— A Most Excellent Adventure — 

April 22, 2006 – "DaDane" is quite late this week, but for good reason. I was traveling again. My husband and I flew to San Luis Obispo, CA, last week to visit Mary and Greg Lugo with their two Great Danes, Maud and Simon. Naturally, from Maud's point of view, we came to visit HER and nobody else. As Maud would put it, "I am the original Barbie Dane – Queen of the Realm – so of course you came here to bathe yourselves in my radiant beauty. No matter that the sun was shining and the California wildflowers were in full bloom, everything pales in comparison to me."

To prove her point, Maud took us on a most excellent adventure, which she's documented in her very own words:

This is a photograph of Morro Bay taken at Montaña de Oro State Park.
I live just a few miles away. The view is almost as lovely as I am, don't you think?

The wildflowers around here are quite pretty, too. (But I am prettier.)

Some of the flowers are bright orange california poppies.

And some of the flowers are blue.

We took a road trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument.
Contrary to how it looks, I am NOT playing in the flowers. I am hunting ground squirrels.

Ground squirrels are very clever critters. They escape through underground tunnels.

Someday I will catch one and give it to Mary. That's because I love her very much.

To prove it, I saved her from two rattlers "making whoopee" on the San Andreas Fault.

Ms. Ginnie got close enough to take their picture but said she was ready to run.
That was pretty stupid, if you ask me. Everyone knows you should avoid snakes.

This is the San Andreas Fault at Wallace Creek, where we saw the rowdy rattlesnakes.

Wallace Creek is far from anywhere and provides broad vistas in all directions.

I saw another ground squirrel at Wallace Creek. Here I am, plotting my strategy.

I surprised everyone by pointing perfectly – twice, in fact. Ms. Ginnie couldn't quite capture
the moment, but that's okay because and I couldn't quite capture the squirrel.

We saw some big tumbleweed while we were driving.

And brilliant yellow flowers carpeted the landscape as far as the eye could see.

There were no other people around, just some cows. Even the cows were few and far between.

This one didn't like me very much. I think my big beautiful spots made her nervous.
(Poor thaaaang! She was a brindle, hahaha.)

The ostriches didn't like me either, but that's okay because I didn't
want to fool with them. They had icky tongues and smelled funny.

We ate lunch at Richie's Market. (Talk about a hole in the wall.)
Stay tuned, we're not done yet, more to follow...

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