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An Incomplete Record of an Incomplete Life….
A Man and His Dog – A Camping Tale Part 1
When Michele and I acquired Tucker in December, one of the first things I thought of was that I sure hope he likes camping, cause if he doesn’t, that could spell trouble. I love camping and Michele loves me, so by default she tolerates camping, so having our dog love camping is important so that no one gets left out. So the first opportunity to test Tucker’s camping pedigree was supposed to be the May long weekend, but as those plans got changed by the Fort McMurray disaster, I decided to take this week off and me and Tucker headed to Crimson Lake, near Rocky Mountain House on Sunday afternoon for a few days.
Editor’s note: Now some of you may be saying, “what, you left Michele out of Tucker’s first camping trip”. Well, yes, sort of! Before we got Tucker, Michele and Jordan had already planned a 3 week trip to Cambodia and Vietnam right around this time, so technically, Michele left herself out.
So once we were all packed up, I loaded Tucker into the truck and we headed out. Normally, I can not even look at my truck keys without him bolting for the door and demanding to be taken for a truck ride, so naturally I assumed he would be a great traveller. I assumed wrong. I’m not sure what was bothering him but he was super nervous and panting a million miles an hour. I had windows open so it was not hot in the truck, then I tried windows up and air conditioning, that didn’t work. About an hour into the trip, I figured I better pull over and give him some water based on the amount of dog spit he was dripping all over my truck from the hyper panting. As soon as I let him out of the truck, he raced for the ditch, took a whiz and gulped down a bottle of water. I figured maybe the problem was that he had to go this whole time and the last hour of the trip would be better. Nope. Same nervous dog the rest of the way. Hopefully it was just because this was new to him and he didn’t know what was going on and the trip home will be better. Or maybe he’s just a nervous rider??
Once we arrived at Crimson Lake, the first order of business was to pull into the dump station and fill my fresh water tank. Up to this point, the sun was shining but there were some dark clouds on the horizon. About half way through filling my tank (slow water pressure so it was taking awhile) rain started to fall lightly, so I grabbed my rain jacket and put Tucker back in the truck. About three quarters of the way through filling my tank, it started to rain heavier so I joined Tucker in the truck. When my tank was full and I had to roll up my hose and put it away, it was pouring rain. Thanks to my trusty rain jacket, only the bottom half of me was wet and we headed to the campground office to register. With registration in hand, we continued onto our site, praising the good fortune of our timing, as I hadn’t set up my trailer in a downpour before! (yes, that is sarcasm) I managed to get the trailer set up and brought Tucker in from the truck where I was totally dry on top and uncomfortably wet on the bottom. Tucker was still acting real jittery so I laid down on the floor with him and snuggled him until he calmed down. It worked and lucky enough about 1/2 an hour later, the rain stopped and I took Tucker out for his first look at the campsite. He loved the exploring and was in his glory.
After supper, we went for a nice walk around the campground and took a drive down to the little store to get some paper towels and ice. Then we came back to the trailer and hung out for the rest of the evening as it started to rain again. Once it came time for bed, Tucker wouldn’t venture into the bedroom, again not sure what is up with that but hopefully it’s a temporary thing. Tomorrow we plan on hiking some of the many trails around the lake and see what else this place has to offer.
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