Seriously, We Were Promised Flying Cars!!

F. Me...

Thursday had a sour note ring out a mile from the exit to home. The last mile of a 3 mile uphill. In a stick shift. At 8pm after a long work day with no dinner. Hungry and tired with a frozen pizza and beer waiting at home a mere unattainable 6 miles away. 45 minutes idling before I could even begin to travel that one mile. Uphill. In a stick shift. Inch by clutch filled inch. So close. So stationary. Why THP/Metro NEVER directs traffic when an accident takes a lane is beyond me (this instance was just a rolled over tow behind camper off the side of the road). They could have routed these 3 lanes of traffic off onto our exit, across 431 and back onto the interstate completely bypassing the area affected by the tow truck and tdot activity. Nary a cop to be seen except for the 1 that just turned around through the grassy median. This along with the Tennessee turn (where a driver turns left suddenly from the farthest right lane possible or vice versa) are the two most common traffic annoyances I run across on a near daily basis.

Where the hell are the flying cars of the future promised to us by all those Warner Bros., MGM, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 50's, 60's, and 70's? If we can't get flying cars can we at least get jet-pack equipped flying traffic cops that can un-congest the congested?

Once the flood gates opened it was mere minutes before the smell of cooking pizza wafted through the air and the cold Yuengling helped turn my frown upside down. JD had shredded the bedding in Tommy and Riley's crate so a brief stop at PetSmart after work to pick up a new bed for their crate was in order. I grabbed some busy bones of appropriate size for each of the 4 pups awaiting me at home, guaranteeing me a beg free pizza dinner as they whittled their bones down. Life was looking up.

The forecast for Friday entailed a high of 70 and bluebird skies, meaning for the second Friday in a row it was going to be an awesome day in the woods for me and the pup. After running several errands and enjoying a late morning sleep, JD and I headed off for some much anticipated laps out at Monkey Bell.

White and Blue are prime right now.

We actually got a few days rain in this week which kept the dust levels low, the leaf levels high, and the creeks actually contain some water. JD took advantage of each creek's offering of fresh cold water. We stuck to Blue, White, and Red for most of the ride. Blue and White are less traveled, leaf covered, hilly, and twisty tight requiring a bit more work than the highly traveled Red/Yellow loops. Perfect trails allowing me to really work while not forcing the pup into the red zone trying to keep up on the downhills more common to the Red/Yellow loops.

After our laps we headed back home. I still felt the need for a bit more trail and the guests were in need of some exercise, so we all headed out back for a few laps of the home trail. This was my first off-leash trail experience with Tommy and Riley. Surprisingly, for little spastic tiny dogs, they did great. Riley was really good at sticking to my wheel. Tommy was good for the most part, but any scent, sighting, hint or hope of horse/coyote/deer excrement and he was off to the buffet. It took a little shoe-to-butt encouragement before he got over his scat infatuation and stuck with us on the trail. By the last 2 laps all 3 dogs were tagging right along behind me.

Tommy Toughpants Terrier-izing

We stopped for a little swim before heading back to the house. Riley and JD retrieved sticks (Riley trying to always steal the stick from JD) while Tommy stuck to terrier-izing the bank inhabitants.