Day 14

Hi,

Today...was supposed to be "The Tail of Tales."

That tale will have to wait until tomorrow

because today was a gorgeous day outside and

we took a walk we've been waiting to take for

a long time. We went out in back of the house

and started up "the hill" to a place called Blue-

berry Heaven. It's at the top of this "hill" we live

on and, in our younger days, we used to

take the kids up there to pick blueberries at

about this time of year. We had planned a

date to go up there for yesterday, but the hurricane we had spent the previous three

days praying off finally hit and it rained for most of the day, a blessing considering the driving we

had done this week and the fact that Bear needed a day to just hang out with us.

The trip up is a gorgeous hike through the

woods and up our side of the mountain and while

the path looks deceptively flat in this photo, this

is only because I angled the camera up as I shot

these photos. It is definitely a hike and a few

spats ensued, but our marriage did, miraculously,

survive the trek! You see my hiking boots

died...oh about ten years ago and all I had to wear were sneakers and the trail is very rocky.

This combined with Bear deciding he didn't need to listen to a word I said about pulling made me

pretty grumpy rather quickly. We almost threw in the towel, but we both really want to do this,

and thus continued on. As my husband was a dog handler in the Army years back,

he helped me get the idea across to Bear that while he didn't

have to walk in a heel position while we hike, pulling was not

and I am sure I will be feeling my shoulder tomorrow! He

did get the idea rather quickly, though, it was just hard for

me to use a firm tone with him. I really want him to be able

to do this though, so I have to work on my ability to let him

know what he needs to do because once he understands

what I'm asking, he is more than willing to do it.

And here's

my guy. Turns out he's not so camera

shy at all. He just didn't like being photographed

in his pen. He had a blast today because he and I

also took two shorter walks along with this one.

The Vet and I did too and once we got used to

each other's paces because we haven't walked

like this in years, the dogs did as well.

Happy wanderings!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear