Home!!!

We are finally home!! We got here about 10 p.m. and the cats finally got to eat, because the sitter wasn't scheduled for tonight, and I got a second dinner too. Me and the cats played around and rough-housed by way of greeting.

I'm very glad to be home and to go back to our routines, and to snuggle in on Mom and Dad's bed every night ... but you know, I'll miss the open road. If nothing else, on the road I get to sleep a lot -- on Mom's lap, Dad's lap, or the pile of pillows they have for me in the middle of the SUV. At all sorts of time, I get to wake up and smell cows, sheep, corn, soybeans ... and then get back to sleep. Then suddenly we're jumping out at some rest stop and I have to "Go pee, Sundance!"

Today we woke up in Jamestown, NY and got a late start because we had had such a late arrival last night. We took a little walk around Lake Chautauqua (shown), a big, popular lake in the back corner of New York, famous for people like Lucille Ball (who grew up there) and Rebecca Richmond, my Dad's author grandmother, who had a house there for years and is buried there, along with my Dad's stepfather, known to him as "Dad."

Although last night we were worn out with state highways, we ended up doing a stretch of one this morning anyway, because it looked right on the map. It ended up being beautiful rolling New York hills and cattle ranches (shown), not beef but dairy cows, and now that we're here in this part of the country, they're also selling corn and other veggies to us along the side of the road, although we never stopped to buy any because we knew tonight we would be home and have to unpack Who Knows What in the cooler.

After that, it was Interstate Boogie (I slept, varying my position) and, long story short, we are here, all unpacked and all exhausted. Our road trip took about 4500 miles, and we're very pleased with most of them, and won't hesitate to do it again sometime soon.

So I'm finishing my blog for this trip, and thanks for listening. I'll let you know when the next one starts. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts (about anything! but especially dogs) here, or at my Dad's email, lee@leerichmond.com