A dog traveling to Alaska -Tuesday, 9th June

Hoping to arrive in Oakley, KS, before the “chance of severe thunderstorms” hit us, we parked late afternoon after a run of 159 miles, at the very pleasant “High Plains Camping” just south of Interstate 70.  The owner Mary, who has a large home above the office, keeps it open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 in the evening - long hours.  It has a well-stocked shop, a large pet exercise area, playground and mini golf course, not forgetting the "Colonial Steakhouse” a few paces from the entrance where many truck drivers stop. 

We noticed another 5th wheel trailer parked near us with Arkansas license plates and had to investigate, as you may remember, Howard was born in Arkansas.  The owner had a lovely dog called Lester, an Australian Shepherd.  Lester and Warren, were traveling by themselves to Alaska for the summer and he expected the journey to take about 10 days.   He’d lived and worked on the famous pipeline there for some years and often went back.  Just outside the pet run were two posts, one a small fire hydrant signed for “city dogs” and the other, a tower of limestone slabs for “country dogs”.  Howard asked Warren which one Lester used and he answered, “well, he uses both - he’s a sophisticated country dog”!

Lester though, was not nearly as handsome as Hamish, Elisia and Kevin’s dog and the most obedient and gentle dog we’ve ever known even though he had a fierce bark, especially when the postman came.  Hamish recently had to be put down and is so sorely missed by all who knew and loved him.  You can see how gentle he is with Tobin, when Tobin was just over a year old.

That night, the heavens opened, thunder cracked, lightning lit the sky and the winds were ferocious.  Suddenly awake, I was really concerned for the little tent camper two sites away which was occupied by a single lady and two children and wondering how on earth they were coping with the wind gusts, which we learned in the morning had reached 65 mph at 5:00 a.m. The tent camper and a few others had already left very early and many remaining had massive puddles by their doors.  The sun later on dried them up pretty quick.  Another couple who had driven up about 50 miles from the south, told us that around 02:00 the night before they’d had a knock at their door by the police and been told to leave immediately due to a tornado watch in their area!