Taking the Long Way Home ...

We're safely home after another endless road trip which pretty much amounts to me lying on three of my beds in the back seat of the car with cushions all around (Meme's definition of doggie air bags). In order to drink a simple splash of water I whimper a little so Meme will whip out this special water bottle that she squeezes and water dribbles pathetically into a sort of bowl that's attached.

We stop at weird parking lots along the highway with rest rooms and some pretty pathetic grass for me. Heaven forbid I set paw in the 'pristine' picnic areas. I totally don't get this because I'll put my little white paws up against their dirty shoes any day of the week, but I digress. We visit McDonalds and Wendy's and then overnight at the Hampton Inn which is totally boring because I can't even look out the window!

After a couple of days we finally get where we're going and we move all the stuff from the car into a strange house with all sorts of unusual smells, lots of sand outside to run in and more water than anyone could ever drink but for some reason I'm not allowed to. No sooner I adjust to breaking every routine I've ever known, we load everything back in the car, go through the whole fast food, parking lots, Hampton Inn thing again and end up back where we started from!!! Humans can be pretty confusing sometimes.

About a century ago; or was it sometime in the last century ... I get confused ... Meme's family would pack everyone into the car (3 kids and 2 very large dogs) and drive from Connecticut to Cape Cod where they would rent a little cottage for a week or two . Now mind you, the littlest kid sat in the front seat between Mom and Dad on top of all the sheets and towels and the other 2 kids, along with 2 giant dogs, were in the back seat with the dogs' heads hanging out the window with their drool running down the glass. And there they would all be for the next 4 hours or so counting license plates from different states, singing along together, with the littlest one in the front screaming "Where's my Cape Cod?" about a mile down the road from their house. No SUV, no station wagon, no DVD player, iPods, video games, no seat belts or child-safe seats ... just their 4-door Ford with the metallic green paint tooling down the road off on a holiday together. It was the best of times.

Meme has such wonderful memories of those vacations that the older she gets the more she wants to be back there. She does whatever it takes to recreate those moments kicking it up a notch by renting right on the beach looking out over the Atlantic ocean. They started out renting on Cape Cod a few years ago, but the older they get the harder the drive is for them so they keep moving closer to home. Poppy says why can't we just drive the 12 miles to our own ocean??? Why not just go to the beach every day and out to dinner every night right here? Meme just shakes her head in disbelief ... he just doesn't get it.

When you drive the back roads to Topsail Island you pass through a town called Fair Bluff. It's gone in an instant; you barely have time to draw a breath and if you're talking or not paying attention, you may miss it. For Meme it was like stepping back in time. We didn't go that route on our way up to Topsail, but we drove that way coming home. It's too bad Meme was at the wheel or she'd have pictures to share, but she says maybe it's meant to be left etched only in her mind.

With all the hours of driving and tons of days soaking up the sun and Topsail Beach, it's funny that little town stood out for her, but it did. Just about 40 miles from bustling Myrtle Beach, Fair Bluff rests along the Lumber River in Columbus County, NC. She laughed as we passed a sign saying "city limits" until she was reminded of the 'cities' in the 50's. As quickly as we entered the city it was gone and we drove past trees along the river covered with Spanish moss and on through the rolling countryside as if it never happened. But now she knows it's there ... Fairbluff. In a time when we yearn for a better world, Meme thinks this just possibly may be a town called "Hope" and a link to better times down the road.

But I've got my tail in front of my head again so let's get back to our vacation. We visited Topsail last year and Meme ached to go back. So before Poppy even knew what was happening poor guy was trudging up the stairs with bags and boxes for 9 days at the beach. He's getting a little long in the tooth for this, but Meme keeps saying the next time she'll pack more lightly. But what she actually does is buy lighter packing bags and puts all the same stuff in smaller boxes so each one may weigh less, but he ends up making a gizillion treks up the stairs!! He says why can't Meme find a house that isn't on stilts but she keeps explaining they couldn't see the ocean!!! It just never ends with those two. You have no idea what I have to put up with.

Once I settled in with all my favorite things close by me, we really did have a super duper time relaxing, sitting on the deck, taking walks on the beach and looking for shells. They also left me behind and went out to dinner, but I don't want to bring that memory back. The first couple of days there was a ton of rain as hurricanes passed way to our east. The waves were huge and I wouldn't go near them. But by the 3rd day the clouds slowly opened up to the most beautiful clear skies and soon after the fierce ocean we'd been greeted by quieted to beautiful rolling waves breaking along the shore and Meme was never far from her camera.

We brought home stones washed by the sea and shells thrown up by the waves and we've got hundreds of pictures to remind us of all those perfect days looking out over an ever changing sky and ocean. And still Meme thinks about the city of Fair Bluff where just for an instant following a perfect vacation, she was reminded of a time long ago when life was so much simpler and held so much promise.

Sometimes the back way can take a bit longer. But sometimes the answers lie in veering off the beaten track even if it takes us a little out of our way. One thing is sure, the ocean will always be there and hopefully so will the houses that lie along its coast. But when you come to a fork in the road, taking the road less traveled can sometimes make all the difference.

'Til next time ...

Molly

If you'd like to see more of our vacation pictures, just click here:

picasaweb.google.com/106137413221576546805/TripToTopsailIslandSeptember2011



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To Topsail Island, A Love Letter ... Filling Our Senses

There are things that are so extra special they fill us to the point we just don't think there can be anything better anywhere at all.

For me, of course, every day is a good day with very few exceptions. There are things that happen in my day that I love more than anything. For instance, I know that after Poppy walks me in the evening that I'll come back to the house, Poppy will unhook me and I will run faster than the wind into the kitchen where always, always, Meme throws me two treats ... never just one, always two. I can depend on it. And then dinner comes with a new bowl of fresh water. How much better can it get?

Well it can. Just before bed Meme takes me out one last time and I know as sure as the moon fills the night sky that when we get back I will get two tiny bones and one big bone right on the bed where we all sleep through the night.

I'm a dog all about habit. I like things I can count on. But then there are those really special times ... the surprises, the once in a lifetimes. And just recently one of those happened for us.

One thing I know ... when Meme and Poppy pack their suitcases to the brim it is either very good news or very bad news. I tend to think it usually means they're going somewhere without me. I'll never understand why they do that; we're a family after all.

But a few weeks ago, after a ton of stuff was taken out to the garage( including two of my precious beds by the way), Meme looked at me and said "Do you want to go for a ride in the car?" Here's another thing I know ... a ride in the car is not necessarily a good thing, but so far in my life if we're all getting in it together, it's good. When it's a vet visit, it's just Meme and me. When it's grooming, it's usually Poppy and me. But all 3 of us??? Now this is what I call a ride in the car!

It wasn't too long sitting up on my bed in the back seat that I knew this wasn't just any ordinary day trip. This was one of those extra long trips that are so special my heart sings. It's stops at friend's houses and Wendy's and McDonalds, Hampton Inns and wonderful parks on the side of the road where there are new smells like you wouldn't believe. So I settled in to sleep through the hours of driving ahead of us and all my dreams along that road were good ones.

And as it turned out, this was a trip that not only brought me lots of good smells, it filled Meme's senses as well. This was a journey she had longed for ever since she was a small child vacationing on Cape Cod with her brothers and their parents.

So we rented a cottage right smack dab on the dune on Topsail Island in NC. Sweet, warm, quiet ... a journey back in time. Ever since those childhood vacations, Meme has wanted to stay for as long as she could right on the ocean. She had never imagined having the ocean at her feet for 7 days, but here we were. She literally could scarcely breathe from the joy of it. Poppy loved it, but Meme was in love. And so was I.

Let me describe bliss just in case you haven't found it. At first light, I open my eyes because I don't want to miss a single second of the day. Meme gets up and attaches me to her as always. She opens the sliding door to the deck and we step out into the morning with the beach and a beautiful blue ocean in front of us. Only one or two early risers run along the sand and we hear nothing but the sound of the waves breaking on the shore. Sandpipers scurry along the water's edge and pelicans skim over the water in perfect flight. And just at that moment the sun starts coming up over the horizon creating such magnificence that we're sure it can't be real ... sun, sand and sea, and very little else.

Meme draws a breath and we venture down the steps and onto the beach. I love the smells of the shoreline and suddenly I run as fast as I can toward the sun. As it rises, the sky and the sea change every minute and Meme has her camera in one hand and me at the end of her other one.

I see a wave come toward me, just a bit of foam, and I wonder about it. I try to go after it but then water comes rushing up at me again and my feet get all wet. If I could laugh, I would. It just feels so good, bubbles and suds everywhere ... and all the time the sand beneath my paws.

There is nothing to disturb us, just the sound of the sea, the gulls, occasionally footsteps running past on the sand. And Meme says that at least for this one moment in time, we have filled our senses to the limit ... and we have found peace.



'Til next time ...
Molly