Summer Vacation, 2013

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Awesome!

So I was googling the common causes of puppy diareah today, and got all nervous.  Was it the sudden food change?  Stress from being in a new home?  Or was it something worse, like worms, parasites, toxic bacteria?

Off to the vet with a stool sample.  Yep...she's totally and 100% fine.  No worms, no bacteria, nada.  Vet thinks its just a combination of the change in food and environment.  Whew!  Overprotective daddy here I guess.  She said Karli should snap out of it in no time, maybe 3 days or so.  She's drinking plenty of water, has tons of energy, and is eating like a piggy...which the vet said might also cause it...might have to feed her less more often.

While googling everything, I typed in Iams dog food.  Now, you have to understand.  I started feeding Iams to my GSDs when it first came out and was only available at veterinarian offices.  That was back when it was made by Eukanuba, which at the time was its own company, and was a very high quality dog food.

Turns out, Proctor and Gamble bought them out, and their quality went to heck.  Might as well feed them Alpo or Old Roy if you analyze the ingredients.  Ye gads!!!

I had no idea!  I was glad you could buy it at any Walmart or big supermarket, but I thought it was the same good quality.  Not anymore!  Mostly corn and wheat.  Not good for pups!

Going to switch to Taste Of The Wild.  A bit more expensive, but you can get it at any Tractor Supply Co., and I think Petsmarts and Petcos.  There is even an online place that sends it to you for the same price as the stores, with free shipping.

All 100% natural ingredients, and ZERO grains.  Just meat and veggies and fruits and vitamins and minerals.  And the meats are things like bison, venison, duck, quail, wild salmon, etc.  They also make puppy food versions.

Yep.  Gonna make the switch for sure!  Have to do it gradually though, especially with Barnabas and his sensitive tummy.

Kev

[Stripe]

Hehe, your cat and Pup sleep like my Husky.  
My pups get California Naturals Lamb and Rice formula, great stuff, will feed them that then switch to another good natural food after a while.  Maybe throw in a science diet in there for a month or so.  Change it up.  Studies have found feeding your dog the same food all it's life can cause allergies.

As for Front Line and Heart Guard? I totally trust them, that's all the vets would issue us handlers, and they swore by it.  I came to be a believer too.  So I still use it..  On top of that, as retired military(being a handler is a plus) I get to take mine to the base vet if I take sanctuary on a base that has one.
In Fact, Kevin, aren't you former/retired military??  If so, you might want to look into being able to use base RV facilities during your journeys..

Fredric

[Mytdawg]

Proctor and Gamble bought out California Natural too.  I fed it to my last dog (as dictated by the cow that fell through my roof).  Not sure how it's affected quality at this point but they have a nasty habit of ruining everything they touch.  I remember when life was easy and dog food would not kill your dog.  Seems like a long time ago...   

[Froggy1936]

The corporations have been taken over by the make money at any cost period There have been quit a few dog deaths due to name brand foods I only use Perdue chicken for a few meals a week and the food that the place i got him from reccomended  VERUS  From antibiotic chickens no added hormones no corn no wheat( chicken meal oats & brown rice) only available on line not sold in stores  ! Google it  Frank

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep Frederic.  Went to a couple of base RV campgrounds early on, but most of them are way out of our way.  Haven't been to a NEX in years!  I'm definitely a fan of Heartgard and Frontline.  Trifexis works amazingly well for adult dogs too, especially in a high flea area. 

Mytdawg and Frank.  Yep, when corporations take a small business over, it becomes all about the profits and quality goes to crap.  Taste Of The Wild looks like about the best diet out there that we can afford for them, small USA company, and from all my research the only healthier diet out there is a raw diet, which is way too messy in an RV...lol!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Looks like smaller portions more often are doing the trick already for the puppy!  She made it through the night last night without waking me up, and had a normal business this morning...Awesome!

I used a high strength epoxy on the fridge shelves yesterday, so today they should be ready to reinstall.  Its a marine grade epoxy, so it should hold up well.

Today?  Not much.  Have to get some paper plates and that's about it.  We might make a trip into Joplin to pick Barnabas up a bag of Taste Of The Wild to start mixing in with his food...maybe get a small bag for the puppy as well...and some cans of it.  Tomorrow is going to be all about getting ready for the road trip.  Wanna get an early start on Saturday to make it almost all the way to Chicago, then get through Chicago on Sunday all the way into Indiana.

Kev

[Mytdawg]

We've been using "Chicken Soup for your dog's heart and soul" or something like that.  Pretty much because she's got a Dane and her Dane people seem to like it.  I personally don't like any of it any more because it's like trying to nail Jello to the wall trying not to get screwed over by Chinese wheat or whatever the heck it is this time they poisoned us with.  Tell you the truth I'm not sure I'd like feeding them the crap we eat with all the steroids, GMO and antibiotics they shove in our food.  Just a sad state of affairs.  So to cheer things up a bit here's a 80 pound kid with a 100 pound Great Dane in his lap.  Sorta.   

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL!!!  Too cute!  Danes are awesome dogs.

Taste Of The Wild only uses meat and veggies, no grains, and everything is sourced in the USA...not Chinese anything.  A lot of "wild game" from game farms as well, like salmon, venison, bison, boar, duck, pheasant, etc.  Heck, the dogs will be eating better than us...lmao!

Kev

[Mytdawg]

Great, now I'm hungry...   D:oH!

The new Shepard is awfully cute too.  What a great life, almost every day is a car ride! 

[ibdilbert01]

We might make a trip into Joplin...

Not sure of your plans, but about an hour west of Joplin is a little town called Coffeyville, they have a pretty cool Dalton Gang Museum.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

We'll keep that in mind for next year dilbert.  We are leaving bright and early Saturday morning to get as far north as possible, I-44 to I-55, almost all the way to Chicago to pick up I-80 East.  We'll see how far we get, but the farther north, the cooler its going to get hopefully.  In the 90s here now and going to stay there through the weekend.

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yay!!!  Karli made it through the night again with no accidents, and woke me up bright and early  to take her out.  Wow I'm tired...lol!  Stayed up late last night watching movies with Patti, and Karli wasn't having any of me sleeping in.  At least she let me sleep until 6am.

Sampson was a very bad kitty last night.  He jumped up on the bed and Karli was sleeping.  He walked over to her, sniffed her, and then proceeded to bat the crap out of her, waking her up and making her yelp.  He knew he was in trouble when I yelled at him and ran like a bat out of hell to seek sanctuary behind the driver's seat of the rig, but he underestimated the power of the Nylabone Pretzel, or daddy's accuracy.  Score!  One ninja pretzel of death, right in the old one eye... :)rotflmao   Even Patti had to laugh at that one.

We ended up driving to Joplin and getting the Taste Of The Wild food, wet and dry, for both Barnabas and Karli, and the transition began yesterday at dinner.  It'll be a few weeks before they are totally on the good food, but the puppy loves it, and Barnabas likes it so much he picked out and ate all the new kibbles first before eating the rest of his dinner.  We also got them some grain free doggie biscuits, both salmon and turkey, made by Blue, called Wilderness Trail Treats, and unbelievably Barnabas likes them even more than he likes Pupperoni!

Today is the great packdown day...gotta get the rig ready to roll, do some road shopping, then hook up the Jeep.  And of course shower and shave and get the laundry all finished up.  We want to get a nice early start tomorrow and get as far north as possible before calling it a day.

Kev

[joanfenn]

It must have been all the practice with the marshmallows that made you such a good shot with the nylabone.  Be careful, from my experience, cats get even.  Someday when you least expect it, Sampson will get back at you.  Great to hear that Karli finally has you trained.  But you are still a ways from being completely housebroken.  Have a safe trip.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL Joan!  Yep, Sampson is a spiteful little cretin, so I'll have to watch my back.

It will probably be another week or two before she's fully housebroken, but she's got the number two thing down now that she's adjusted to her new diet.  She does let us know now at least...she goes to the door and whines, and if I'm sleeping she'll jump on my chest and start whining and licking my face to wake me up.

And she was so proud of herself yesterday!  She was finally able to go up and down the RV steps all by herself!  You could see she was beaming...lol!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

About to hit the road!  Just a couple more things to do before we leave, like give the pups their breakfast.

Jeep is already hooked up, fluids and pressures checked, and we are mostly battened down.  We'll be on the road within the hour. 

Northward bound!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

We left the campground around 10:30am, and man was it an adventure to say the least!


Mechanically the trip was uneventful, although I was still getting carburetor perculation when the outside temps got higher than 92 degrees.  Water temp was only 190-200, trans temp around 150...but still the funny burnt/old gas smell and dropped idle.  Opening the secondaries got rid of the smell immediately, so I'm guessing the extra influx of gas cooled the carb enough to stop perculation, but it would come back.  Once the temps outside dropped to below 90 later in the day, the problem cleared itself up.  Anyone know a surefire way to keep the carb cooler?  Maybe an Edlebrock intake manifold?  Okay, I'm digressing...back to the adventure!


So we leave the campground, and Karli looked concerned for all of a minute or two.  Then she observed Barnabas just laying down sleeping, the cat sleeping on the bed, and mommy and daddy just sitting calmly in the front seats, and she was fine.  More than fine...she played and slept most of the trip! 


Our first gas stop was a Love's.  By this time the temps were over 90.  Up until the first gas stop we just rode with the windows open, the roof vent running, and the dash fans blowing on us.  But the temps inside the rig were getting too high, especially for our furry kids.  So after gassing up we pulled off to the side and I fired up the genny, let it warm up, and then turned on the front AC...nice and cool now!  We had lunch from the Subway right there, took the pups out, then back on the road we went...genny running and AC blasting.


Onward and forward and northward...well, more like northeastward, since I-44 goes that way.  We made it through Springfield, MO no problems...traffic was light...then kept on going.  We stopped at every rest stop we could to take the pups out, and gassed up again.


Then we hit St. Louis.  Ye gads!  The traffic wasn't ALL that bad, since it was Saturday afternoon, but DANG the drivers in St. Louis are dumb!  I don't think I've ever seen a higher concentration of stupid drivers in my life!  It took us over an hour and a half, light traffic and all, to get through the intersection of I-44 and I-55 North.  I mean dead stopped traffic for no apparent reason.  Thankfully it had started raining and temps outside were down in the 80s again, so the perculation stopped and my idle was normal...I didn't have to feather the gas pedal to keep from stalling.  Turns out that all that backup of traffic was due to one 18 wheeler that had broken down at a merge of lanes going onto I-55 N.  There were still 2 other lanes open, but the St. Louis folks were such morons they just couldn't seem to comprehend the concept of merging and moving forward...geesh!


Which caused our next epic snafu.  Barnabas started giving us "the look" that means he REALLY has to go out, NOW!  While we were in this traffic jam of course.  I told him, "hold on boy, pretty soon.  We'll stop at the next rest stop."  Yeah...he couldn't wait.  We were no sooner out of the traffic jam with a rest stop just 20 miles away, and it was a poop bomb!  We shouldn't have given him those steak scraps the night before!  Ewwwww!!!  And it was everywhere!  If it wasn't for Patti's quick thinking, this would have been a horrid catastrophe...but thanks to her and the new Bissell Pawsitively Clean Yikes! spot rug shampooer and a roll of paper towels she had the mess cleaned up in no time, the poopy smell was gone, and no spots on the carpet.  Patti simply picked up what she could with the paper towels, had me turn the genny back on (it cooled down enough in the rain to turn off the AC, and thus the genny), filled the machine, and cleaned it up lickety split! 


We stopped at that rest stop when we got there, and Barnabas finished his business outside, as did the pup, then back on the road, northward bound for real this time on I-55 N.


We got past Springfield, IL, and stopped for the last gas stop before deciding we had driven long enough and needed to find a place to pull off for the night. 


Every truck stop and travel station was full of trucks!  Not a spot to be had, exit after exit after exit.


Ah, a rest stop sign ahead!  Whew!  We get almost all the way there, and there are barriers and a closed sign blocking the entrance.  what in the world!!!


Onward and northward...


No Walmarts anywhere, truck stops full to the gills...


And then we see another rest stop sign...and this one is open and almost empty...Thank the gods!!!


It was after 10:30pm by the time we pulled in.  We took the pups out, turned on the inverter, fed the dogs and cat, fed ourselves, and I passed the heck out.


468 miles.  Holy crap!  An epic drive. 


Well, at least we won't have all that far to drive today!  We are at the rest stop just south of Pontiac, Illinazi.  Not all that far from picking up I-80 East, then into Indiana, where we'll start looking for a nice campground to stay in until our appointment with Mor-Ryde on July 1st. 


Yep...I sure wasn't planning on driving over 12 hours in one day on vacation, but now I'm kinda glad we did.  Not a long drive today, which is great!


Time to feed the pups breakfast, then back on the road we go!


Kev

[recycled55]

Hey Kev next time you might like it better going up I57 instead of I55.  Lots of stop off places and not the desolation on your route.  It is nearly the same distance and time.
recycled55

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Touchdown in Granger, Indiana, just 10 miles away from Elkhart.  Not a lot of choices for RV parks along the way, that's for sure!

Patti got on the tablet and searched for RV parks, and a Yogi Bear and a KOA were all that came up, both about 15 miles after Elkhart.  The KOA wanted 351.00 bucks for the week, and the Yogi Bear wanted even more...holy crap!  That's almost twice what our mortgage used to be!

There has to be another park, we said, and kept driving.  About 10 miles before Elkhart we saw a sign for another KOA in Granger, IN.  Well, we figured we'd just suck it up and pay the extortionist fees...and at least we wouldn't have to backtrack to Elkhart.  We pulled in, butt cheeks clenched and ready for what was to come...and were happily surprised that this KOA...with all the same amenities as the other one...was "only" 220.00 for the week.  Still a heck of lot more than I like to pay at a campground, but way better than 351 dollars.

Nice shaded level pull through spot, full hookups, high speed internet, cable, a pool, etc.  A couple of dog parks, which I won't take Karli to until she has her 12 week booster shots, and a whole bunch of other amenities that we won't use.  Ah well.  It is pretty though...just not a State Park or National Forest like we prefer.  Nice supermarket down the street as well, called Martin's.

Gas prices are crazy high in Indiana, at least along the I-80/90 toll road...3.68 a gallon!  Geesh!

So now we get to relax for the next week, which brings us to the 30th...and our appointment is only 10 miles away on the 1st.  Works out perfectly, since Mor-Ryde has a free camping parking lot across the street.

After they lift the back of the RV, its Eastward bound! 

Kev

[Froggy1936]

Hey Kev on the percolation a cure we used when raceing back in the 60,s Was a coffee can with a few holes in the bottom and a coil of copper tubing inside with entrance and exit holes soldered around copper tubeing Then you plumb the fuel line after the pump and before the carb with fuel hose (the shorter the better) fill the can with ice as necc melted ice will drain out just add more as necc this is a lot of trouble but it will cure your problem Also replaceing intake manifold gaskets and partially plugging exaust passage (that circulates ex thru intake manifold ) to stop cold engine stumble . This also makes the percolation problem Ka Sa Ra Sara ! Also lowering float level for rear float might help as it seems the rears are the ones flooding (opening them temporarily clears prob)  This problem may clear itself as you drive into cooler weather  ? Frank

[M & J]

He can also add a phenolic spacer between the carb and manifold to help isolate the heat some. But I think he had a air cleaner problem also so I don't know if he can stand any greater height under the hatch. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Frontline seems to be doing the trick.  No ticks on either dog or the cat or us since applying it.  And there seem to be a lot less ticks at this KOA in Granger, IN...and a whole lot less mosquitoes too...lol!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Wicked thunderstorm last night...more thunder on the horizon. 


Barnabas and Karli are getting pretty close now...and taking them out together to do their business is super easy now.  Karli follows Barnabas, and mimics just about everything he does...when she's not trying to get him to play with her...lol!


We gave Barnabas a bath yesterday, and he smells great again...he was really starting to smell like a dog.  He's good with baths as long as you use luke warm water...we have an adapter for the kitchen sink faucet and run a hose out the window for bath time.  After his bath we walked around the whole RV park a half a dozen times until he was dry enough to come in the house...


Today is just a lazy day with Patti and the pups.  I'll have to return some Redbox movies later on, but that is pretty much it.


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

More rain and thunder today!  Karli has already outgrown the raincoat we got her just over a week ago...geesh!


The switch to Taste Of The Wild dogfood seems to be going well.  Today we increase the mix to half and half with the old Iams dog food, and Barnabas seems to be tolerating it quite well...and loves the taste of the stuff. 


Not sure if the weather is going to clear up today or not.  Might just end up being a movie day with Patti.  TV and internet here is satellite, so it keeps going in and out with the storm clouds.  We are actually using our Verizon internet until the skies clear up.


KOAs are weird campgrounds.  I guess a lot of folks enjoy them, but its far from being in a wilderness setting...and MAN are there a lot of kids!  And a heck of a lot of folks with NY plates.  Not for nothing, but upperstate NY, the Adirondacks, etc. are way prettier than this area of Indiana, and a way shorter drive for New Yorkers...heck, the Poconos are awesome and not far from NY...I don't get it.


If the rain clears up I'll be working on some projects today, like cleaning out the AC drip pan...otherwise I'll get to that on the next clear weather day.


Kev

[Stripe]

Kevin, live in NY and you'll see why they leave it to go on vacation..   I HAVE to go back..      But your right when I was a kid the Adirondaks (Old Forge area mostly) was and still is one of my favorite camping spots when we were just kids!

As far as weather?  Look at my install post..  Want it?

Good to hear about the pups!  How's the cat though, lol...

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL Frederic!  The cat is starting to warm up to the pup a little bit...he's not beating the crap out of her anymore.... :)rotflmao

Supposed to be more thunderstorms this afternoon, so this morning I'm headed up to the roof to take off the AC shroud and some sheet metal and clear out the drip pan.  Then its a trip to the supermarket to rent a big rug shampooer...there is a huge water stain on the carpet now under the AC that I'm going to try to get clean.

Karli and I were sitting on the porch last night, and a lady walked by with a dog in the dark, and Karli went on the alert and gave them a big girl bark!  I was so proud of her!...lmao!  Little tiny Karli scared the heck outta that lady and her yellow lab...they didn't see us until Karli gave a woof!

I have some other little projects to do today as well, plus a trip to the pet store for more dog food and cat food.  We have the eating-est dogs, especially the pup!

Kev