Saturday, August 18 – Wednesday, August 22

Nancy and I devise a plan for the initial meeting of our canine crews.  Via phone, as she and Frank are almost at the house in the rental truck that’s towing a car trailer, we decide that Reggie and Roger be kept inside the house until Margaret the Westie is within the fenced yard.

Otherwise my boys would charge the gate, barking, jumping, possibly getting out of the yard, and generally causing confusion.

Instead, we humans and Marg greet each other while Reggie and Roger watch through the dining room window.   Then I open the door and they fly out to meet the strange, white dog on the porch.

The plan works beautifully!

After a few moments of sniffing each other’s behinds with their tails wagging, Marg decides to go inside to check out the interior of her new home.

She returns to the open door to give her report on what she has found:

“I like it!  I really like it!”

Soon all three pups play together.

I try for a few photos, while at the same time experiencing the moment of seeing family after several years.  The three pups tangle around our legs in playful exuberance and my photos don’t come out well.

Later . . . .

I find Reg and Rog showing Marg around the backyard.

It’s like they’ve known each other for years!

Nancy loves plants.

She can take a half-dead plant off the clearance rack in Walmart’s garden center, pay less than a dollar for it, bring it home, re-pot and pamper it, and within a few months the plant is healthy, huge, and looking like an expensive purchase from a nursery.

She has a lot of plants.

Anyway . . . 

Before setting out from Florida, Frank researches the feasibility of transporting plants in the back of a cargo truck all the way to southern Arizona.

He learns that the plants will survive for three days.  The fourth day they start dying.  The drive from Florida to Arizona takes almost four days.

This is the fourth day.

The back one-third of the 26-foot rental truck is packed with potted palms, ferns, cacti, succulents, flowering bushes, vines, and I don’t know what-all.  All of it lovely green.

We can’t wait for the movers to arrive to unload the truck.  Well, actually it’s the plants that cannot wait.

They need to be taken off that truck right away.

Frank unhooks the car trailer and backs the rental truck behind the house.  He brings out the ramp to the patio.  The three of us begin unloading plants, some of them six feet tall in crockery pots 3 feet in diameter.  We have a dolly and a hand cart to work with.

Nancy discovers that her favorite pot, holding a big palm, didn’t survive the bumpy roads. From the pieces I can tell that it had a beautiful, aged quality, as if out of antiquity.  What a shame.

The palm did survive the trip.

(Later Nancy wraps the root ball with a towel and keeps it moist.  The palm is doing well.)

The afternoon is hot and so is the work hauling plants.  

Soon I have to take a break.  Nancy turns on the hose and sprays the plants once they are in the covered patio area.  The water perks them up.

The rental truck blocks the big gates from closing.

We can’t keep the dogs in the house.  They want to be outside where the action is and they’re very excited.  I’m not surprised when Roger darts out of the yard and Reggie follows.

Marg, on the other hand, isn’t interested in straying too far from Nancy’s side.  Eventually my boys return to the yard and all is well.

~ ~ ~

I’ll post photos of the plants in a future post.

Several readers showed interest in the meeting of the three dogs, so that’s what I feature in this post’s photos.

It was nice seeing Frank again after 40 some years.

Nancy works hard for several hours arranging furniture and accessories.  I try to help, mostly by staying out of her way.  Plus the movers help carry big furniture inside.

Frank puts up two light fixtures.  Nancy brought a total of 64 boxes.  I offer to help unpack, but she prefers to unpack them as she’s ready to place the contents in order to avoid creating a mess.

My job soon becomes the breaking down of the boxes, loading them in the Perfect Tow Vehicle, and on Tuesday, taking them and other stuff to the transfer station.

I had steaks ready for Nancy’s grill for Sunday dinner.  

(Frank likes the potato salad.)

Frank leaves for New York Monday morning.  He’s missing his family (He and his wife have two small children) so he’s anxious to return home.  He’s been involved in this move for a week, including the horrible travel with the rental truck.  Plus he has to go to work Tuesday morning.

Thank you, Frankie!

The house is already feeling like home, like our home.

~ ~ ~

This is a jumbled report.

Lots is left out, of course, because it’s been an exciting and memorable few days, and there’s still much I’m wanting to do.

I throw this together so that those of you interested would know that the meeting of canine crews is a total success.  Reg, Rog, and Marg have not had one disagreement.  Not one!

Little Marg loves it here. 

Already she loves her new pals and they love her.

The kicker for me . . .

Yesterday afternoon I take a nap in my new, pretty bed.   What a pleasant surprise to wake and find Marg lying quietly alongside me, leaning against my back.  I roll over and put my arm around her.

rvsue

NOTE:  Most of the pics are Roger and Marg.  Reggie plays with Marg, too, just as much as Roger does.  However, I haven’t captured photos of that yet.  — Sue

THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG!

To see products recently purchased by readers or to browse and shop at Amazon, follow any of these links:

Outdoor Table Umbrella
SwingAway Car Organizer
Lace/Crochet Trim Voile Window Curtains
The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin – The 60’s
Decorative Throw Pillow Cover, Cartoon Cat
Webcam, Widescreen Video Calling and Recording

RVSue and her canine crew is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.