Walk and roll

The new inspection sticker on my van.
Good until March, 2015.

I was without transportation until Thursday of this week. We dropped the van off for inspection Sunday evening and didn't hear anything for a few days.  I knew at least three things that would cause it to fail and was really questioning how much more money to put into it given the 250,000+ mileage. We were talking about replacement options. Clay floated the idea of him getting a new one and me taking his Subaru. Nice try. The hand-me-down trick worked for the cell phone replacement but I wasn't falling for it this time. When I finally talked to repair shop, there were only two things that had to be fixed and the total was very low. So the van rolls again, street legal for another year.

I'm not sure if this was before the hike or after
we got home, but that's Sparky enthusiasm.

Thursday's 8 miler

I got out for a good 8 mile hike with Sparky on Thursday. That dog is such a joy on the trails. I'm a little concerned about encountering other dogs when I'm out with Sparky, but when we go in the middle of the day and avoid the dog park area we can usually get by with minimal or no encounters.

Ochie enjoyed it and he needed it.

Seven miles with Ochie, starting at the dog park
area of Pleasant Grove, where we are more
likely to encounter other people and dogs. 

On Friday afternoon I took Ochie, which really made me appreciate walking with Sparky even more. Ochie is probably half his size, but the first couple of miles he was constantly jerking me around as he jumped from side to side. After a couple of miles, I was warmed up and he settled down so we had a pretty good walk. We covered over 7 miles--not quite as far or quite as fast as the day before, but still a pretty good effort for the day.