Sometimes you just need an adventure

This has been an interesting week.  In some ways, life felt a little more normal than it had been, in others, life is still keeping me on my toes.  

Monday felt like a very typical Monday.  It was a normal day full of meetings at work.  After a busy day, the girls and I were able to get out for a nice walk around the neighborhood.    

Early Tuesday morning, we got the news that the paperwork had finally gone through for my dad to move out of the hospital into rehab.  They expected him to move mid-day, and my mom couldn't make it to the hospital that morning, so I changed my schedule and went early for my Tuesday visit.  When I got there, I noticed that dad wasn't doing quite as well as he had been and the nursing staff and doctors noticed too.  The decision was made to delay his transfer for the day.  I stayed through his lunch, and then made the drive home to finish my work day.

After work, the girls and I got out for a nice walk around the neighborhood and then I forced them to sit for a picture when we got home.  Once I fed them dinner and got them settled in, I had to head out for a special training for my work for the upcoming primary election.  It made for a long day!

Wednesday was a stressful day.  My dad suddenly spiked a fever of 101.9 degrees and was just a little off all day.  The nurses and doctors were stumped as to why, but ran several tests, ordered a CAT scan, and  took X-rays, but found no reason to explain this sudden change.  Given this change in his status, the doctor chose to keep him an additional day at the hospital.

In addition to everything going on with my dad, I received an update on Ryder from his consult with the vet in Illinois.  Unfortunately, because he lost so much weight and muscle mass, he isn't currently a candidate for surgery to repair his hernia.  Also, the hernia is larger than the vet was aware and has said that Ryder will need to see a specialist to complete the surgery.  Before he can get surgery, he will need to gain about 15-20 pounds and build muscle mass.  The vet assumes that this will take a minimum of 3 months.  Given everything going on with my dad, I just wasn't sure I could give him all of the care he would need pre- and post-surgery, so the rescue reached out to see if they could locate another foster family to take him.  Lucky for him, a foster with lots of experience with dogs needing to prepare for and heal after surgery has stepped up to take him in until he becomes adoptable.  While I am sad that he won't be coming back to us and I didn't really get the chance to give him a proper goodbye, I am so thankful for the foster that has stepped up to help him.  

After a rough day, I was glad to get out to the shelter for our Wednesday night dog walk.  All of the dogs had a great walk.  Dan Campbell got a little extra time outside in the play yard with one of our volunteers while I put the other dogs back in their kennels.  He's such a happy guy and I was glad to get to give him a little extra attention.  It always makes me feel better to spend time with dogs like Dan.  And on a happy note, he got adopted later in the week too!

Since I had no time to give the girls any love on Valentine's Day, I wanted to get them some extra love on Thursday.  It was a busy day, so I thought I'd take them with me when I went to visit my dad.  The work day was busy, and by the time I had time to take my lunch and drive to see him, it was almost 2:45pm.  I got the girls in the car and headed out, but not 15 minutes down the road I got a call from my mom that my dad would be moving to rehab that afternoon.  Not knowing exactly when they would move him, I made the decision to head home instead od continuing to the hospital and just call dad instead.  I had a nice conversation with him and, thankfully, his temperature had dropped to normal and he sounded like he was back to his normal self.  I could tell he was excited to be leaving the hospital and one step closer to getting home.  I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be there to see him leave the hospital.  

On the way home, I made a quick stop at Preuss Pets with the girls since they had been so good while I worked all day.  Then I headed home to finish my workday before taking the girls on a walk around the neighborhood and a trip to Soldan's.  They were very good girls.

Finally we reached Friday.  I had made the decision earlier in the week that I was going to take the day off and give myself an extra long President's Day weekend.  I had hoped to make a trip to the UP and get the girls out for some much needed adventures, but the weather throughout the state did not cooperate.  While the weather in Lansing was perfectly fine, both North and South of us had Winter Weather Advisories in effect and travel conditions were not going to be good.  Sadly, we had to cancel our plans to head to the UP. 

Instead, we spent a quiet morning lounging around and trying to figure out what we could do over our long weekend.  I wanted an adventure and was determined to make something happen.  While we didn't do much fun on Friday, we did do some cleaning and laundry as well as running some errands.  I finalized some plans for the weekend, and then decided to load the girls into the car and make the drive to visit my dad at the rehab facility.  I had a nice dinner time visit with him.  It was so nice to see him outside of the hospital finally.

Saturday morning, the girls and I headed out on our weekend adventure...to Ohio.  I had found a good deal on a nice hotel room in the Dayton area and thought we would spend some time exploring the North Country Trail in the area.  I was excited to check out some new spots.

Our first stop of the day was the small town of Delphos, one of the trail towns along the trail.  I didn't realize how far from the expressway the town was, and we ended up driving down some fun, drifty country roads to get there.  I also had some fun doing some geocaching along the way.

When we finally arrived in town, we parked at Stadium Park and headed out on the trail.  Throughout most of Ohio, the NCT follows the route of the Buckeye Trail, and this is one of those locations.  The trail in Delphos follows the old towpaths from the Miami and Erie Canal.

We made a stop at Lock 24 and then walked toward town and Lock 23.  It was a beautifully sunny day, but the temperatures were in the teens with frigid windchills.  Luckily as long as we were moving along steadily, we all stayed comfortable. 

This section of the trail was pretty unique too, since the path literally runs right through people's backyards.  It's a pretty cool area full of history.

After 2.2 miles we were back at the car.  While we hadn't taken a long walk, I was happy with the time we spent on the trail and the adventures we had getting there. 

While I had other things planned for the day, we actually had filled our day on the trip to Delphos, so we took more snowy country roads across Ohio until we finally reached I-75 again, and continued our journey to Dayton. 

After we checked in to our room, I took the girls for a visit to PetSmart, took a quick walk nearby, and then picked up dinner.  We took a 1 mile walk near our hotel after dinner and were settled in for the night by 8:15pm.  It had been a good day.

We woke to temperatures in the teens so we spent the morning lounging around and relaxing in our room.  By noon, the temperatures were finally starting to improve, so we headed out for the day.  

Our first NCT stop was Rona Hills Park.  The first mile of our "hike" followed the sidewalks through the neighborhood adjacent to the park.  I didn't realize this would be our walking path, but with the snowy and icy conditions I'd seen in some other areas, I was pleased with this start to the day.

We followed the trail to the edge of the park and I made the girls pose for a picture before we headed back to the car.  It was a nice 1.5 miles to start the day.

Next we headed to Central Park in Fairborn.  This section was more sidewalks through town.  One of the fun highlights of this section was the drive-thru liquor store we passed.

We also made a stop at the Calamityville 9/11 Memorial at Wright State University along the way and added another 2 miles.

Our next stop was at the Wright Brother Memorial.  We walked around the grounds, checked out the memorial and informational signs, and enjoyed the views from Wright Hill.  

Then we headed down the hill for another walk along the trail.  While part of this trail followed a busy road, I really enjoyed the part of the trail the ran along the river. We added another 1.7 miles on the trail here.

Our final stop of the day was Eastwood Metro Park where the trail follows the Mad River. It was a beautiful late afternoon walk.  

I loved the sun shining on the snow here. By the time we got here, the weather was so much better than it had been earlier in the day.  I really enjoyed this section of the trail

I wish we would have had more time to spend at this stop, but I was happy with our 1.2 miles on the trail in the sun.

We ended the day with a total of 6.5 miles on the trail, and a total of 8.7 for the weekend.  With 11 days left in the month, and more trail miles planned for our drive home on Monday, we are well on our way to staying on track to complete our 100 miles this year.  I'd like to get to more new places on the trail this year and this was a good start.

After making the drive back toward our hotel and picking up dinner, we settled into our room for the evening.  Mina insisted on a short wrestling match with Peaches and a stuffed cow hoof to chew, but finally climbed onto the sofa.  Peaches has been in bed since the wrestling match stopped.  

We'll be heading out shortly for a potty break and short walk and then it should be a quiet night.  

Tomorrow we will make the trek home with several stops along the way to add some more NCT miles and check out some fun spots along the way.  Even though it wasn't what I had originally planned, I'm so thankful for this weekend getaway with the girls.