6/2/11*63F* TEDDYS MIS-ADVENTURES TO THE BOONIES
See you Thurs. now. Have a safe trip!
Ok, so we had plans to go over to StriperKings place yesterday after work so we could switch wind-shields :thumbup: Taking the fastest route (Interstate) it's about a 3 hour Ryde from our home in Northern KY to his place in the Boonies in Indiana, so I figured it'd be a nice Ryde, get to catch up a bit, switch shields & be on our way:2thumbs:
Well, the stars musta been out of alignment, cause it seemed they were against us. 1st, the blazing sun sitting on I75/71 registered at 102 on the :spyder2: temp. gauge, which is usually about 6 degrees high, but needless to say, it was HOT & no clouds in site.
TEDDY hates being enclosed while Ryding, so I geared him up in his usual back seat carrier for the :spyder2: that is open topped. He loves it, but sadly it doesn't offer any protection from the sun. Thinking ahead, I got out his hot weather gear from last year, and put them to use. I have a chill-it's that is actually made for dogs & fits around his neck perfectly with Velcro.
For those of you not familiar with Chill-It's, it's basically a bandana that has a gel chemical sewn into the middle of it. You ball it up, soak it in ice water for 15-20 minutes & the gel chemical engorges and stays cold for a long time/few hours even depending on temp & other conditions. You put it around your neck where all the blood flows thru the veins, and since your actually cooling your blood, your cooling your entire body. Kinda simple really & it works. I use them all the time at work since we have no air conditioning and hundreds of machines running constantly in a 1.3 million square foot factory. It got up to 137 last year & 106 so far this year:yikes: & without the Chill-It's, ppl would be dropping like flies:yikes:
Besides the Chill-It's I also found modular gel ice packs that come in rows of like 10 by 10 & you can break away as many or few as needed. With this, I basically freeze them, and when needed, slide the set under TEDDYS carrier liner making for a nice cool place to sit, lay & Ryde :thumbup: I learned much last year with how to deal with the heat & a SpYder-Ryde'n Pooch when we went to Florida for vacation :doorag:
I think everyone has seen that Teddy always wears his Doggles when Ryding, so they offer his eyes some protection as well, not only from the sun but also the wind turbulence :clap:
So, thinking we were prepared for our nice lil journey, I texted StriperKing to let him know we were on our way :2thumbs: and off we went. It was a lil b4 rush hour when we left, but once yur out of Florence, your past all of the bad traffic from the city. Well, all was good til about mile 30 and we come to find the Interstate traffic sitting at a stand still :cus: I mean not moving at all:yikes: for as far as the eye could see. I wasn't sure what to do. We were trapped on the Interstate with no exits in site & surrounded by other vehicles & the blazing HOT sun beating down on us. I was ok, but i could tell that without airflow, Teddy wasn't going to make it too long b4 heat stroke would set in. Since we were just sitting anyways, I got off the :spyder2: & into TEDDYS side compartment and made sure to try n keep him hydrated. I found this nifty dog bottle that has a rubber flip bowl attached to it at our local StrasseDog & was able to give him water right there on the highway. But still, the 6pm sun was unrelenting & Teddy was stressing & licking his lips, which is a sure sign something is wrong:yikes:
Well, that did it for me, I had had enough waiting after about 20 minutes of just sitting & cooking. I was able to wrangle TEDDYS :spyder2: out of the congested mess of vehicles and made our way to the side of the road, which I promptly took off on to the bewilderment of all the other onlookers. I got far enough to see that the highway was closed down to one lane for construction, but that a semi was blocking that one lane& for some reason, he wasn't moving & I couldn't get around him:yikes: Great, Now what?:dontknow:
When the world gives you lemons, make lemon-aid is what I say:clap: We had never tried the :spyder2: at 3 wheel'n (off-road) but I figured then was better than any to try
ray: & thankfully, we had just enough ground clearance :firstplace:to make it thru the construction mess to the other side of the highway, which was wide open :clap: & I didn't see a cop around thankfully:bowdown: tho I honestly think, if he understood why i was doing what I was doing, he'd be cool about it :lecturef_smilie: and hopefully just give me a warning, but whatever, I did what I felt I needed to do for the best interest of Teddy :2thumbs: and if that's wrong, then so be itnojoke
I took the next exit that was for a huge truckstop, with showers & all that jazz. Well, I didn't ask like I usually do, but I just grabbed Teddy off the :spyder2:, put his lead on, & just carried him into the truckstop with me, so we both could cool down in the nice COLD AC :bowdown: I didn't allow him to walk around, I just held him for about 30 minutes in the store while looking around. I was concerned we would get kicked out, but no one said a word to me, so I was just grateful to be cooling down
I called StriperKing to tell him of our delima & that we wouldn't be making it today
which he was totally cool with & understood :bowdown: We are going to try this again today after work. Hopefully, all the stars are aligned now, & we will have a smooth trip this time. Tho, I just looked at radar & it seems there are some storms moving into StriperKings area, but after yesterday's experience, I'd take the storm any day :2thumbs:
from Cincinnati down to Red River Gorge/Natural Bridge down in Slade KY. My moms family is from Breathitt Co. so each year on Memorial Day, we make the trip down to put flowers on the graves of our long departed ancestors & to help keep their memories alive. So, we added another 600 miles yesterday in 96-102F temps & blazing HOT sun, but we still had a good time, tho I'm a bit on the crispy side this morning :lecturef_smilie:
hyea: Was almost 4 hours of all back-roads from Cincy to Boonville Indiana, and the entire trip was overcast except for about 20 minutes, so that made for a very comfortable ryde:clap: And talking about a class act, WOW!!!:firstplace: StriperKing & his wife had a great spread just finishing up when we arrived, and let me tell you, it was REALLY GOOD:2thumbs: Heck, I was just happy to get my old barn door back, but I didn't expect to have a home grilled dinner waiting for us with all the fix'ns and they even thought of Teddy, which he was VERY APPRECIATIVE for :2thumbs:
