This blog is about my road-camping trip with my German shepherd dogs, Leben and Erde, from 19 Sept to 13 Oct 2012, which took us 3700 miles from DC to NY (and Beech Mountain), and then onto seven different provincial and national parks circling the Great Lakes. Just before Thunder Bay, Ontario, Leben became paralyzed, so we returned by way of Minnesota and then east to DC.

Day 27, sat, 10/13, 4:20 pm, rest stop on I70, 120 miles from DC

Leben and Erde loaded in the D90 after a pit stop at the same reststop we stopped in on our way back from Alaska in 2000, when they were five months old. It was 9/12/01, the day after 9/11. While here, i met a homeless couple with their five kids who were on their way to Tenn. to look for work. I asked them where they slept at night and they said in their (small) car. I immediately climbed up on my roof rack and retrieved my tent (the tent in the NG photo) and other camping equipment and gave it to them. I do not think i ever saw anyone as happy about his or her new home as the couple's 12-year old daughter was about that famous tent. I will never forget the look of sheer joy on her face.

I just got some joy of my own at this same reststop. For the first time in a week, Leben (with my support) followed his sister to all the neat smells she found. I thought i had lost that forever. What comes around, goes around. The same goes for my situation with Leben. I am thrilled that now i have the chance to repay him (and Erde, too) for the thousands of hours of loyalty, entertainment, companionship, joy, protection, warmth, etc., etc., etc., a role that begins in two hours.

We're almost home. Although for these three dogs, the road, and with it our tent, is our home.

Ed

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