Takin it to the Track for the "Mutt Strut"

That familiar loud roar of race cars was absent on Sunday when a few of us took a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. About 4,000 dogs and their human friends gathered to socialize at the annual Mutt Strut, a benefit for the Indianapolis Humane Society. What a blast!

There was every size and style of dog, even a miniature pony. So, the photo ops were unbelievable. Some were dressed in their Sunday best and everyone behaved. The biggest uproar we heard was when a few of the dogs became alarmed at a human dressed in a dog costume. Here are some photos that tell the day's story.

In our group, shown here at the start finish line, was my daughter, Krissy, Tim's girlfriend, Roxy, with her dog Molly and Roxy's son, Lance, with Tim's dog, Rio.

Below is another one of those mugs that you just have to love. Right? And she loved posing.








And then there was this guy who must surely be asking, "Which way do we go?" Is that six dogs? I didn't actually see him moving along with this pack, but he seems to have it under control.
As we strolled around the famous 2 1/2 mile oval, banking in the turns, and watching not to step in some occasional piles, it was a friendly crowd. The dogs decided when they wanted to stop for a drink, a short rest, or to make a new friend. Here, Rio seems to have found the largest dog on the coarse as a new buddy.


The little pony was very popular, as you can imagine. Take a look a her shoes and hat!






As we came into the pits, we decided to take a seat on the wall to watch the sites. Krissy catches a few shots of the parade of creatures with her cell phone while the rest of the crew relaxes.

Surfing on the Road

It's springtime in the Midwest. This means our travels today include rain and clouds, but also blossoming fruit trees and bright yellow dandelions everywhere. Oh well, we won't melt and Ferd is comfy. I have a great chauffeur and our Verizon aircard is working super, so I'm "surfing away" on the Internet. Here's a very useful site if you ever need help with converting distance, volume, temperature, etc. It's Science Made Simple: http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html

On another miscellaneous Internet topic: Lately we've received a few comments on our blog from unknown senders that appear to be trying to lead us to questionable sites. We are not biting, but also I've changed our setting so that now we will approve a comment before it posts. Let's try it out. Anybody out there want to comment on anything ?!!

Well there are signs on I70 indicating destinations such as Greencastle, Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Evansville. The Indiana license plates have multiplied tenfold in the last 15 minutes. We'll be pulling into our spot at
Tim Hurley's soon and greeting friends and family. Those are good things.

We're in Kansas now, Toto!

Making our way east from New Mexico, we’ve been exploring a different route through Kansas for the past few days. Instead of going due north to I70 and across, we’re rolling over the two-lane highways across the southern part of the state. For Monday’s journey, we started off on Highway 54 for a short way, pausing in Liberal for a visit to Dorothy’s House on Yellow Brick Road. Fortunately, we didn't encounter the Wicked Witch, nor did any tornadoes force us to use the family’s storm shelter. After greeting the Tin Man we turned east onto Highway 160, making our way through the plains and gypsum hills. If you're looking for an interesting, scenic drive through this part of the country,






try Highway160 between the small towns of Meade and Medicine Lodge, Kansas. There are sweeping views of the prairie stretching as far as the eye can see, then the views change to the orange colors of the rolling gypsum hills that we didn’t realize were to be found in this area. Sprinkled in with the landscape are quarter horses grazing and galloping, lots of Kansas beef cattle, oil wells doing their jobs and, on this particular day, prairie fires added some gray haze.


Wizzing past us came every variation of fire fighting equipment and volunteers to help in stopping the inferno’s progress. The scorched land is telling the tale of their harm. Along about 3:00, we arrived in Medicine Lodge, a small community where we located the quaint Memorial Peace Park as our stop for the night. As is our habit, we nosed around the town. Small town history usually provides us with some tidbit or tale and this one is no exception. Here we are at Carry Nation’s Home, the place where she started her alcohol prohibition crusade in the late 1800s. Talk about passion for your cause, she axed her way to success in many taverns. We found the people of Medicine Lodge to be very friendly as we stopped in at the Foodliner for a little fresh produce and took a short walk down the old-fashioned, yet tidy and busy, main street. By the time we returned to our rig for the evening the park was filled with girls’ softball teams, teenagers cruising in their pickups and youngsters climbing on the playground, everyone enjoying the springtime in Middle America. But soon we were left with a peaceful and safe spot for the night. Continuing along, we are now in a Corps of Engineers Park near Burlington, KS, watching the pelicans and blue heron feeding in the swift waters near the dam. The name of the park is John Redmund Reservoir. It is just a few miles off state highway 75 in central Kansas. As usually happens with COE parks, we are pleased. Since storms are supposed to be moving through the area today, we’ll just sit tight here for another day, relaxing with the pelicans.

Farewell to the Bosque

A wildlife refuge isn't just a place of refuge for animals, it provides the same for we humans in a way. Our short visit here has included watching the hawks float through the air pursuing their evening meal, viewing the ducks butts bob up and down as they find their underwater delicacies and listening to the quail coo to each other across the scrubby brush.

It's been nice to revisit the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for the past two weeks. We've had a great time learning more about the birds, seeing old friends and making some new ones. This volunteering adventure turned out to be quite different than our last time here four years ago. This time we helped organize the New Mexico Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest that is being hosted at the Bosque. There were over 350 entrants in Kindergarten through twelth grade. The artwork, of course, was as unique as each entrant. We weren't familiar with the Federal Duck Stamp, but soon learned about this pictorial revenue stamp that is sold to help fund the purchase and conservation of our Nation's wetlands. This contest is conducted in each state and the state winner competes nationally to have their art used for the annual stamp. $700 million has been generated by the program since 1934. There are a few of the masterpieces of these New Mexico children sprinkled throughout this post.

We've concluded that this stopover fits the criteria we try to meet for our lifestyle: unique experiences in a place that's nice to be, with people we like. But it's time to head on down the road again. Farewell Bosque.

A Refuge

Ferd's wheels have stopped turning for a little while again at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio, New Mexico, approximately 100 miles south of Albuquerque. Some of you will recall that this isn't the first stop we've made here. About four years ago we spent four months in the fall of the year volunteering here, where thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese pause in their migration each winter. It was a great experience. So as we were passing through central New Mexico this spring we decided to see how things are going at the refuge. Well it's much quieter here without the unusual sounds of the cranes, something between a fog horn and a donkey squeel. This time of year there are but the fulltime resident species of ducks enjoying their space and the song birds that serenade you consistently. And, of course, the ever persistent howl of the coyote keeps them all on their toes. We also found the staff as welcoming as they ever were. As soon as we mentioned we had a couple of weeks we could spare and said " Hello, how are ya?" we were shuffled to a project that was in much need of a couple more willing souls to assist it along. We are now deeply emersed in the Junior Duck Stamp Art Competition. There will be more to say on that later. But, this is a nice place to pause along the road.......