Forced Vacation

We haven’t taken a vacation since we went to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg last Thanksgiving. For the past few summers I have at least taken the girls on a road trip somewhere in this region, but just couldn’t squeeze it in this summer. We were supposed to go to Utah in May for my Mom and Dad’s 50th anniversary and didn’t make that either. So the best we managed was a forced vacation on the houseboat.

The girls hated that they had to go to school everyday and I am sure they hated it even more that they got to swim, play on the beach and ride the waverunners everyday when they got home. It was pure torture! I didn’t have internet access for the first couple of days, which WAS torture for me. To top it off Blain was sick and you know how men are when they are sick. We didn’t get the satellite TV working until the very last day, but we got a stack of DVDs that we didn’t even end up watching.

It was great to sit on the front deck in the morning with my coffee, newspaper and beautiful view. The naps in the middle of the afternoon as the boat rocked us to sleep were pretty sweet as well. But best of all were the sunsets.

The dogs love being on the boat. Every few hours they get to take a walk up the dock to the grass or beach to go potty and bark at the geese and ducks. Nero finally found a reason to move with his life jacket on.

He loves to go on the four wheeler with Blain, but I wasn’t so sure he would dig this, but he did, as long as blain kept it under 50 mph. We did figure out that the life jacket may not be so life saving. Blain put Nero in the water, he immediately went stiff and began to tip over to the point that his feet were straight in the air and his head was going under. What a dork! I’m sure he would right himself and start the doggy paddle if there was a duck to be had though. The other great part for them was the fact that we didn’t dare leave them on the boat alone, so they went with us everywhere. Both of them love car rides, especially Kitty, she is the queen of the car.

She jumps right in and jumps up to her spot on the dashboard. Nero prefers to stick his head out the window and bark at EVERY passing car. And God forbid there be an actual person walking down the street, he has scared the crap out of more than one of them.

Here is a little hint for anyone who takes their dogs in a car with the little button that locks the doors on the arm rest…do not leave the dogs in the car alone with the keys still in the ignition and all windows rolled up except for one that is only open about an inch! Trying to get the dogs to hit the button again to unlock it is infuriating!