It seems like just yesterday, when I opened the door to my pickup truck to take the trash to the dump one Saturday morning. I hadn’t noticed that our young dog Indie (Indiana) had followed me out into the driveway.
Before I could step into the cab, he jumped up on the front bench seat and sat down on the passenger side. He turned to look at me as if to say, “Well, you’re not leaving me behind”. With that he stared out the front window. And off we went.
Since that time over 10 years ago, we spent almost every Saturday afternoon running to the dump together and many other short journeys together, along with numerous boat rides. He loved the pontoon boat. He would calmly sit looking around the shore and all the activity on the water until he spotted another dog on the shore, and then the barks and growls would start, depending on the acquaintance.
These trips supplemented other things we did together. Anybody who has had a dog knows what great companions they can be and how much both owner and pet miss the other when they are not together.
And Indie was a good traveler. Always observing, with only an occasional growl or bark for something that should not have been there, such as a dog in another car, or a squirrel scampering along the side of the road.
These little trips occasionally expanded into longer journeys. But for the most part, our vacations away from home meant kenneling the dogs (often not so ideal) to inviting a house sitter (great!) to watch them. However, as the availability of responsible teenagers decreased, kenneling became the only option. The cost, and the time away from our pets really convinced us there had to be a better way. However, until COVID, few hotels, or other stay places accepted dogs. This is still the case with most timeshares.
But COVID opened up the pent-up demand for freedom to explore the big outdoors, and RVing took off. If you had your own rig, you could go anywhere, and you could take anybody with you including your dogs.
This is now our goal, travel wherever we want to go, accompanied by our favorite companions – our dogs. If you believe the same thing, share your story. Contact us about publishing your story on our site.