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How strange is this? — It’s not Monday, but I’m posting the latest RoadDog news.

There’s a reason for that — we’re about to head out on V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N tomorrow morning, so I won’t be able to post on Monday and probably not the Monday after that either. Sorry faithful fans of our motorcycle-riding four-legged friend, but the next blog likely won’t go up until August 16.

We have some exciting plans for the next two weeks — lots of riding, visiting new places, meeting up with friends and family, and having new adventures.

Jake’s bag is packed — well, most of it anyway — and, yes, he really does have his own bag for when we travel. It’s filled with his favourite treats (all but the Timbits, we’ll get those along the way), his food (because you don’t want to change a dog’s diet when he’s riding around on a motorcycle), a tennis ball for romping, a towel for wiping wet paws and sometimes an entire wet dog if he decides to take a swim, a couple of bandanas and his sunglasses (you never know when he might want to impress the lady dogs, or the lady people for that matter) and his comb to try to keep all that hair under control. There are a few other things, such as first aid supplies, and we’ll pack lots of bottled water and buy lots more as we travel (the comment about food also applies to giving him strange water).

Yep, it seems RoadDog is ready to hit the road. We’re off to have new adventures to write about in the weeks to come.
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It just might have been Jake’s perfect day — a ride, a path, a swim, a roll in the grass to dry off and then it all ended with a Timbit.

After that, I guess it goes without saying that our little family went for a ride on Saturday. Steve and I have some new helmets — shorties for the first time since we’re trying to stay cool in the recent hot weather — so we headed out to give them a try. It really was a beautiful day. We went down the LaHave River to Voglers Cove, then out on the highway as far as Mahone Bay, then we took the secondary road down to Chester so Jake could romp around on Graves Island. And romp he did.

Our crazy Cairn ran around on the grass, but soon found a path we hadn’t seen before, a path that led down to a tiny sand beach. Within a minute he was down there strolling into the water. He was really funny to watch and went in deeper than he usually does. Jake likes the water as long as he can touch bottom and this time he went in until the water went right up over his back. We’re not really sure what exactly happened next — either Jake started to float a bit (which is doubtful since he’s let’s just say rather solid) or the sand slightly gave way under his feet. Regardless, it left Jake scrambling to get turned around in water that was pretty much up to his chin, but he did it. It didn’t seem to deter him either, since he strolled back into the water again and again after that, just not quite so deep.

He ended up very wet and rather sandy, but once he made it back up the bank he went a little nuts rolling around on the grass and was dry in no time and ready to hit the road again. Well, okay, we might have encouraged him a little to get him to leave his perfect parkland by telling him we’d go to Tim’s, which we did, the one in Mahone Bay.

We sat on a bench looking at the boats and the ducks in the water. Jake had a Timbit. Steve and I had iced coffees. It really was pretty close to a perfect day.

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It never ceases to surprise me that there is always someplace to go and something to see and do within a few hours’ drive in the summer, indeed for most of the year.

I hear people talk about having nothing to do sometimes and I just shake my head. There are so many events in Nova Scotia that so many volunteers put so much time and effort into making successful. Add to that the fact that tourists travel for hundreds, even thousands, of miles to take in the sights here and I wonder if people who say they are bored make much of an effort to find something to see and do.

Take this weekend for example. Steve and I decided to head down to Shelburne Founders’ Days on Saturday afternoon, mostly for the ride, but also to see what it was all about since we’d never been to the festival. As I’ve written before, I really love the Shelburne waterfront so I didn’t need any convincing.

It was a great and very diverse event that I’m sure must have had something for everyone. There were water activities — the dory races were happening while we were there — and all kinds of history and culture, from traditional Mi’kmaq crafts to an 18th century military encampment, from street vendors to sporting challenges. And that’s just while we were there. There was also musical entertainment, fireworks, decorated boats and pirates … yep, pirates.

Admittedly, it was pretty warm on Saturday afternoon, especially walking around in jeans and bike boots, but we drank lots of water and stayed where there was a breeze as much as possible and the three of us had a great time. Jake met a few other dogs and had his first ever Li’l Orbits donuts. Those were a big hit with both of my boys.

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You don’t always have to go far to find a not-so-hidden treasure.

The funny thing about travelling, whether on a motorcycle or by car, is that we so often think we have to go great distances to find something worthy of visiting. We drive to the other end of the province or another province to stop at parks or seashores or museums or whatever takes our fancy. Yet how often to we drive by our own local places without stopping or without even thinking about stopping. We’ll spend an hour at a park after driving an hour to get there, rather than just spend an hour at one of our own parks or scenic places.

It seems the old saying that familiarity breeds contempt really is true.

When you stop to think about it, how many tourists flock to the South Shore of Nova Scotia every year? They come here because they think we have something special here. Yet how often do we stop to recognize the treasures all around us?

I was struck with this thought a few weeks ago when Steve and Jake and I went for a ride. Steve hadn’t been feeling well for about a week, but he wanted to take the bikes out somewhere, so he came up with the idea of going to Western Shore. We could stop at Wild Rose Park, get take-out from Island View Restaurant (I believe he convinced me with promises of lobster sandwiches) and have a quick picnic.

It was beautiful. Wild Rose really is a lovely park with lots of picnic tables and a breathtaking seaside view. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze off the water. Tourists would have loved it and we did too. Jake scampered around the rocks and rose bushes, met some people and some other dogs, and generally had a great time.

And the lobster sandwiches were really good too.

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Wow, I love summer.

What’s not to love — warm weather, ice cream, barbecues, beaches and riding with my boys.

Steve and Jake and I have spent quite a lot of time on the road lately. We’ve been joking that we’re building our endurance for our upcoming road trip. What a wonderful excuse to keep riding and ignore all those chores that need to be done at home. The chores will still be there, but this fabulous weather is definitely going to disappear at some point.

Canada Day was kind of crazy this year. I had to work most of it. Steve had to work some of it. But we still managed to squeeze out about two hours for a trip down to Chester, then into Mahone Bay for ice cream. It was fun.

Saturday was a great day. We rode up Highway 8 through the northern part of Queens County (for some reason I love that section of road) and on to Annapolis Royal, which is one of my favourite places to visit. Jake’s too. As usual, we tried to have a quiet cup of coffee (well Steve had coffee, I had my usual vanilla latte) sitting outside our favourite Annapolis coffee shop, but Jake had other ideas.

Once the oatcake disappeared (they don’t sell Timbits there), he wasn’t going to sit still. He could see the giant green lawns of Fort Anne across the street and Jake does love large expanses of green grass. He scampered around there for more than an hour, up and down the hills and around the paths, stopping to roll here and there, four paws in the air, tongue flopping from one side of his mouth to the other. It’s quite funny and more than one person stopped and chuckled.

Then we headed north, eventually ending up in Kentville and coming back down Highway 12. It was such a fun day.

We went around the Aspotogan on Sunday afternoon, our first trip around the peninsula this year. The idea was to cool off from all the heat and it certainly worked. Let’s just say it was refreshing down around Deep Cove and Blandford with the wind blowing ashore and white caps on the water. We definitely cooled off, then stopped to let Jake wander around at Bayswater provincial park where lots of families were having picnics and other people were just relaxing — exactly what we were doing in our own way.

Summer really is just the best thing.

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