One fall we enjoyed a long hunting trip at Tim's parents' property in northern Minnesota. This is a great way to hunt as a family because it is private land and they have an amazing permanent ground blind set up at the edge of the woods that we can all squeeze into.
After a wonderful 2 weeks of hunting and family fun, we packed up the motorhome and were all set to leave at 3am the following morning. All was going well as we got the motorhome warmed up & transitioned the kids from their bed in the house to their bed in the motorhome. With coffees in hand and a satisfied air of strategic brilliance, we only had to load up the dogs and head out.
This is where perfect flew out the window. Our trip was delayed 20 minutes as Tim cleaned up an extravagant mess of diarrhea from the dogs' room in the garage. That delay aside, our minds were immediately processing the prospect of a 20 hour drive with dogs in this condition. Not long into our trip, we discovered it was our black lab, Camper, who had the problem. I was continuously jolted into clean-up action as our sick dog lost control of himself - again. It was awful... nauseating... not funny at all...
Until later.
Towards the end of the trip it hit me: this is the trip we will be talking about for years. We will look back and laugh hilariously as we consider the ordeal we went through. We plan our best, but sometimes things go all wrong. There is always risk to adventure - that's what makes it an adventure! The point is to enjoy the journey - all of it. And even if you can't laugh in the moment, take heart knowing that someday you will!
To bring closure to this story, we have evidence to suggest that Camper got into some rat poison, being the skilled scavenger that he is. He suffered for days to the point of not being able to move at all, but through our prayers and God's goodness, our cherished dog recovered and is back to normal (albeit about 15 pounds lighter than he was before, which, according to the vet, is a good thing).
Road-trip ready