James in His Jeep Getting Java–Camping, Leavenworth, and Grinfinn! Part Three

Posted on July 29, 2017 10:47 am by James Alfred McCann

It’s taken me some time to write this last part of the trip I took over a month ago. As always happens, life gets in the way, time suddenly disappears, and now I’m probably going to write two or three blog posts of all the things happening right now.

First, Leavenworth, Washington. Travelling to this town in the Cascade Mountains is a little like going to visit Santa’s village. The town is made up to resemble an old Bavarian village, and oftentimes storefronts will play Christmas music even though it was sunny, nearly 35 C, and the beginning of summer.

One of the reasons I chose to visit Leavenworth was that it fared well as a “dog-friendly” place on the Bring Fido website. When Grinfinn and I arrived, we took a walk around needing first to find the pet store to pick up some supplies.

A Paw Above was friendly and helpful in getting me Grinfinn’s food and a carrier just in case he needed to rest from the heat and all the walking I was planning to do. Just one note here, is that I had opted not to take dog food with me over the border as I had been told by friends that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring it. I have not been able to find any documentation to suggest that is accurate, and in subsequent border trips I have brought dog food with no trouble.

Once we were set for supplies, the owner of A Paw Above asked if I wanted a list of dog-friendly restaurants for my stay in town. I said yes, and she provided me with one. This came in very handy (and I won’t reproduce the entire list here, as you really should visit her store for the list if you go to Leavenworth.)

Leavenworth is not a large town for walking, and the main drag was just a few blocks long. If you’re in the mood for shopping, there are plenty of unique shops and for the foodies there are some delicious places to eat. It only took me a few hours to see that part of Leavenworth, but luckily there is more than just shops.

Below is Grinfinn after being served a bowl of fresh water at our first lunch spot. Uncle Uli’s had a large patio area where Grinfinn and I were able to have some shade and a good meal. I had the burger, and Grinfinn had his kibble. And maybe a french fry or two…

As I noted above, it got very, very hot during the day and Grinfinn tired out quickly. He did enjoy being carried around in the dog-carrier, and on this trip I found that this was a life-saver.

The second restaurant I tried, also with a dog-friendly patio, was the Icicle Brewing Company. It was so hot at this point, that I asked for a recommendation and the server suggested a plate of cold cuts, cheese and crackers. It was perfect and delicious.

The temperature had risen to almost +35C that day, and Grinfinn was really needing a break. There was a “ghost town” nearby that I wanted to check out, so we headed out to Trinidad, WA.

This is all that is left of the original town. And, unfortunately, it was closed until the weekend so I didn’t get to see inside.

But the journey there gave Grinfinn a chance to cool down with the Jeep’s air con, which seemed to make him pretty happy.

The third day, Grinfinn and I headed back on the road to return home. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that I kept seeing signs in Leavenworth for a “water park,” which I had interpreted to mean one of those parks where kids get sprayed with water and swim in a pool. As always happens, I had taken a wrong turn on my way out and wound up driving past the water park–also called Enchantment Park.

It was still early in the day, so I pulled into the lot and took Grinfinn for a short walk into the wooded area. We sat and enjoyed the early morning air, and wouldn’t you know it I saw a deer swimming in the water!

At first I thought she was struggling, but then she climbed onto a sandbar and watched me for awhile. After a little bit of her and I assessing each other, she climbed back into the water and swam towards me.

I had mentioned in a previous blog post about Zeke’s Drive-in and how I couldn’t get a meal as the server didn’t understand that my VISA required a PIN for it to work. (She just thought it was declining due to lack of credit.) Well, on the way back I made sure to have cash so that I could try their burger and fries.

Definitely worth the stop as the service is very friendly and the food is great. I do recommend bringing cash if your card requires a PIN. And there is a cat that is very grumpy, a little territorial, and doing just fine so it’s best to just leave it alone.

This is Angel. The photo is blurry, as that’s as close as I felt comfortable getting.

James in His Jeep Getting Java–Camping, Leavenworth, and Grinfinn! Part One

Posted on June 22, 2017 5:00 pm by James Alfred McCann

I was awake by four a.m. and up by five. Call it excitement, maybe a little nerves, but this was my first camping trip in seven years and my first with Grinfinn. When I attempted to wake up the boy, he just looked at me, grunted, and resumed his slumber. But if I was up, so was he.

I’d planned this trip for months, originally intending to take ten days on the road to travel down to Oregon, up through Leavenworth, and home through the Okanagan. With Grinfinn, me being unsure how he would manage in a tent, I decided on a much shorter trip of five days on the road just to Leavenworth. If anything went wrong, it was a quick ride back up to Canada.

You can see my preparations for camping with Grinfinn here.

Rather than just chance it, I chose instead to book ahead to make sure I had a spot at the campground. Good thing I did, because the weekend was full and I didn’t get a booking until Monday. That brought my five day trip down to three.

Grinfinn was absolutely chill sitting in his bed (with his seat belt on and the air bag turned off). Driving over the border (NEXUS lane), I had all his papers ready but wasn’t asked for them (there by US or back by Canada). I did get yelled at by the US Customs Guard for not seeing that he’d put up the red light for me to wait (that NEVER happens in the NEXUS lane).

While I considered stopping in Edison on my way there, I chose instead to just I-5 it down to Everett and jump on the Number 2 highway. I did stop for a rest at the Smokey Point Rest Area just north of Everett where I took a nap and walked Grinfinn (and, of course, I had stopped for my traditional Woods Coffee in Birch Bay).

Yes, that looks like a shallow grave in the shape of a human body that Grinfinn is sniffing. There was a manicured, beautiful area with picnic tables that dog owners were not allowed to use. Then there was this wild terrain, with weeds and mounds of dirt such as the one in the photo above. That’s where you are relegated to if you have a pooch.

And yes, those are working phone booths!

My next stop was Gold Bar, WA, a town of just over two thousand people. It’s quite pretty if you take a drive through the streets, and the main strip on the highway (there’s even bus service to Everett) is right by the railway with the mountains as backdrop. I liked it as it made me feel as though I were back in the Wild West.

The weather up to this point was warm but overcast. When I drove into the Cascade Mountains, the clouds disappeared and the temperatures rose to plus 26C.

This would be the first time I’d attempt to get a burger and fries from the roadside stop, Zeke’s Drive In. Unfortunately, I didn’t have cash and the attendant didn’t understand how my chip card worked. (I was told it was declined, but I couldn’t get her to understand that I had to enter in a PIN for it to work. And once declined, she insisted they’d be charge $35 for trying it a second time. Sigh.)

I did stop in on my way home, so expect a proper review in the third instalment.

There were lots of places to stop and take photos, but after a few I had to just push on and accept that sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment as a fleeting one.

It didn’t take long to arrive in Leavenworth, a town modelled after a Bavarian village. (More on the town in the third instalment of this blog series.)

And since it felt a little like time travel, with small towns not understanding chip cards to phone booths, I felt this song was appropriate to the trip.

James in his Jeep Getting Java — and Grinfinn the Pekingese!

Posted on May 22, 2017 5:28 pm by James Alfred McCann

For those of you who follow my blog, you may recall that last Christmas I had to say farewell to my 17-year-old shih tzu, Conan. I adopted him when I was 28 and he was with me for what had seemed my entire life. It was not an easy adjustment.

At first I thought saying goodbye to a beloved pet was something I could never do again, and then I thought I’d wait a year to spend some time on my own, and then I realized that for the first time in my adult life I was actually lonely. I’ve spent most of my adult life alone, but I had never before experienced loneliness.

I took to Petfinder.com and started looking at dogs. The first one I applied for I never heard back from the agency, and then a couple weeks later the dog was adopted. My assumption is that the foster family chose to keep the dog, as that particular agency had a “foster to adopt” program.

The second dog was named “Grinfinn,” and later on I would learn that it was just a misspelling of the name “Griffin.” He was a six-year-old Pekingese (possibly crossed with a Japanese Chin) and had come here from Taiwan. The write up claimed he was relaxed, good with people and pets, and house trained. So I applied.

After the initial application, there was a phone interview. After the interview, there was a home inspection where I got to meet Grinfinn (yes, I kept the misspelled name). He seemed like the perfect match, so I told them I wanted him. And they wanted me to have him. Most importantly, it really seemed like Grinfinn wanted to have me. It was ideal.

It would be easy to make the claim that Grinfinn came into my home and all was bliss. But just in case you ever consider getting a shelter dog, I feel it’s important that you know bliss comes with patience and hard work.

1. Stress On the Dog

The first night Grinfinn was stressed. He made loud grunting noises, and he would sit near me but not with me. He was still excited about walks, but he really wasn’t sure what to make of all that was happening. I think in his mind he wondered when he was going home.

I slept on the couch because Grinfinn wanted to wander the apartment all night. He finally fell asleep around 3 or 4 am, and he snored LOUDLY. He sounded like a 500 lbs human snoring. This was less the second night, and by the third night he was sleeping in a bed of his own beside mine. (His legs are so short I’m worried about having him on my bed just yet in case he jumps off.)

2. Eating.

He didn’t eat the first day. He was energetic and seemed to be adjusting, but he turned up his nose to his dinner and to treats. I had some of his old food that he was familiar with, but he was just not interested. The second day I made him an egg, and he ate it. The third day I made another egg and mixed it with his food. He ate all of it. Today, I mixed a little bit of egg with his food and he ate all his food with no fuss. Eventually, he’ll just eat his own food–or maybe it’ll be a bit of egg all the time. We’ll see.

3. Playfulness.

I bought him a toy that he had no interest in. I kept it on the floor, and figured when he was ready he’d let me know. Today, he took the toy in his mouth and brought it to me. He was ready!

He and I are adjusting well, and Grinfinn is starting to show signs of really taking to his new environment. I’m on holidays, so all my time so far has been hanging out with him at home and taking him on walks. He even has his own Instagram where you can see his adventures!

It is all bliss having Grinfinn as my companion in the sense that we love going for walks together. People love meeting him, and he’s making a lot of new friends.

We have a whole lifetime together to adjust to the rest of it, and as I wrote earlier we will — with patience. For now, I’ll leave you with a couple more photos. And a theme song.