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!)