Our day saying good-bye to Rex

One of the saddest yet most memorable days we had on our trip was the day we spent saying good-bye to a good friend of Sue's...Rex Downing.

Rex moved back to his home-town of Norman, OK a few years ago to take care of his aging mother.  Sadly, Rex passed this last January just a day before his birthday.  We visited with his sister Vicki and a few of his friends and then spread his ashes into the same creek where just a year earlier his mom's ashes were spread.

We each wrote a special message to Rex and after saying some words, and playing some of his favorite songs we sent him on his way down the creek and sent the balloons up in the sky.

Memories...a trip back in time

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE

Our Tuesday was scheduled to take us from Kansas City Missouri down to Norman OK for a visit and then back to Okalhoma City for the night.

We started the day off by searching for and then finding the oldest cache in MO.  The cache was placed 6-20-2000!  And here we are 13 years later signing our names to the log!  We made a point to find at least 1 cache in every state we crossed over.  Our geo-caching map & stats are filling up!

Well....since we've already taken a side track or two, we decided what would be one more!  35 years ago, Sue celebrated her 18th birthday with a few high school friends in Missouri.  They had a friend in the area who convinced them to all pack it up and leave sunny So Cal for a small town in MO, named Neosho...we decided we were close enough that we'd make a quick swing through the area.

 
We found an area to walk the dogs that happened to be by a Frisbee golf area.  Cody was a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY boy to find a Frisbee somebody had left behind!

Dubuque to Kansas City Missouri

Okay ya'll...I'm catching up! 

Here are some pictures from the weekend in Dubuque and our road trip getting us out of town and into Kansas City Missouri on Monday

you KNOW everybody needs a snow plow on the front of their car!

God Bless America!

 

Sunset over Iowa

We spent Monday night in Kansas City Missouri.  We had some of the best BBQ we've ever had and can say the dogs enjoyed the left overs too!!!

Long days on the road

I'm not sure how many of ya are still checking in, but for those that are, I wanted to give you a quick update...

 We've had a few very busy and long days since leaving Dubuque which hasn't left me any time to download our pictures.  We pull into Santa Fe late tonight, so I'm planning on getting some pictures online tomorrow internet connect permitting!

Thanks to everyone for your support....

Until then, grab your favorite toy & enjoy the day!!!

 

Saturday's Summary

Well unfortunately Mr. Oliver didn't make the finals, but tell you what he jumped and swam his little heart out!  Although he doesn't walk out with a championship, he does walk out in the top 15 of both his classes!  Not bad for a dog that was a stray walking the streets of the dessert.
It brings tears to my eyes when I think about how just a few years ago we were lucky enough to adopt such a handsome sweet good boy.  What a change in life he's had!

I snapped just a few pictures of town when I had Cody out for a potty break

 Dubuque Clock Tower

 

Five Flags Center where all the action is happening

Home for the week...our room is the 2nd one up from the brick.  If you look real close, the curtain on the left is moved and Amy Joe is peaking out at Cody & I

 

Our stay in Dubuque is almost over...I'll get the last few pictures loaded up later tonight and then tomorrow we hit the road for our adventure home!

 

 

Day 1 jumping, day 2 rest & a little play

Day 1 had Oliver jumping in both the speed retreive division as well as the big air junior category.  There are 2 qualifying rounds with each round taking the top 3 dogs to the finals.  Unfortunatlely, similar to last year the dogs in the division were jumping WELL beyond the class limits so Mr. Oliver didn't make it to finals on day 1.  The top 3 won't jump again until finals so that's 3 less dogs to jump against.  We were off on Friday so we decided to do some sight seeing.  Mr. O will be back on the dock Friday and hopefully we'll make the finals. 

Here are some dock pictures...

Showing him the bumper at the end of the pool

Getting ready...steady....

 Going so fast the camer can barely catch him!

 

 

Friday Play day at the Field of Dreams

"If you build it...we will come!"

 



 

 

Tonight we're off to the DockDogs end of the year Golden Paw awards.

We've given up the t-shirts & waterproof pants for our formal attire!

We'll post some pictures of our fancy-selves tomorrow!

 

Night ya'll.....

Some Pictures from the Road

We finally made it to Dubuque and it's a worldwind around here!  Check in yesterday afternoon was like a huge stampede!  Get signed in, get tickets, get a space for the dog, hang the banner, oh yea and move 4 dogs into a hotel for the next 5 days...AND then dinner!

We hit the bed exhausted yesterday and are up and moving again this morning....Oliver starts jumping later today with a chance to qualify for both speed retreive and big air.  I'll post as often as I can what the results are.

In the mean-time, here are some pictures from our last few days of travel...

Baby it's cold outside...

 

 

 

 

 That's what Fall is supposed to look like!

 

 

You just never know when you'll be driving down the road and need to pull over to potty the cattle!

 

 

 

We detoured into Iowa City for lunch, saw some really interesting sites and found a great park the dogs were able to run in for the afternoon

 It's so cold even the tree's have sweaters! 

That's it for now...the internet connection is slow so forgive me if I don't get too much loaded to  quickly.  I'll do my best to keep up!