Puppy Road Trip 2020!

Back in 2020, my friend, Jane, and I took a crazy road trip from Maine to Minnesota with four dogs! Two of them were eight week old puppies and the other two were Jane’s older dogs. I don’t think we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into when we starting to plan this journey. It was an experience I don’t think either of us will forget. Travelling that far is exciting on its own, but adding four dogs to the equation; what a crazy time! It’s hard to remember everything that happened since it was over three years ago. Here are some key moments.

We stayed at a hotel in Madison, WI. We were right around the block from the Capitol Building. It was late at night when we arrived, but that city had some incredible views. The streets were lit up with beautiful colors. When we checked into the hotel, we told them we had a service dog with us. That was not 100% true. We had four dogs with us; none of them service dogs. We sneaked the dogs in through the back door from the parking garage. Eventually, we did have to take them outside to use the bathroom. We got into the groove of this routine after a while, but it was still tricky and definitely not sneaky. We took the elevator downstairs and had to go through the lobby to get outside. It was nerve wracking because we knew we weren’t supposed to have them there. The receptionist saw us walk past and was so excited. She came over to pet the dogs, of course. She was so kind and kept our secret. We were super grateful for that.

I asked Jane for a few quotes about the trip. Here are some things she mentioned!

“My favorite part of the trip was when Kole stole your Sonic burger. Lol,” Jane wrote. Kole was one of the puppies on our trip. We went to Sonic, Jane’s first time there. We ordered our food at the stall and parked to eat in the car so we could quickly get back on the road. I unwrapped my burger and set it on my lap. As I was putting my straw in my cup, Kole jumped over the seat, grabs the top bun off of my burger, then jumps back. He moved so fast, it took me a moment to even realized what happened. Jane and I laughed so hard.

During the first part of our travel week, we stayed at hotels. The big dogs got comfy pretty fast, as it had been long days for all of us. The puppies, however, we ready to play. They would lay in one spot for a few minutes, then get up to go to another. Jane said, “they would run back and forth on the beds by crossing the nightstands.” I’m pretty sure they thought the floor was for suckers.

Since we had four dogs with us, getting exercise on this trip was important. There were lots of rest stops, but they had to be on leash there. Jane wrote, “I loved finding and going to different dog parks.” We must have gone to about five or six dog parks. There were all quite different. We found one in Syracuse that was completely empty, besides one other lady and her one dog. She knows what she’s doing. In Gary, Indiana, we found a park that was so full of dogs. We were there on Halloween and some folks, including us and our dogs, were in costume. It was adorable.

There were many new experiences I got to have on this trip. I went through three new states, saw bodies of water I hadn’t seen before. While in Minnesota, I even got to dip my toes into Lake Superior. Since it was late October, it was freezing cold, but so worth it.

Thank you, Jane, for inviting me on such a special adventure. There were some frustrating moments for all of us, I think. But it was such a blast and gave me new experiences. Here are some photos from that trip! Photos were taken by Jane or me.