Earlier in the month, Sid and I went camping yet again. I know, it seems we can’t get enough of it this year! This time our destination was Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. Joining us along for the adventure was Sid’s grandma (my Mom).

The last time we were all at Turkey Run was two years ago, again right around Sid’s Birthday, and we stayed in a rustic camping cabin. This year, since the weather was so ideal, we opted for the tent experience. Lucky for us, it was warm and sunny the whole time.

After we got our campsite set up, and Sid took inventory of our firewood supplies, we hit some of the lovely trails within the park.

Sid may be twelve years old but he’s still pretty athletic (at least when he chooses to be).

We enjoyed just sitting around and relaxing at our campsite. It was really quiet and serene and the smell and cracking and of the campfire put us at ease.

We hit up a couple trails the next day as well since that is one of the highlights of this lovely state park. And once again Sid showed us what an adventurer he is.

Well, until he decided to take a break mid-hike. I guess I couldn’t blame him as I was a bit tired by then, too!

On our last day, Sid was reluctant to get out of bed.

I guess he had overdone it a bit on previous hikes and was not in the mood to walk anymore. So I came up with a solution:

Sid was super snug and comfortable in the backpack. At one point he even dozed off and started snoring! On the trails that day we saw dozens of tiny frogs. They would dive into the water as soon as you’d get close, but I did manage to get close enough to this guy for a photo op before he took off.

After the last trail, we had a picnic lunch and then it was time to pack up the tent, the camping supplies, and the pug – and head back to the city!

Thank you for all the well-wishes on Sid’s 12th Birthday.

His “cake” this year was more of a sculpture of mini towers of apples and carrots (two of his favorite snacks).

He kept a focused watch on me the whole time I was assembling it. Yes, sir, I’m making your cake as fast as I possibly can. Sheesh!

I was pretty impressed that he sat in his bed and waited for the “ok” signal before chowing down. This is not an easy feat for a treat-crazed gremlin!

Ready, set, GO!

Sid ate the cake so fast I don’t think he even took a breath the whole time.

Here is one happy (and spoiled) pug! Maybe we should have cakes more often.

Today, my favorite little creature in all the world, Siddhartha Lamont Sanchez Demski, turns 12 years old! He’s still very spry for an older gentleman. Here’s to many more years of treats, belly rubs, and ridiculous adventures together!

Love always,
Dad

xoxo

So we pick up today en route to Des Moines, IA. If you need a bit of back-story, check out Part 1 and Part 2. Once again, Sid found the most comfortable position for traveling. This, my friends, is how you ride shotgun!

We arrived at our campsite located at the Acorn Valley Campground on Saylorville Lake. Once the tent was up Sid felt right at home. In case you can’t see him in the main photo, I added a little zoom bubble so you can better make out his pug mug through the tent’s screen door!

We hung out for a bit at the campsite, had some lunch, and listened to the breezes blowing through the tall trees. It was very relaxing.

We met up with my friends and their kids for a while and they treated us to a delicious dinner made with fresh veggies straight from their back yard. We also got to visit a really nice park near their home with all kind of huge boulders and tree trunk sections for kids to play and climb on. Of course Sid didn’t do any climbing, but he seemed to enjoy watching the kids play.

We had a nice sleep in our tent that evening as it was much warmer than the first night. We didn’t really even need any blankets!

The next morning we made breakfast and then explored the campground a bit.

Then we packed everything up and headed into downtown Des Moines to check out the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. While waiting for my friends to arrive, we walked around near the library and found this awesome water feature that wrapped around the entire block.

Soon my friends and their children arrived and both the kids and Sid couldn’t resist sloshing through the water.

It was a good thing I had some towels in the car! After another nice afternoon visit, we loaded up the car and headed back home to Chicago.

Of course our trip would not be complete with a quick pit stop at the Mississippi River!

We hope you enjoyed coming with us on our camping road trip! We’re looking forward to the next one!

So if you missed Part 1 of our Midwest road trip, Sid and I had just spent a slightly chilly night camped out in Madison, WI. As the sun rose the next morning, I fired up the tiny butane camping stove, got some hot tea brewing, and gave Sid his breakfast.

We packed up the tent and hit the road towards St. Paul, Minnesota. As you all know, Sid insists on a comfortable ride when traveling, so I had two beds stacked up on the passenger seat for him to sprawl out on. And sprawl out he did.

We arrived at my friends’ house right around noon and had a great time catching up and getting a tour of their place. Sid approved of the original vintage wood floors.

We all loaded up into one car, crossed the Mississippi into Minneapolis and spent some time on Nicollet Island.

We enjoyed hanging out by the water and enjoying the natural beauty and lovely views of the city from this vantage point. I think Sid liked being the object of affection of my friend’s 2-year-old son.

In the evening we went to an outdoor concert back in St. Paul, called the Grand Oak Opry. The weather was perfect and even Sid got to partake in our snacks.

The next morning we hung out a little more and then had hit to road for our next stop, Des Moines!

To be continued in Part 3…

This September we didn’t have quite the extensive camping trip planned as we did last year for “Have Pug, Will Travel” but we did manage to get out of town for a few days over the past holiday weekend. The plan for this trip was a mid-western loop to visit friends in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Des Moines, Iowa, with some camping in between.

We left on Friday night and drove for a few hours to Madison, Wisconsin, where we camped at a KOA in order to break up the drive time to Minnesota. We arrived at 10:30 pm and miraculously I managed to successfully set up the tent in near darkness! It was only 50-degrees out that night, too, so Sid and I were tucked into sleeping bags with quilts on top to stay warm.

It was still chilly in the morning, but some breakfast in our bellies helped us warm up.

Our next stop: St. Paul! (to be continued in Part 2)

All the trees, flowers, and plants in our neighborhood have been very happy this summer. Since the temperatures have been very mild and we’ve had plenty of thunderstorms roll though the Midwest, there’s been plenty of water and sun for all our chlorophyll-containing companions.

Look how GREEN it is here!

We’ve also been lucky in that our neighbors have been supplying us with a steady stream of fresh tomatoes from the gigantic tomato plants that have overtaken the backyard! Sid loves to eat tomatoes (as you probably would have expected)!

We hope the green-ness sticks around for at least another month!

P.S. We also hope all our friends (both human and fur varieties) in Texas are safe and sound!