A DOG'S TRIP NOTES

Sallie Tomato AKA Sal

Before I start letting you know about our trip that we just took I want to get something straight. My name is Sal or Sallie Tomato, which ever you prefer but I am a male -- all 90 pounds of me. And if you want to tease me about my name I'll meet you outside in about five minutes. I wanted to be named Capone but nobody listened to me. 

But now that we have that settled I want to tell you about my trip that I just took with my lady friend barbara. 

The trip's plan was to pack up our most important belongings and move hundreds of miles across the country in barbara's little Toyota truck. Well the most important thing to me was my roaming territory where I could find all kinds of wild critters and tomatoes (yum fresh out of barbara's garden) and lots of land to just be silly and run my head off. But I had to leave all this behind as barbara said you can't take land in a truck. 

So off we went loaded down and me only having a passenger seat to settle my big ole body into. I really didn't mind it as I got to talk to barbara the whole trip. You know things like -- I have to make a visit to the rest area and quick. But it all worked out.

You see I have a big problem -- I cannot jump into a vehicle. I used to have a ramp to get into the truck but we had to leave that behind in Kentucky. barbara couldn't lift me in so we knew this was going to be an interesting trip. But she came up with a solution.

Solution: Ask folks along the way to lift me up into the passenger seat. I would cooperate by jumping out by myself at each rest stop I just couldn't jump back up (it's a mental hangup with me). Yikes I thought -- what if these folks are not nice people -- they may be bank robbers or something like that -- maybe even dog kidnappers!

But there was no other choice -- barbara had to be bold and ask. She said she would pick only strong looking folks that would have the stamina to lift and not drop me. She was a bit nervous about doing this as she was afraid that people would refuse to lift me. 

Anyway we crossed about ten states stopping at rest stops on average about four times a day for a week. We stopped, asked for a lift and continued on our way.

barbara got into the swing of asking. She told me that the folks she asked were more than willing to lift me. They talked a little about their dog/s and smiled a lot. She told me that I was boring to talk to compared to these friendly folks. But then I would give her a big lick in the face and she would tell me she was just kidding.

After we finally made our 2,500 miles to Washington state I heard barbara telling her friends that she could not believe the wonderful folks that she met along our road-trip. Most of them were long-haul truck drivers that were so very helpful. They came in all sizes, shapes, colors and were from all parts of the country. They didn't show one sign of being put-out about lifting me in the truck. She said it left her with a great feeling about the folks in this country. 

If anyone is reading this blog, that just happens to be one of those kind folks that helped us, I thank you and barbara thanks you too!!!