Post 108: Traveling with a Map Modifier

Traveling with a Map Modifier

We have mentioned many times in our blogs about the two girls we travel with, Lucky and Sierra. Lucky is our Map Modifier. She is our big black lab who is almost 3 years old now and Sierra is our older dog who is part Shepard and part Rottweiler. These are our girls. They are great to travel with and very entertaining at times.

Both dogs travel in the cab with us on a 3 inch cushion pad behind our seats. The back seats in our truck fold up and leave a large area just perfect for them.  They like to take turns sitting on the hump in the middle and watch out the front windshield and just be closer to us.

The only problem we have when Lucky decides to do this is, she DROOLS…good grief does she drool. We have that center seat in front, folded down in our truck so that we may place our maps there and our tea mugs. With Lucky sitting just up close to that seat from behind, and leaning over, she drools all over our maps.

Flooding out the Gulf of Mexico

Joy often has to tell her to watch out she is adding more water to the Gulf of Mexico, or she just flooded out some poor tiny town. That pup sure has some serious drool going on, like Hooch in the  that movie Tuner and Hooch. lol Not only does she drool on our maps, but they both drool on  the windows and outside of the truck doors.

We have to frequently wash this WHITE truck because we have what looks like coffee  sprayed down the sides of it from the front to the back. What it really is, is dog drool lol. The girls love to sit with their chins on the window sills and watch the world go by. Or, as we term it, they are watching TV.

Worth it?

Yes! For the inconvenience of a water spotted map from time to time and needing to wash the truck once a week. It is certainly worth having these two funny lovable pets with us on our travels. They are great company, they are easily entertained, and they give us a sense of security when we are camping somewhere really dark lol. They bark to alert us to any strange noises.

Animal watching

I mentioned entertaining? Well Lucky just loves to see other animals, so when we say Horses, she will jump up from a sound sleep and look where ever we are pointing. Same goes for Cows, Sheep, Birds and Deer. Deer are her favorite. She even jumped out of the truck once after a deer. Luckily we were almost stopped at the time. She got so excited she whined, cried and poof she was out the window. The deer took off and Lucky was left sniffing the tracks around and around in circles.

Since then we keep a leash in the back and hook Lucky up when we know we will be in similar situations. Just in case :). Lucky has a very large  vocabulary from all the different animals she has seen since we have been traveling. While going on walks with Bill. Rabbits are also apart of her list.  Along with Road Runners lol.

We do love to watch the alert look that comes on her face and how her ears perk up when we tell her to look for an animal. The best time of all was when she met a Bison. We stopped beside the road about 10 ft from a massive wholly Bison. All shaggy and noble. Just standing beside a fence eating the grass and watching us.

Both Lucky and Sierra stood side by side at the open truck window and stared. Joy held on to Lucky’s collar, but neither dog made

a sound. They just stared back at the giant Bison. We think Lucky came to realize that there was something much bigger than she was and something to respect lol.