Mothers Day at Giant City State Park Il.

So Diane, Joey, and I headed Friday to Giant City State Park in southern Illinois to celebrate Mothers Day Weekend. We drove down 55 to Cape then crossed the Mississippi and headed over to Giant City State Park. We arrived and found out NO pets allowed. Well, shame on me but I did not drive all the way down there only to not be let into our cabin because of Joey. They have a really big lodge there, for dinners and gift shop,  with many smaller cabins for guests to stay in. So we sneak Joey into the cabin without anyone seeing. The only guests we saw were 3 harley biker dudes from Chicago and a father and son playing catch with baseball.
We decide to go on a mile and half hike to Devils StandTable. Played with a frisbee for awhile and they went back to cabin. Diane and I went back to Lodge for dinner and then back to cabin. About 5am a thunderstorm came through and knocked power out throughout the park. We decided at 11 am to not stay the second night and go see what we can come across. We drive north to Carbondale and have lunch. Inside, the waiter told us about Little Grand Canyon about 25 miles west. We go there to check it out. We hiked about 2 miles of the trail when we had to turn around because of high water made it impassable. We head home stopping for dinner in Fenton Mo. and then decided to go visit my mom to wish her a happy mothers day since we would not see her on Sunday. Joey loves his grandma and gets so excited when he sees her.

Bike riding on the Washington Mo Riverfront TrailWe

It is a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. Joey and I are restless with Diane out of town, so we decided to go for a bike ride. The weather forecast called for rain showers afternoon so I made it an early ride. We left at 8am my thought was to go to the Grants trail down on 44 and Lindbergh. But as I was driving I noticed the wind was really picking up so I figured we might get caught in the rain and the trail would take me about 8 miles from my car. So second trail would be closer to home and it is just 2.5 miles one way on a black top paved flat trail in Washington Mo. We went there, after going start to finish and back still wanting more so we decided to go through the downtown area and then into some of the neighborhood homes and parks. People all along the way stop and talk to us to find out what kind of dog Joey is. We ended up going 8.5 miles, before the weather picked up some more so we headed back home.

8 mile Bike ride in Washington Mo.

Joey and I got up and decided that weekend still had some time to do some stuff. I still had the bike on the back of the car, so we went to Washington Mo. to ride the riverfront trail. It is 2.5 miles one way so we went there and back and then rode around to some parks. It is amazing to me how many people stop me to talk about Joey. It seems if you have a dog you become very approachable. People want to know about Joey and he is getting much more comfortable around people.

Hiking, Biking, Horseback Riding, and Camping. OH MY

What a busy weekend Joey had. First we drove out to Bass River Resort. We set up our campsite with tent, overhang tarp, brought wood for fire. After we got set up we decided to take the mountain bike out and with Joey sitting in his new front basket we did a 7 mile bike ride with a 400 foot elevation change in 2 miles. We even hit a top speed of 33.8 miles an hour on the road back into Bass. After that a couple of friends made it there so 4 of us and 2 dogs decide to do a little over 8 miles on the Ozark Trail. Along the trail we came across some horseback riders and they even took Joey for a ride on one of the horses. We also came a across a morel mushroom, I told Joey to smell it real good so he could find more in the future. We got back drove into town for dinner and then back to camp with a full fire around the campfire. Joey slept in the one man tent with me and layed across my legs all night long. Early the next morning we headed out to the Ozark Trail and worked on repairing and re-routing a new section of the Ozark Trail. Once back in camp I decided to break down tent and pack car for it is supposed to rain all night, so I thought I would by-pass the wet tent and choose warm bed at home instead.

Joey Gets a Hair Cut.

Well Joey hair was getting super long again so we needed to get a complete overhaul. He did really well and feels so much better with his hair short. We kept the black very short and let the golden stay fairly long. We did clip the golden on his legs to be even with the ground instead of dragging on the ground.

A walk in the Springtime.

So Joey and I were walking around this spring a we came across a patch of May Apple plants. I remember as a kid I would pick a bunch of these and hold them together as if I had made an umbrella.

A Day with Momma and around the House

Well, Joey got to spend the day with momma. She took him with her to work today because he had a little bit of a restless night. First off, we have had a red fox coming around the house the last few nights. If you have never heard a red fox cry or bawl at night you have no idea what I am talking about. Lets just say it is something between a baby screaming after getting stuck by a pin, and two cats mating. We had the sliding door in our bedroom open to let in some spring air in the middle of the night, but that also allowed the sound of the red fox to carry right into our bedroom. Well Joey hears that about 3am and had to let us know there was something out there that should not be. Well I got up to close the door and got him to hush and go back to sleep on the end of our bed. About 4am my wife wakes me up and said Joey is itching like crazy, I think he has more tics on him. Well I got up and took Joey downstairs got my eyeglasses on and my lighted tweezers and found 3 more on him. He went back to bed with me and I was able to get a few more hours of sleep before I had to go to work. I love him. My son came over during thanksgiving and when he walked in he saw Joey's toys all over the living room floor and says "Geez dad you never let me leave my toys on the floor like this!" I say to him " David you never had this many toys when you were little." I told my daughter she needs to hurry up and have us a grandbaby because momma is going to spend all our extra money on toys for Joey. It seems like when he gets a new stuff toy that squeaks he is on a mission to tear it open and get the squeaker out of it leaving stuffing all over the house. Well at least it is not my shoes or my furniture.