Traveling Companions

We left my house in Phoenix OR about 9:30 this morning.

It has been a very long day.  Considering that i woke up just before 3am and could not get back to sleep I am pushing up against my first 24 hour awake in awhile now.  Can't think right now when the last time was since I didn't even do it for the read-a-thon last month.

Our Merlin came back with me this time.  Ed will be vacating our house by Monday.

At the Santiam, rest area south of Portland we gave Merlin a 20 minute rest stop of his own in the pet area. He didn't do his thing but spent the whole time slinking along on his belly dragging his tail.  New dog smell every three feet? 

A small dark brown and black bird harassed him from the tree and then got down on the grass and strutted and clucked circles around us.  Carri got pics with her  iPod   Not of the bird but of Mers and me.  

We gave up and took Mers back to his box when someone showed up with  a collie.  Mers started to resist going back in the box but then spotted the dog and decided the box was a fine idea.

That was just after 4pm Friday afternoon.  Because of nearly standstill traffic going through Portland and then having to take Carri's friend on up to Nisqually WA to meet up with her family we did not pull into Mom's driveway until almost midnight.