In the main, our two little fur babies sleep until about 6:30AM. They also like to plaster themselves against my body while sleeping. This makes sleeping challenging and leisurely mornings in bed untenable. Last night, however, Lulu slept in her little bed that is immediately adjacent our bed, and Pogo settled in at the foot of the bed between Jill's feet and mine. In addition, they slept until nearly 7:45.
Now if you are over, say, 50 years of age, you are aware that one consequence of aging is bladder shrinkage, leading to multiple visits to the "facilities" in the wee hours. Last night was different. Neither I nor my bride was disturbed with such nonsense. (I know, I know: TMI)
Finally, as a consequence of having found our bed to be "hip unfriendly" on our last trip, we made a change. Our WalMart foam mattress, which served us well in Sadie, became a kind of torture device, causing us to awaken with pain in our hips and backs. In part, at least, that was because in Sadie, we added a 3" memory foam topper. In Topper, however, that 3 inches was just enough to cause head bonking, when we sat up in the cab over sleep area, so we deleted it. That resulted in our sleep issues.
Prior to this trip, we removed said mattress, peeled of the cheesy WalMart memory foam layer (about 1 1/2" thick and kind of crispy) and replaced it with our 3" topper. What a difference! No more hip pain. No more back pain. And we slept like a couple of infants.
Now you are privy to the reason for the title of this blog post: 1) No doggy interventions, 2) No midnight meandering, 3) a much improved mattress. What a difference a good night's sleep makes.
Today, we awoke (1 hour 15 minutes later than usual!) to sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70s. We took the girls out for a well earned bathroom break, and then we returned to Topper for our morning coffee.
Now this coffee was a treat, not only because we love our coffee in the morning, but also because I found a new kind of water filter for our camper. We had been having a very metallic or minerally taste in our water. The new filter has eliminated that taste and given us pure, fresh water to drink. It is noticeable in the coffee, which was wonderful.
After breakfast, we set out to explore the environs. If you have ever gone for a stroll along the freeway, you may get some idea of what we encountered. We walked about 1/4 mile down the McKenzie Highway to McKenzie River Drive. With traffic hurtling by at 55-60 mph, it was a bit harrowing. Once we were on the River Drive, however, the traffic was less dense and not in as much of a hurry, and our walk became quite pleasant.
We walked about another 1/4 mile and found a road that crossed the McKenzie river on a bridge to Dearborn Island. Of course, we could not resist crossing the bridge. And here's why:
I'm pretty sure Lulu, regrets our decision. She was happily marching along up the road, when suddenly we were approached by, not one, not two but three dogs averaging something like 100# apiece. Lulu, who last weighed in at 13#, and who was once traumatized by a big dog at a doggy daycare center, went ballistic. Fortunately, she was on a leash, and I was able to pick her up and "protect" her from the friendly but inquisitive canine behemoths.
We headed back to Topper and had no further incidents. The afternoon was spent lounging outside with a couple of good books. When the temperature topped out at 92 degrees, we retreated to the comfort of Topper's air-conditioned interior. The adventure continues, and I look forward to being able to regale you, dear reader, with more tales of derring-do, courtesy of Topper and Red Ryder.
Today was another crummy day in paradise. The weather was warm and very humid, so we stayed close to home and explored The Holiday Farm. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the scenery here. Beaver Creek runs through the park. It is very slow moving, but beautiful to behold, as you can see 
