Book One: the First Four Dog Vacations

This nonfiction book, which reads like a novel, was written by a dog lover for other dog lovers to enjoy. It traces the first four trips Kel and Carolyn took their adopted shelter dogs, Bea and B.B., on. Among the places they visited on their first cross-country journey, which began in late September, were St. Louis, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Albany, New York; the Northeast Kingdom way up in Vermont and New Hampshire; Salem Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Olive Branch, Mississippi, with many stops along the way in smaller towns and villages.

Readers who have been to these places will experience these same cities, small towns, and villages in a totally different way by reading Dog Vacations. They’ll feel like they’re riding right along with the foursome.

Since traveling with dogs results in many surprises, much humor, an abundance of joy, some challenges, a few trials, and the triumphs of overcoming them, plus that always abiding unconditional love all dogs give to their human companions, you’ll relish reading this book if you love dogs.

After the catastrophe that hit on their very first trip, undaunted, the second excursion in November took them to the West Coast. Along the way to San Francisco, they spent a night in Tucumcari, New Mexico; explored the Grand Canyon while staying in Flagstaff, Arizona; stopped in at Calico, California, which is a ghost town; discovered one of the best kept secrets in California — the small beach town of Cayucos on the Central Coast; and later made their way home through Bakersfield, California; Sedona, Arizona; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Amarillo, Texas.

Thinking Texas would be a fun place to go in January for the third journey, the foursome drove all the way down to South Padre Island off the southernmost tip of Texas staying in Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. They learned a valuable lesson about the monsoon season in this large state but still had a good time even in the rain.

The last trek in this first book was back to Sedona, Arizona, to stay longer since they’d fallen in love with the Forest Houses resort which they had only rented for one night there on the way home from California. This time their trip was during late May, and the scenery had changed considerably from that of November. Instead of booking the Barn House, they settled for the Tree House and were happy with the balcony looking down on the pathway where they all four watched people and their dogs hike by. Besides doing lots of fun and interesting things with “the girls,” their special nickname for Bea and B.B., Kel and Carolyn also rode their hybrid bicycles on some treks during most of the aforementioned trips.

There are two more books in this Dog Vacations series — Book 2: The Next Six Dog Vacations and Book 3: Bea and B.B.’s Last Four Dog Vacations.

The newest series is entitled Have Dog Will Travel which has the first of four books now published: Book 1: B.B. Goes West.