bluh

1601.1 miles in 42 hours and we’re back from Oklahoma City with a new greyhound puppy. Lots of biodiesel billboards in SW Illinois, which is good to see, but not enough availability of the fuel itself. Stank Louis ain’t so bad but other than that we both had our eyes closed the entire way through Missouri. Eastern Oklahoma is hillier than I remembered, is the home of some flogged-to-death Will Rogers shrines, some fairly questionable toll collection practices (pay full fare up front then get a refund if you get off before the next tollbooth?) and some of the smokiest diesel I’ve ever run through my car. I was able to molest it into smoking like a dump truck without much difficulty.

Ken was nice enough to graciously put us up for the night and have beer and cane sugar Dr Pepper waiting for us. Hell, he even turned on the air conditioning despite his love of tropical environs.

The folks from Fasthound were very nice and easy to deal with. We got back on the road mid afternoon, set the cruise control at 80 mph and headed northeast. Finally made it back to Chicago at 0230 with a belly full of ephedrine and (ugh) Red Bull.

And of course, Coltrane (that’s the little dog, mind you) was wide awake and HOWLING when we finally got in bed at 0400. It didn’t sound as good as his namesake’s solos. So, still having plenty of energy, I took the little widder out for a long walk. And to watch the sun rise. And to convince him that it’s OK to use the backyard as a bathroom – we really prefer it that way.

Finally got about 3 hours of sleep before waking up around noon, then the normal post-roadtrip slacking. Around 4 we loaded up the dogs back into my slobber-streaked hatchback and eventually made our way up to the dog beach (Lakeshore Drive & Recreation Drive – 3650 N). Mingus got the hang of swimming, kinda, and enjoyed running around with a bunch of other dogs. Coltrane tried to keep up with those that were several feet taller than he but wound up having fun with an Italian Greyhound and what looked like a Labrador puppy.

Damn, I’m tired.

Pictures to follow, especially those of Coltrane terrorizing the cats.