At the same time, another dog needed our help. Blossom, a current resident of the animal shelter, was being considered for euthanasia. We asked why, and apparently, she is extraordinarily afraid of children because she was abused by them. Her fear manifested in the form of barking, growling and snapping at any child that came near her. She'd gotten so used to freaking out around kids (there are kids in the shelter on a daily basis), that when I first came up to see her, she startled, panicked, and barked at me. I told her it was okay, and she immediately calmed down, as if to say, "Oh, thank god. I thought you were a kid!"

Poor stressed-out Blossom! Well, Best Friends agreed to take her, and Bobbi and I agreed to give her a ride out there! And that was that!

So, on Sunday afternoon, following a long and tiresome set-up process (including much driving around the Bay Area), we finally loaded Blossom into her crate in the rental van, and headed out toward the freeway. It was 7:30pm. One long and tedious drive later, we stopped at a Best Western in the Tehachapi Mountains at 1:30am. Bobbi and I were delirious with exhaustion, barely able to keep our eyes open. Blossom was having a blast. We decided to let her sleep wherever she wanted that night, and since she couldn't make up her mind, she just jumped back and forth between Bobbi's bed and mine all night long. At 6am, she wanted to go out. Bobbi took her, and soon, our second day of travel began. We showered and dressed. Blossom worried while each of us disappeared into the bathroom for a while. When I used Bobbi's blow dryer, Blossom barked for the first time the whole trip! As it turns out, she wasn't afraid ot it. She just had to go out again. We got a nice breakfast under our belts at the near-by diner, while Blossom sat in the locked, running, air-conditioned van. We couldn't let her overheat! Luckily, the van didn't either, and we soon headed out towards Nevada.

Crappily enough, we passed through the Mojave Desert in the middle of the afternoon. Road signs even instructed us to turn off the air conditioning for ten mile stretches at a time to prevent the vehicles from overheating. Those ten mile stretches seemed to take an eternity. I kept drinking water and doing my best to stay calm, praying I wouldn't get heat exhaustion as I have so many times in the past.

We stopped in Baker, CA, where there was an A&W and an Arby's. We got root beer floats and Beef'n'Cheddar sandwiches. As I slowly shoveled ice cream into my mouth and sipped the cool root beer, I kept repeating a mantra to myself: "This isn't any worse than Texas. I could handle Texas, and I can handle this. This isn't any worse than Texas...." Bobbi walked Blossom, and all of a sudden a huge train came racing by on the near-by railroad tracks. Its horn blared, Bobbi and I both jumped a little, and Blossom continued to pee, unphased. That little dog had no generalized fear issues at all. How fascinating that the one and only thing in the world that freaks her out is children. Otherwise, she is a happy, carefree, fun dog. I love her!

Bobbi kept asking where we were on the map and how far we were from the next town. I played the role of the Navigator throughout our trip and kept tabs on our progress using Joe's National Geographic Atlas. When we got to Nevada, there were continually signs for upcoming towns. "Berg 1 mile," a sign might say in Nevada, and one mile later? Nothing. Not a damn thing but desert in all directions. Are they naming stuff just for the heck of it? I think they are!

Las Vegas was on our way, and as we drove through, I saw the Excalibur from the freeway. That's where Joe and I got married, and it was great to see it again. The sight of it will forever cause warm fuzzy feelings to well up inside me. I can't wait to go back there again!

On and on we trudged through Nevada, also known as The Middle of Nowhere. Finally, we entered Arizona, and were very quickly surrounded by huge red mountains and all kinds of interesting rock formations. Even, astonishingly enough, green grass! It was very exciting! We then headed into Utah, where we finally saw what we'd been waiting for -- a sign that read "Kanab, UT, 56 miles." Thank you, travel gods!

When we stopped at a Texaco in Utah, I took some pictures of the gorgeous sunset. I had no idea Utah was so beautiful! Our next stop was at a Mexican restuarant, where Bobbi and I could have just slept the night in the booth, we were so exhausted. Instead, we got our food to-go and drove the last 5 miles to Best Friends. It was about 11:00pm, and every building at the sanctuary was dark and closed. After much driving around, we finally located the cabin, realized it was unlocked, and that the keys were just inside the door, hanging on a hook. We made it! And since we got there after hours, we got to keep Blossom with us another night!

The cabin itself was so beautiful and roomy. Horses grazed right outside our balcony. We walked Blossom around a bit along the moonlit path, and I said I couldn't wait to see what it all looked like in the morning.