It's D-Day (departure day)!!!!!!!

Yeah!!! We had to make a decision on whether to leave on Thursday or Sunday in order to be able to get the rabies vaccines done on the way thru the UP with Dr. Tim Hunt - he gives us a kennel cost for the shots - so we thought we could be ready by Thursday with help from friends (kukals) and family (Jess) for loading and figuring out what the wiring/lights problems were - the lift kit of 10" seems to be working and the steps are now waaaaaay high for both the truck and the trailer!!!

We left about noon-thirty and drove to Seney before stopping to feed and then made it all the way to the casino near Marquette - it was cold when we went to be but we were snug as bugs in the trailer with the generator and furnace running all nite - we awoke to brutally cold temps - 0 degrees without the even more brutal wind chill caused by 30 mph SW winds - we were parked in the lot by the building but the wind could build up crossing the parking lot - those dogs were quick to get back in today!!!!!  We left with 27 dogs - left some with Kukals due to injuries and another one with Dee along with the 11 pups.  At at first Randy wanted to have all the lighter dogs at the front of the trailer thinking he wouldn't have to lift so many pounds in to the pass-through door - but after needing to stop at a garage and fill the back trailer tires to 110 psi, he is thinking anything we can do to lighten the back load we should - so now, even though they were all labeled and assigned to their own little houses, we have to move them all around the next chance we get so all the heavy dogs like Echo and Donna and Kimmy are in the front boxes.

We are sitting at the Welcome Center in Downtown Marquette waiting for the vet to come over to give 15 rabies shots - we tried to do in their parking lot last year and almost didn't make it out so they agreed to drive the 1/4 mile down here to do it - Tim Hunt has the day off so it will be someone else - whoever it is will be very glad they can do all of it inside the trailer and not out in the wind off Lake Superior!!!

Well I was a bit sad to leave my house for the next 2 and 1/2 months, but the one thing I was looking forward to was not having the scratching noises in the wall above our bed in the middle of the night..............once again this year we are plagued with either bats or flying squirrels in the walls!!!!  It doesn't bother Randy because he can't hear them but it wakes me up not to mention, giving me the creeps!!!!!  So here we were the first nite sleeping in the trailer and I thought, good, no scratching sounds................and what do you think I hears about 5 am?????????  It could have been the wind but I swear it sounded like we brought a passenger with us in the trailer!!!!!!!!   When I brought one of the bags of clothes from the back room to the trailer I noticed there was one of the rat traps that we have caught about in the bag and some suspicious looking poop in the bottom so I had Randy unload the bag............not wanting to be surprised by a "discovery" - and there was nothing - now I am wondering if I carried one of those squirrels out to the trailer in the bag and now he has taken up residence with us!!!!!!  I will be looking for the tell-tale signs.................and maybe have to invest in another rat trap!!  You know they have those huge eyes so they can see at night - almost cute but not when they surprise like they did showing in the ceiling beam it the bathroom!!!!!! 

Don't know how far we  will get today - maybe to the other side of Wisconsin or Minnesota - the roads are very slippery so we are in 4 wheel drive (per my request) and it's not snowing yet but might today as we cross the UP - I have to say I feel much more cømfortable and safer in this truck - there is not wind whistling in around my window and 4 wheel drive is much safer on these icy roads - more when I can!!!