Saturday, July 25 Summer Road Trip 2009 - Take 2!

I didn’t get up very early and of course didn’t get nearly as much done as I had planned. We were on our way around 11:30. It was a fun day chatting with Rosie. She spent a lot of time playing dog games on her Nintendo DS. She was tired from her soccer team sleepover the night before but she didn’t nap at all. We also spent some time trying to think of her new puppy’s full name (kennel name) and she was texting questions to this “Cha Cha” program that will answer any question you ask. She was asking things like, "Will all planets ever line up with the sun?" etc. It’s a weird program that must be manned by an actual person, not just a computer.

We stopped at Jamestown to make our sandwiches and made a quick stop at the buffalo museum and saw both White Cloud the sacred white buffalo and the other one that was born last year, Dakota Miracle. 

We've visited there before and have toured and spent a long time seeing the bison so we made this a very quick stop.  It's well worth the time and admission fee to visit, I think.

We made it to Medora about 9 pm since we crossed the time zone line. On the way to Medora, inside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park boundary, we saw a herd of 3 elk (including a calf running and then a lone bull) and also a good-sized band of wild horses with a pretty young foal. Not bad for just a drive by sighting! We’ve never seen elk here before, usually only bison. We’re now camped and Rosie’s asleep and I’m hoping to sleep despite the nearby train tracks.

Sunday July 19th - Sad Trip Home to Minnesota

We got up pretty early on Sunday morning...the plan was to call home and see how Hayden was. If the news was good, Bill and I would head back up to the North Fork...if not, I'd head back to Minnesota.

I called home and this report was very grim...Hayden hadn't really ever come out of her comatose state.  I knew I needed to get home to be with Rosie.  I tried to convince Bill to stick with his plan to stay in Glacier a few more days and then fly home but he insisted on driving back with me, so we stopped in West Glacier for coffee and were on our way. 

Somewhere in the middle of North Dakota we had stopped at a gas station and I got the call...Marc and Rosie had gone back again to see Hayden and she had gone into cardiac arrest and died.  Rosie was with her and they let Rosie spend a long time with her after she died.  It was devastating...this was ROSIE'S dog...her best friend...the dog she had trained all by herself.  Hayden knew Rosie's hand signals and would do agility based on those...they were so amazing to watch together. I was so sad to not be with her when it happened.

We made it all the way to Moorhead, getting in about 1 a.m.   We were both too tired to continue driving safely so we decided to get a little sleep and get back on the road early in the morning.

We were on the road again by 6 and reached White Bear Lake a little after 10.  It was so, so nice of Bill to cut his trip short and drive home with me - for a multitude of reasons.  It meant a great deal to me to have a friend along to talk to and to help drive, especially when Hayden died, so I could make phone calls.  Thank you again, Bill, for being such a great friend!!!!!