#dogsonabus

While in Acadia, Lucas finalized his job in Minnesota working the Sugar Beet harvest and we had five days to get there, from Maine to Minnesota. We decided to drive back to his grandmother’s and get a good night’s sleep before leaving.

We went from Acadia to Grand Forks in four days.

  By the time we made it to Grand Forks, ND we had visited

Virginia

Maryland

Delaware

New Jersey

New York

Vermont

New Hampshire

Maine

Connecticut

Pennsylvania

Ohio

Michigan

Indiana

Illinois

Wisconsin

Minnesota

North Dakota

We hit 17 states, skipping Rhode Island because I was worried about not getting to Grand Forks in a timely manner.

Tiny one liked to sneak under the driver seat, which is unsafe.

  Gas cost on average $2.08, sometimes we found it for $1.89, and sometimes we couldn’t find anything cheaper than $2.39. The GasGuru helped us find lower gas prices, if we were running low and had to get the expensive gas we would just get like $10 worth.

The first day and a half of driving was uneventful and we just ate leftover food and deli sandwiches.

Beautiful Rest Stop View

Nice View

When driving long distances , it’s really nice to find paths and nice views to break up the monotony of the road. I can’t exactly remember where this was, but I’m pretty sure it was West of Ohio.

We spent the day in Kalamazoo, Michigan and I have a whole separate post about the nice time we had there.

Overall the drive wasn’t that bad and we made it to Grand Forks in four days, with quite a few stops to pee and stretch our legs.

One of the highlights of the trek was a stop for breakfast in a small town in Minnesota named Ashby. We were starving and didn’t feel like eating yogurt or cereal and decided we wanted a Denny’s or diner type breakfast. After about 20-30 miles of not seeing a Denny’s, we decided to take the next exit, which was for Ashby, MN. It was a few minutes off the highway to get to the town, but once there we found a local diner and had a great breakfast and talked to own of the owners who told us her and a few of her fellow classmates had bought the place and were redoing things. She said that if we decided to live there, we’d be welcome with open arms. The town has a current population of 446.

There was a display from a local museum of a bunch of duck species, and look at that OLD register!

Pumpernickel Rye, the BEST type of bread in all of history! And that sausage, YUM

  I’ve got two other posts coming about the other food along the way and our day spent in Kalamazoo!

 It took Max some getting used to, but he finally learned how to relax while we drive.

  Having the dogs on this trip has proved to be a little more stressful than we thought. We have worked out hardest to give them the most exercise, but sometimes we have to drive long distances and the dogs get really restless. Max will pace while the bus is moving and the little one tries to jump into the seat while Lucas drives. We pull over for bathroom breaks and to stretch at least once every three if not two hours.

 We bought the little one a bed first, and the big one tried to snuggle in it. Now they both have one and it has helped somewhat, especially at night, the bed is not big enough for us and the dogs.

The first state we went to was Delaware and Rehoboth Beach. We were so eager to get on the road, we didn’t realize that it was the last weekend before school started, and it was 90 degrees. It was so incredibly busy and hot at the beach that we didn’t spend that much time there. Dogs are not permitted at Rehoboth until after labor (I believe) and we googled where to go that would allow dogs. Slaughter beach about thirty minutes away was dog friendly, the internet is a great, great tool as most every site on this trip has had a specific section clarifying the dog rules.

Slaughter beach was at low tide, but the dogs still enjoyed themselves. Max kept drinking the water and the little one was afraid of it.

This is a (dead) horseshoe crab, which there were tons of along the beach, apparently something makes them wash onshore and it’s a problem, poor little crazy looking crabs.

We hit one more beach in Delaware that was dog friendly and similar to Slaughter beach and then spent a few hours at a state park, Camp Henlopen before going North.

 So far the dogs have been doing well with so much change.

The only thing about New Jersey that had any interest to myself or Lucas was the street with my last name on it, Grochowiak st in South River. This is a trip where we are taking time for ourselves, so that means driving a few hours to stop and take a picture of a street sign.

 What a beautiful end of August day in South River, NJ!

We made some lunch, stopped at a thrift store and a Russian grocery store.

After I got this interesting Russian crisp to snack on, we headed to Long Island where my uncle Mark lives.

My uncle was gracious enough to let us sleep in his bed with his fancy new sheets of the apartment he was renovating and take us out to dinner the two nights we were there. His apartment was 90% boxes , so I felt that we were holding him back from progress and decided we should not stay a third night or we would further stall his progress.

The first night he took us to Viaggio Tapas in Rockville Centre where he lives (http://viaggiotapas.com/) and it was so delicious. We ordered probably 12 tapas, and every single one, including a few extra snacks that came were amazing. The tapas were seriously better than most of what we had in Spain (though in Spain we enjoyed things on a smaller budget).

I don’t have many pictures, because of how quickly we ate things as they were delivered.

 Such a great dinner!

We went to bed pretty early after such a large dinner, but not before we had some dessert.

Front Row L2R: Uncle Mark, Elena, Gianna Back Row L2R: Lucas, Nick, Me; Caitlin

  Next day we needed some exercise and so did the puppies. We headed to Hempstead lake state park, which was $8 to enter.

 Another beautiful end of summer day with our super awkward dogs.

They got some fun in.

  We walked around the whole lake, which I think was about a mile and a half and they even got to play in the water. The little one is still getting used to water, she’s a bit afraid.

 On the way out, I filled up my water containers a little bit, since it cost $8 to get in, and New York water is really clean. It took a little while, but we probably got like three gallons.

After the park we got washed up and met my uncle at his house. We went and picked up my cousins and went to dinner somewhere else that had great food, Sole. (http://www.soleny.com/)

I got a wedge salad for an app, which was delish and although I had been in the mood for pasta, ended up getting the salmon, which was perfect. My cousins Gianna and Nick both got the Chicken Parmigiana Ravioli’s which were also delicious.

 After dinner we went for a walk on the boardwalk, although it was a bit windy we had a nice, short walk and finished the evening off with coldstone creamery.

  When building the bus, we weren’t sure what was best for the dogs, we knew they both needed their own space somewhere in the bus. The little one, Minnie really would be comfortable anywhere, as long as she is close to us, so it wasn’t too much of an adjustment for her. The big one, Max took a little time to get used to the bus and it’s smaller space.

 Here’s a pic of the dogs on a trip to our storage unit, they were really not into all the clutter.

 Max loves to chill out under the bus.

Before we hit the road we switched their food to a national brand so we wouldn’t have trouble finding it on the trip, we bought six months of heartworm medicine and some advantix flea and tick medicine. We looked into an electric fence, but right now just have a 30 foot long leash we clip the dogs onto.