Westward Ho-Ho-Ho

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

Willie Nelson

I am Magic, the Treeing Walker Coon Hound and travel blogger. My two humans, Big Dog and Momma Dog are taking me on the adventure of my life in our 39 foot class A motorhome (2012 Ventana LE, named Tana.) We left Plano, Texas on May 31, 2019-and I have been sharing our travels since then.

To catch you up to our current adventures, read the following chronicle of the trip from Stone Mountain, Georgia to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. On November 11, 2019 we left our family in Georgia and headed west for parts unknown to this canine. Big Dog and Momma Dog kept mentioning a trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving-and our route was along I-10. And they said we will return to Georgia in mid-December.

Our first stop was Tomsuba, Mississippi for one night. On the way there, we heard a loud sound, and thought one of the tires was flat, which turned out to be false. However, after a second stop and a trucker pointing to our roof we discovered our air conditioning shroud was loose, cracked and missing some screws. Momma Dog crawled on top of the roof and did some minor repair to get us down the road. We soon heard the loud sound again, stopped the coach, and as we exited through the door, the air-conditioning shroud hit the road-even more cracked than before.

We moved onto Baton Rogue, Louisiana where the night temperatures dropped into the low 20’s. Big Dog did some duct tape repair on the ac shroud and my humans went to Home Depot, bought some screws, climbed on top, and fixed our problem-at least until we can get a new shroud.

See Rim State Park, near Sabin Pass, Texas was our next stop, along the Gulf of Mexico-just over the border between Texas and Louisiana. Mama Dog always loves the beach, and she was smiling frequently during our stay. We found seashells, shore birds, beautiful yellow flowers and we even had a campfire! Our site was next to an amazing boardwalk to the beach and even though it was rainy we kind of hated to leave this beautiful place.

Seguin, Texas was our home for the next night, and I met Lou Dagel, a friend of the Smith family from way back. Lou was a high school friend of Big Dog’s mom, Abbie, and she is a big fan of this travel blog. She visited our home in her electric car, showed the humans her sticks and bricks home, shared tales of her RV days with her late husband Gene, and took the humans out to a local place called Johnny’s Barbeque for a delicious dinner-including lemon meringue pie. Our RV park was on the bank of the Guadalupe River, surrounded by majestic pecan trees. On the morning we left Seguin, a rock hit the windshield and caused a small chip on the passenger side. Geico is going to know us too well!

The Caverns of Sonora was a two-night stop-and the humans really enjoyed being in the same location for 48 hours. This place was a real west Texas ranch complete with cactus, clean air, lots of dust, a large flock of peacocks-and an amazing cave. Dogs were not allowed in the cave, but the humans were gone for over 2 hours exploring this beautiful spot.

Fort Stockton, Texas was a nice rest stop. We did laundry, the humans ate breakfast in the rustic restaurant (I had some bacon in a doggy bag), and unfortunately our shower hose on the outside of our rig (used for dog bathing) sprung a leak and we had to order new handles-which will be delivered to us once we reach Arizona. As the humans, say-it is always something. This was our last stop in Texas, which took us several days to get across.

Las Cruces, New Mexico served as a nice stop-complete with a mountain view from atop a bluff where we viewed the city lights. The humans used an Uber to travel into the city to eat some delicious Mexican food at La Posta-an 80 year old restaurant.

We did lots of walking in this location, and I even escaped from the dog park and ran across the highway-just to stress out my humans. Sometimes, a Treeing Walker Coon Hound just needs to stretch his legs!

Finally, we crossed the border into Arizona, and Momma Dog and Big Dog were happy, because this trip has been a bit long. Unfortunately, about an hour before Tucson, we got into some heavy rain. Now Momma Dog gets a bit nervous driving our big rig in the rain-but she managed to survive the trip. And within 10 miles of our stop, we had a warning light that said “Check Engine” and “Water in Fuel.” So after a call to the manufacturer of Tana’s engine, Freightliner, we were told the sensor probably just got wet and not to worry. I heard a big sigh of relief from my humans after this information was shared!

Lazy Days KOA Resort in Tucson, Arizona was the fanciest place we have ever stayed. This place was huge with three dog parks, a dog bath house, swimming pools, a gym, restaurant, large gift store, laundry, a pond to walk around, and lots of trees full of lemons, grapefruit and limes. Again there was lots of rain and clouds-and one of the dog parks was flooded. I found it a challenge to do my bathroom business in the rocks.

We left Tucson and slept in Yuma the next night at a quaint place along the Colorado River.

Finally, we turned north on 95 toward Lake Havasu City, AZ. We had a bit of rain and wind, and were so happy to arrive at Havasu State Park.

After six nights at the state park we moved to the driveway of Lisa Krueger. It was a tight squeeze, but Big Dog backed in successfully.

We enjoyed visiting inside the “sticks and bricks” house of Lisa Krueger, Momma Dog’s sister. And it was great to go to our house on wheels, parked in the driveway. Although there is not photo, on our first morning there, I walked into the swimming pool-thinking it was just blue land. Well, I panicked and Momma Dog pulled me out. Needless to say, that only happened once.

We drove to Las Vegas on the day after Thanksgiving so Tana could get her new air conditioning shroud installed. She also had two vent covers on the roof replaced. Tana spent the night at the National Indoor RV Center and all six humans and three canines spent the night in the Krueger condo.

Then on Monday, December 2 it was time to start our journey back to Georgia for Christmas with Joanna, Jennie and Steve. Big Dog and Momma Dog and I loved our trip to Arizona, and we sure do love Lisa, Kim, Tyler and Ashley.

The humans and I are heading east on I-10 again. They have planned an eleven day journey.

Thanks for reading my blog. We are thankful for our many blessings!

Kind regards-sniffs and a woof

MAGIC