April 14 started off pretty well. I got out of bed early to make a home-cooked meal for my husband before he went to work and asked him to go for a walk with me and the dogs around the campground.
Just 30 seconds into our walk, Napoleon decided to pee on a neighbor’s concrete slab. The neighbor was only six feet away, looking at us as we awkwardly apologized.
I went back to our place to grab a gallon of water and a broom to clean up the mess, feeling frustrated with the dogs for not behaving. They haven’t been getting their daily exercise, so they’re not as tired as they should be. Lately, whenever we walk, it feels more like they’re walking us.
The weather last week didn’t help, and honestly, it’s getting pretty boring walking the same route every single day. Since I’m alone most of the day, I end up walking one dog at a time, and it’s really starting to get old.
I wish there was a way to tire them out so they’d behave better on walks, but the dog park at the campground was stripped of its fences before the virus hit, and it still hasn’t been fixed. So for now, it’s just loops around the RV park and not much else.
I brought the dogs with me when I came from Guatemala at the end of November. We drove all the way in my Land Cruiser to visit my then-boyfriend. It was a fun but exhausting road trip that took about a week because I wanted to make it quick for the dogs’ sake.
I had to stop every couple of hours to give them water and let them stretch, and they loved it, especially when we shared a rotisserie chicken in our hotel room each night. We even went to the beach in Baja California, where Kodiak saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Napoleon had already been to the beach in Guatemala. They still love running in the sand and digging as though they’re heading to China.
In these strange and uncertain times, I’m so glad to have them with me. I don’t know what I would be doing right now with Guatemala on lockdown if they had stayed there. It cost me a lot of money to drive them instead of just flying myself, but it was money well spent. That’s what financial independence is for—so you can make decisions like that without worrying and enjoy every moment.