Week #2: Scout Ascends to Doggy Heaven

One week ago, we had to put our beloved Scout to sleep. His health was failing from the cancer which was spreading throughout his body which was incredibly hard to witness. Scout was always the best athlete out-running, out-jumping and outperforming all of the other dogs. So to see him hobbling around with his back legs hardly even functioning was just incredulous and heart breaking. I had to carry him in and out of our van and up any stairs as he just didn't have the strength anymore. Scout was a warrior though and was never one to mope around and feel sorry for himself. Nevertheless, he was giving us many signs that he just didn't have the energy or ability to carry on in this world. He had no appetite, very little energy, diarrhea and he was all skin and bones from losing 25 pounds over the past month and a half. 

We were staying with our friends outside of Philadelphia and they fortunately had a veterinarian friend who came over on short notice to check on Scout's health. She confirmed our suspicions that it was in fact time to put him out of his misery whenever we were ready to let him go. We still needed a couple more days to process everything and say goodbye to our best boy Scout. We let him sleep with us his last two nights which he has never done before, other than in tents, and we learned he's a real bed hog! On November 11 at 11:11 am, we put our beloved Scout to sleep on the lawn outside the Gladwyne Animal Hospital. His head was in my lap as he was injected with the drugs to put him to sleep. He felt no pain and it all happened very quickly. Ginny and I shed many tears as we loved Scout so much and couldn't believe that he would no longer be in our lives. We will be getting Scout's ashes sent to my aunt and uncle's house in CA where we will bury them up in the mountains when we get there next month.  

With a very heavy heart, we left Philly to drive to Washington, DC, where we were planning to stay with friends on Capitol Hill. It was so strange not to have Scout in the van or in our lives anymore. But we tried our best to look forward and remind ourselves that Scout was now in a better place. Driving into DC was a breeze on account of fairly light traffic on Veteran's Day. We parked in a dead-end alley behind our friend's house where we would sleep in the van for the next three nights. It was great to explore DC where Ginny and I first met more than twenty five years ago as so much had changed since we left in 1997. I ran the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon on Saturday and finished in 1:20:18 (6:06/mile pace) which I was pretty happy with. The course was great and there were many speedy runners to keep me pushing the pace. It was so fun to be racing again as there was a year+ racing hiatus due to the pandemic. 

On our way out of DC, we visited Charlottesville, VA, so that Ginny could take a stroll down memory lane, having attended UVA thirty years ago. We went to Bodo's Bagels and had salads and tasty NY-style bagels for lunch. We visited campus and ascended the steps of Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda (see photo below). After spending an hour on campus, we came to the conclusion that UVA students have the most school spirit as they are constantly clad in school merchandise. We spent that night in southern Virginia (Buena Vista) sleeping by the river next to the Chessie Trail. It was a good site and was a perfect place for my morning run the next day. 

We've mostly been driving the past couple days without stopping for extended periods. We've traveled through Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. In Knoxville, TN, we spent our first night camping in a Walmart parking lot which was a mostly positive experience. I say mostly because we were awoken at 1:30am by some guys banging and chiseling next to a trailer. They continued doing this for at least half an hour so we decided to move the van to the other side of the parking lot. As we drove by them, they appeared to be workers shaping and molding some duct work. We were very perplexed as to why they were working in the middle of the night though!

Two nights ago we spent the night at the Mississippi Welcome Center rest area right off of the Interstate which was also a first for us. Aside from the noise from the freeway, it was a great place to spend the night as there was a bathroom, security onsite and lots of weirdos hanging out in the cars right next to our van! It's taken a little getting used to sleeping in our van but we find our bed to be super comfy and cozy so we're really happy with that. Ginny was freezing when we were in DC/VA and wanted to take the southern route to get some warmer weather. So we went from freezing nights to today's weather which got into the 80s - be careful what you wish for! 

We drove across Mississippi and Louisiana and then into eastern Texas. We'll be in Texas for the next few days as we've decided to become Texas residents so need to get our driver's license, vehicle registration and register to vote. Why Texas you ask? Well, you have to call someplace home even when you're nomads like us. From our online research, we learned that Florida, South Dakota and Texas are the states that other RV'ers most often call home for a variety of reasons. Florida and South Dakota seemed pretty hard to get to whereas Texas is big and right in the middle of the country. And our vote will count more than in California. So we pointed our trusted steer west and headed for the Lone Star state. We've only been in Texas one day but our initial impressions are the roads are big and wide ant people drive very fast - local roads have a speed limit of 75mph! There are tons of churches and RV parks and there are brush fires burning all over the place. We look forward to spending the next few days here to get a better feel for our new home!