Beach Bumming…And Destruction Of The RV (Sort Of)

Beach, sun, water & doggie….perfection!

So these past few days we’ve been back to the gorgeous San Diego winter weather that I know and love. Crisp, clear sunny blue days with picture-perfect shoreline and sea to match. That means beach-time for all of us, especially doggie, and since we’re such social butterflies we’ve been taking our friends along too.

Lu & Terry on the cliffs just south of Del Mar beach

Hiking by the big posh homes on Del Mar beach

Yesterday we took some hangtime with our good buddies Lu & Terry (of paintyourlandscape) who are camphosting up north at San Elijo State Beach. We met in the middle of our two locations and went for a 6-mile hike in our old “hood” by Del Mar. It’s a local hike that winds through canyons and across secret paths, through a scenic stretch along train-tracks and sandstone cliffs and finally onto Del Mar beach itself. A totally perfect day with clear skies, no wind, and (bonus) few people on the trails. Plus the extra bonus of good company, of course. We hadn’t seen Lu & Terry since our caravan trip down 395 so it was fabulous to catch up and spend the day doing something we all love.

Mystery package….exciting isn’t it?

Have tools. Will destroy. Resistance is futile.

Then today we recieved a package that we’ve been anticipating for a long time. For the sake of good blogging suspense I’m not going to tell you just yet what we got. Suffice to say it was large, boxy and so very exciting it prompted us to whip out tools and start ripping up parts of the RV. While Paul went golfing with Alex today I continued the destruction so that we are now at a “blank canvas” stage and ready to begin re-creating. And a thing of beauty it shall be.

All very inspiring, I know….and assuming we survive the end of the Mayan calendar you’ll just have to come back here to figure out what we’re up to.

Polly poses after a good run

Beach beauty

More beach magic

And a final sunset shot from the back of our RV park

Capturing The Perfect Shot -> Pet Portraits

With diffuse light I can really bring out the details in Polly's coat

Polly is a black mutt and from a photography point of view it I couldn’t have picked a harder subject. If you’ve ever tried to photograph a black dog you know exactly what I mean. In half the shots doggie comes out as an unidentifiable black blob, while in the other half the background gets so “blown out” so that all you can see is an alien white mass (with black blob in front).

But thankfully I’ve got a trick or two. This past week in the forest we’ve had the absolute perfect conditions (soft, filtered light and a neutral background) so I snapped up a bunch of Polly shots and decided to share some of my tips on the blog with another addition to my photography series. So, here ya go:

This was taken on a cloudy day

1/ Target Soft, Diffuse Light - I’ve always gotten my best pet shots in a soft, diffuse light.  Bright, direct light tends to bounce hard off shiny pet coats and ”blow out” the picture. It’s just far too harsh and the effect is even worse on dark-colored pets. A much better option is to find somewhere the light is filtered (e.g. through a window or under a forest canopy), or use very late evening or early morning light. Cloudy days are another great time to shoot. This kind of light will even out the coat and allow you bring out the details in your picture.

Sometimes you'll only get a second for that shot. My shutter speed was 1/200 here.

2/ Go Fast - Pets, like kids tend to move around a lot and sometimes it can be hard to capture the moment without blur. You best bet with pets is to go fast. So, set your camera to a fast shutter speed (around 1/200th is pretty good, or even faster if doggie is very active) and snap away. If the pictures look too dark I’ll usually up the ISO (to 400 or so), but I’ll always try to keep the shutter speed fast. On my Nikon SLR camera I use a simple fast lens (50mm f/1.8) for all my pet shots. On my point and shoot I’ll fix the shutter speed and let it chose the rest of the settings. Some point and shoots have a “pet” setting which does the same thing.

Getting those eyes is key. I used soft window light and a toy bribe for this shot.

3/ Get Those Eyes - One of the secrets to any kind of animal photography is to get the eyes in focus. The eyes are the window to the soul, and for pets in photos that certainly rings true. Even if the rest is out of focus, if the eyes are sharp the picture is really appealing. So, try to focus there and worry less about the rest.

Keep a simple background

4/ Choose a Simple Background - When you’re doing any kind of portrait work you want the focus of the shot to be on the subject. A busy background is always distracting, so try to choose a neutral or very clean background. For up-close work an even neutral-colored background works great (leaves, ground, wall etc.). For wider shots you can include some clean background (e.g. ocean, forest), but make sure the pet remains the main focus.

Get down into your pets' world

5/ Get Low and Close - Most of my best pet shots come from playing with perspective. So, I usually try to get down low and close to the pets’ level, or shoot from above or the side or below. Getting down low and close will get you more into your pets’ world and that’ll show in the shot.

Interaction with family can create lovely, intimate shots

6/ Cheat, Play & Bribe – I almost always bring treats or toys when I’m shooting pets. With Polly I’ve trained her to look at the camera, and get a treat for it, which helps to get that connection with the shot. You can dangle the treat right next to the lens as you’re shooting or get great “action” shots while your pet plays around with a toy. With the cats I’ll usually dangle a toy or treat. Interacting with people can create wonderful moments too, so bring in your other half to capture some family moments.

Snap away and you might get something unusual and fun

7/ Snap Away – In the digital age it’s so easy to snap away and I definitely encourage that with pets. Don’t be discouraged if your first shot isn’t any good. Just snap away and see what you get. Sometimes catching unusual moments (such as kitty yawning, or doggie laughing) can create really interesting shots and it only takes that one moment to get the perfect shot!

That’s about it folks. Got any tips of your own?

Totally In Love, Yet Again….

Serene and gorgeous Elephant Butte Lake

So, yet again I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love. I’m rather prone to this, being somewhat of a hopeless romantic, and it’s a good thing hubby has a very open view of my fancies or we’d both be in trouble. Usually my fluttering heartstrings strum along the whims of chocolate, wine and other such indulgences, but this time they’re locked on a place. Yup folks I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been enchanted, bewitched and swept away by New Mexico.

The High Desert at City of Rocks

I have to admit I didn’t expect it. We really didn’t know of anything about New Mexico before we got here, and our original plan was for a short 2-week drive-though (stopping at a few of the better known spots) before rushing headlong into our beloved CO mountains. A sequence of chance events changed all that. First of all the snow’s been hanging around far longer than expected up North, then I started seeing blog posts from other RVers on New Mexico and slowly, but surely we got drawn in and our plans extended.  

I’m just so happy they did and it gives me the chance to share a few reasons why this is going down on the list as one of our favorite States ever:

Just another great walk in nature

1/ Variation Abounds: New Mexico has much more variation and beauty than we every originally expected. From glorious mountains to high-desert plains, sand dunes, rocks, forests, lakes, ghost towns and ancient pueblos there’s really no end of interest for anyone and everyone. You could easily spend months here and still not see everything. Also, the variation in elevation and geology allows you every kind of weather. Too hot in the desert? Just drive on over to the mountains. It’s all right there!

A millionaire's view for $4/night

2/ It’s Such a DEAL: I’ve mentioned it before, but darn it I just can’t get over it!! The Annual Camping Permit ($225 for out-of-state) covers almost all your camping fees for a year. Whenever we roll into a State Park (all of which have been lovely, by the way) it’s either free or a mere $4/night for electric hook-up. On top of that there are masses of dispersed camping in the forests and even more open space on the BLM lands (which we have yet to hit).

The views are stunning

3/ The Views are Stunning: This kind of goes back to #1, but I’ve rarely been in so many campgrounds with so many gorgeous views. We are (yet again) overlooking a fabulous and spectacular view here in Elephant Butte and I’m just wondering when our winning streak will end. Are all the campgrounds this pretty? We’ll see!

There's nobody here but us...

4/ There’s Practically No One Here: New Mexico has a grand total of 2 million residents with a lot of open space in between (making it the sixth-most sparsely inhabited State). The RV scene seems to be just as light which makes this place a hidden gem in our eyes. We love the fact that most of the State Parks and forests have masses of first-come-first-serve sites and we love the fact that everything is so accessible. Since we don’t have to reserve ahead of time we’ve been able to take it slow and pace ourselves with our surroundings. Most of the campgrounds are almost completely empty during the week and we’ve not yet had a problem getting in anywhere.

A dog-gone-paradise!

5/ It’s Totally Dog-Friendly: Anywhere that welcomes dogs always gets bonus points from us and New Mexico has definitely delivered on the paw front. Everywhere we’ve been has been very dog-relaxed and friendly allowing pooch on all the trails and in all the lakes. A lot of the places we’ve visited have open and empty spots where pooch can run free without hindrance and some even allow “voice control”  rather than leash. It’s a dog-gone-loving paradise!

So far our time in New Mexico is looking like it’s stretching to 6 weeks and it’s still rather open on the other end. We just extended our stay here in Elephant Butte and delayed another week for the next spot. After all, why not? As the French would say “Il n’est rien de réel que le rêve et l’amour” (nothing is real but dreams and love), so if you’re given the chance for both take it for all it’s worth.

A Delay & Re-Route For Pooch

When pooch is under the weather, we're all under the weather

Well, we’ve ended up staying in the little town of Edna, TX a little longer than expected. A few days back our pooch, Polly started getting sick. At first it didn’t seem like much, dogs being prone to little upsets now and then, but after a full night of vomiting followed by a morning of bright red diarrhea we knew we weren’t going to be moving the RV for a while. I’ve got a fair number of home remedies that I use, and am pretty good at being able to diagnose and heal general minor issues in the animals, but I also know when it’s time to pack it in and see a vet, and this was one of those times.

Polly sleeps off the medication

Bright red poo, medically called hematochezia, signifies something is irritating the lower intestine, and it can be caused by a number of issues. My thought was it was likely either something she’d eaten outside or some kind of parasite she’d picked up. So, we googled the nearest vet, rang ‘em up and went in for an afternoon appointment. The vet (as with most vets we’ve used on the road) was a lovely gentlemen and he agreed with my initial thoughts. So, it was onto medication for 3 days while hoping the thing cleared up (or we would go back for more tests).

It's beautiful right here

So, here we’ve been. It’s always heartbreaking when your animals are sick especially since they can’t really tell you what’s wrong, but we were definitely not going anywhere until Polly got better. Thankfully on day 2 of the medication things took a turn for the positive, and we’re hopeful she’s over the worst of it, but it does mean we’ve had to re-route our trip somewhat. So, instead of heading 3 days to boondock down in Padre National Seashore, we’re going to cut across directly to San Antonio/Austin and pick up our original itinerary from there.

We'll stick together until the skies clear

These things do happen, and thankfully we can be flexible and work around them. We’ll enjoy our surroundings, relax and sleep things off. It’s beautiful here, in it’s on way, and there’s no rush to see the next thing or even to see it at all.

If pooch is under the weather, we’re all under the weather so we’ll stick together until the skies clear.

Finding Pet-Friendly Spots On the Road

Dog-beach at Fort de Soto, FL...wet and wonderful!

In our house you could say camping has gone to the dogs…or the cats. Either way, camping is ALL about the pets for us. After all, what’s the point of being somewhere if you can’t share it with your furry friends, both the human and the animal version? So, when we’re on the road we do our prep work to make sure the places we go are pet-friendly, and our pets nod their approval with kitty-purrs and sloppy kisses. Here’s our favourite resources:

1. General Dog-Friendly Spots - http://dogfriendly.com/ and http://www.bringfido.com/ are our two of our all-time favorite online doggie sites.  A newer website which is growing and looks very promising is http://gopetfriendly.com/. These 3 sites list almost everything that’s dog-friendly everywhere, including city guides, parks, hiking, beaches etc. When we’re in a spot and looking for a place to take pooch, we go here.

2. Private Campgrounds – Although we tend to avoid them these days, most private campgrounds do accept pets, but some will have either size, breed or number restrictions. If you do your research you can find exceptional dog-loving spots, for example Four Paws Kingdom in NC and Winding River RV Park in CO (a Polly-approved spot), but unfortunately we haven’t found a good guide that sorts through all the choices. The sites from #1 have listings, plus there’s a couple of other websites out there (e.g. petswelcome.com and petfriendlytravel.com), but they’re generally spotty/incomplete. Of the big three GoPetFriendly.com seems to have the most promising listing directory. Given the trouble and our need for more open space and hiking we’ve ditched this option for #3, 4 and 5 below.

Taggart takes time to sniff the flowers at Curt Gowdy State Park, WY

3. National Forest & State Parks – If you asked Polly she’d likely wonder why we EVER stay in a private park, and I have to admit we’ve come around to her point of view. As opposed to private campgrounds, National Forest and State Parks rarely have any pet restrictions. In addition they tend to have plenty of space, dog-friendly hiking trails and (often) open spots/fields where one can go a little dog-nutty (as one does, on occasion). In fact we consider these areas 12 paws better than the real thing and haven’t stayed elsewhere in months. For National Forest check out http://www.forestcamping.com/, and http://www.recreation.gov/. For State Parks, go to the State webpage for your area.

4. Army Corps of Engineers - The Army Corps of Engineers is another pet-friendly group that manages over 2,500 recreation areas. We’ve tried quite a few of their campgrounds and find them right up our alley. They’re often centered around lake areas that’ll have an “unofficial” spot where you and doggie can enjoy the water together. The Corps publishes a book and also runs a website with their locations: http://corpslakes.usace.army.mil/visitors/

5. Bureau of Land Management - In addition to the official camping spots, our government manages a ton of other public land which is open to everyone, including our furry friends. Your home-grown RVer can easily find a nice, primitive campground here, while the more adventurous boondocker can search for completely-off-the-beaten-track camping spots. http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.html

6. Hiking Trails – We are big paw-fans of the trails on National Forest and  State Parks, but if you’re looking for something more specific “Best Hikes with Dogs“ has created a website and guide books dedicated to the art of getting out in the wild with doggie. Check them out: http://www.besthikeswithdogs.com/

Hiking into the sunset at Cumberland Mountain State Park, TN

And that, as they say, is how you do it. You’ll notice National Parks are not on this list and for good reason. Despite the nature and open space, National Parks are rather dog-unfriendly and most won’t allow pooch on any of the trails (with very, very few exceptions). We’re quite happy with our somewhat off-the-track spots and are likely to go even more off-beat as time goes on.

So, on that note, may the rivers be plentiful, the squirrels abound and the paws be with you on all your travels….