two Banditos

Photos in NY March 11

Holy Toledo we made it there!

What a great morning! Mom, Dad and I left the snow covered hills of NH at 7am destined for somewhere in Ohio. We traveled through the State roads of NH winding our way through the Molly Stark highway of Vermont on into Albany New York,where we got on I 90 west. What a beautiful day!

I have a terrific spot to ride high on top of the pillows in the back seat, however it does get lonely back there so I like to ride mainly in Mom or Dad's lap. We stopped at a lot of rest areas. I guess the goal was to get me to do my business. We hit Buffalo around 3pm and Mom and Dad decided we would try for Toledo tonight. We pulled in 740 miles later to the Red Roof Inn. I am just having a ball running around the room getting into everything. Tomorrow we are trying for Omaha.

-One of the three banditos- Sundance

I Graduated

Wow, I graduated from my basic obedience class week. You realy can't see me very well in the picture I am so dark I get lost against Mom and Dad. We leave on Tuesday for out big trip out west. I now have a diploma in good behavior so I am sure I will have excellent manners at all the fancy hotels we stay in, Can't wait to stay in a Motel 6.

Party Time!

Grandmom had her 80th birthday Sunday. I had a great time, there were a lot of people here and dogs too! I did get a lot of treats and a nice romp in the woods. I am getting in shape for hiking in the Southwest, Mom and Dad gave me Savanna's cowboy hat and vest for the trip it looks awesome on me.

Sundance is getting ready for his trip that is less than 6 weeks away to the great Southwest. He is researching, dog friendly hotels, boutiques, doggie parks and Whole Foods stores. He wants to see his name up in lights in Sundance Utah.