We started out the week with a trip to Bend Animal Emergency and Specialty Center (BAE) for a blood draw for Sandy. If you read last week’s post, you know that he got into the vitamins I had put aside for our camping trip. He may have eaten one or two, but two of the gel caps were clearly bitten into. I knew how many I had of each and what they were. The vets at BAE determined that the only thing of concern was the Vitamin D. Sunday the levels were still normal. Monday the calcium and phosphorus levels were both up a bit, but still in the normal range. They recommended another two days of checking but said that we could go ahead and go camping at La Pine State Park Campground. The receptionist at BAE gave us a list of vets close to the campground. I made an appointment, and we pulled out the trailer to park in front of the house to pack.
We were late leaving, not because of the Monday blood draw, but because a UPS delivery was “out for delivery.” We didn’t want to leave it out on the porch all week for porch pirates to pick up. We didn’t have far to go to get to the campground, though, only about 25 miles, and check-in was 4:00 PM or later. We made it in plenty of time to back into our site while it was still light. Amazingly, we backed in on the first try! We still had good daylight for hooking up the water and power. (Our area of the campground had no sewer hookups.)
We’re really enjoying the little RPod 171. Cooking is a little complicated because of the limited space, but we have as much as we had in our old fifth wheel. We mostly had simple meals, like Tofu Pups with chili beans, sauerkraut and pickled beets or reheated frozen salmon with chimichurri sauce reheated with the microwave, with oatmeal cranberry cookies baked in the convection oven for dessert.
So I did use the convection mode of our convection microwave. I wasn’t able to get it to preheat, but it baked from cold quite well. I just needed to let the frozen cookies thaw completely and then cook them a little longer. I used that method to bake our pizza, too.
We discovered that our little trailer had a convenient wine rack.
Someone with a big trailer mentioned that they had a fireplace. The RPod 171 is pretty small, but we decided we had room to install a fireplace (iPad running the Fireplace3D app) within a cord’s reach from the USB charging ports.
I used the wet bath to shower. There’s plenty of room for me, with at least 6” space from my nose to the wall on the three sides used for showering. (Photo from the dealer to remind you.)
Tuesday we took Sandy for his blood draw at La Pine Animal Hospital. He had another checkup with a new vet, which we were responsible for, but Trupanion picked up the rest minus my 10% co-pay. The phosphorus was just outside the normal range, so not a concern yet. The following day’s bloodwork showed phosphorus up a bit more, so the vet wanted to do one more. Thursday’s had leveled off with no change over the previous day, so the vet said we could stop testing, but recommended a followup visit with our regular vet on Tuesday (tomorrow). I don’t know if he is going to want to do more bloodwork, but we will see. Trupanion has been picking up 90% of each visit, other than the exam fee. I found out the diagnosis is “dietary indiscretion,” which sounds as if he knew what he was doing. On the bright side, Sandy has a fan club at La Pine Animal Hospital now.
Our campsite was right next to the camp host. On Wednesday, Charlie learned that UPS was delivering wine and chocolate that day! He went back to be there for the delivery and to get some warmer clothes. The pups and I took a hike and then sat in the campsite. I got some knitting done, and the dogs watched the ground squirrels come and go. One must have had his home close to where we were sitting, because he kept approaching us and then scampering off to watch us from a slight distance away. I told the dogs “leave it” when he got close, and they were very good. If they even twitched, though, the ground squirrel would turn and run off.
Finally, he seemed to get up his nerve to approach closer and then still closer. He seemed very interested in Sandy, and it was mutual. The ground squirrel came within about 12” of Sandy and stopped. He got up on is haunches and looked at Sandy. Sandy looked back. They must have looked at each other for 30 seconds at least, before the ground squirrel ran off again. It was almost as if they were having a conversation. Maybe they were! I wish I could have taken a photo, but I was afraid to move, to end the magical moment.
We took at least one real hike each day and one other walk around the campground. (Screen shot from our Walk for a Dog app.) Sometimes we managed two hikes.
On one hike close to the campground we encountered a foursome of deer, all bucks. They all had nice antlers. One had quite a large rack. They seemed very interested in watching us. I couldn’t get all four in one photo, but you can just make out three here. I wondered if they were having a stag party.
Wednesday night was clear, so we took a walk to see the “blue moon.” It also occurred on Thursday, but the sky was overcast, so we couldn’t see it, and we had light rain. We got this photo Wednesday night.
I took this photo during Wednesday’s hike. I tried to get Dusty to pose, but he wasn’t interested. Sandy was happy to oblige, though. He was sitting in front of the Deschutes River. The sand was hot, so I snapped a few photos and then let him move.
Thursday the whole family hiked again, mostly on the same trail. It would have been Rocky's 19th birthday, so this was a Rocky Commemorative Hike in his honor. Sandy enjoyed it for him.
Some of the signage is…interesting.
La Pine State Park Campground has a great off-leash Pet Exercise Area close to our loop. We went every day, usually at the beginning of a hike so they could get their wiggles out. Otherwise, Sandy tries to get Dusty to play on-leash, which is a no-no.
The pups had a great time each time we were there. There were plenty of sticks to chase if we didn’t bring a ball. They love competing with each other.
Sometimes there were other dogs there. Even when it was just the two of them, it was good for them to run and play.
Sandy seems completely comfortable in the RPod. The only thing Dusty doesn’t like about the trailer is the floor. He’s fine with rugs down. I had brought two, and Charlie brought the third one (which I had washed after the last trip) from the house when he went home on Wednesday, so we could make Dusty feel more comfortable. The “hallway” area between the bathroom, bed and galley area isn’t wide enough for the rugs, but I turned up the edges a bit, so most of the floor was covered. I’m thinking of cutting the edges off the rugs and finishing the raw edge with some kind of binding. Not sure if I’ll get to it this week, though. It’s going to be a short turnaround before we go camping again.
Twice during the week someone had to get out of bed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. If we didn’t realize Sandy was awake, he got down and peed on the rug. He hasn’t figured out how to scratch on the door to let us know he needs to go out.
We decided to stay an extra night, but our first campsite was reserved, so we moved on Friday to Site 116, in the northeastern corner of North Loop. We put the rugs out to dry. (They ran through the washer when we got home!)
I gave the RPod a nice cleaning on Saturday after I stowed everything away for our trip home. It took maybe 20 minutes. We made a list of things we need to add, like a duster and an extra dish towel.
This map was at the kiosk at the entrance to North Loop. It shows the hiking trails in the park. We decided to go back there later in the month. Maybe Sandy will stay out of trouble and allow us to take some longer hikes.
Generally, the weather was very good. The air quality was moderate when we got there on Monday evening. We had taken the small air purifier, and we had power, so we ran that in the trailer all Monday night. The next day, the AQI was much better, and it stayed that way the rest of the week. It was pretty warm on Monday, but it cooled off and was mostly pleasant, although Charlie hadn’t thought to bring a fleece, so he picked up one when he came home to wait for the chocolate and wine. Other than a few sprinkles, the only rain we had was Thursday night, and it wasn’t a lot.
I did get some knitting done, but not as much as I would have if the drive to the campground had been longer. This is where I was on Saturday after we got home. I got a few more rounds done during our weekly Zoom call, but you could already see the cuckoo motifs here, so it doesn’t look much different.
This popped up on my iPad screen Sunday morning. La Pine State Park Campground has no internet, and I rarely had more than one bar of service on my phone, so I didn’t have much screen time. It was mostly taking photos and using the Walk for a Dog app. I did post a few things to Facebook, went into my email to delete things and uploaded my invoices for Sandy’s bloodwork to Trupanion. Not really any playing around, though.
I'm expecting my books to arrive Tomorrow afternoon.
Finally, for some cuteness, here are the Wisconsin grands and our grandcat enjoying the sprinkler.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Stars, the dolls look up at the sky and wonder where the stars are and why they can’t see them in the daytime. This was another reedited rerun.
At the campground where we stayed, the faucet for each campsite was located inside one of these special pits, so tent campers could brush their teeth and dump their dishwater right there. If you don’t see something like this, ask the camp host. (Photo credit: Good Sam RV.net)
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