Geyser in Tahoe

Hi everybody, Geyser here! I just wanted to tell you all about Promise’s and my trip to Lake Tahoe, California a couple of weeks ago. It started out by riding in the car to Chicago with Doug, Caroline and their son, Tyler (who lives in China, wherever that is)

We got to stay in a hotel the first night and that was really fun except that Caroline said we couldn’t rough house in the room :( Oh well. The plane ride was OK but I overheard Doug and Caroline talking about how there isn’t as much room in the bulkhead as there used to be. Promise was a little put out that she had to curl up into a ball for the entire trip, you all know how she likes to lay frog legged all the time. We slept the whole flight and when we woke up, we were in Nevada and it was REALLY hot there!

I was glad that Caroline and Doug remembered to bring our booties, and even though I don’t really like wearing them, it’s better than burning your pads. When we finally arrived at our destination, I was surprised at how many people were there – moms and dads, brothers and sisters and cousins. There were even some KIDS for us to play with - YAY!!! Oh and there also were 2 other black labs like us, except they were just pets, not service dogs like Promise and me.

The house we stayed in was HUGE. There were three floors and Promise and I immediately had to explore every room. There also were RULES, like no dogs in the kitchen, no rough housing inside (that stupid rule AGAIN), stay with the family, blah, blah, blah. I took the liberty of bending a couple of the rules and it kinda got me in a little trouble. I know I am not supposed to get in the trash but those first few days, I just couldn’t help myself. Caroline says I need work on my “impulse control” and I am still trying to figure out what that actually means. Anyway, I got caught red-handed with my head in the downstairs bathroom trash not just once, but THREE times!!!!! What was I thinking????? Doug caught me in it the last time and that’s when I decided it wasn’t worth getting in it EVER AGAIN!

I also had a few problems at the lake at first. Apparently, everyone was supposed to stay together which I didn’t understand right away. I mean, come on, there is a whole huge beach – why couldn’t I just take off and do as I pleased?????? To make a long story short, I had quite a few “time outs” the first couple of days. Promise of course had to be the “goody two shoes” and never got in any trouble, thinking back on it now, I probably should have followed her example. Oh well, on to the exciting part!

We got to take a trip down the Truckee River in these big rafts! It was so much fun (well until the rafts filled up with water and Promise and I had to sit in them). The trip took most of the day because we kept stopping to swim and fetch bumpers and play in the river. I was really tired after that and was a good boy for the whole rest of the trip! Promise and I got to work in Tahoe city a bunch too – there was a lot of stuff and pedestrians on the sidewalks, so we got lots of practice on our clearances.

By the end of the trip I had learned what “staying with the family” meant, and you know what? It’s really not so bad; this family was really FUN – always stuff to do, never boring. I think I learned a lot about life on that trip!

Promise and I are back home now and working hard on our guide dog skills. I think Promise is almost done with her training and she will go to her new blind human in a few short weeks. I am going to miss her so much. She has been such a good role model for me, and I have learned tons of stuff from her. Well got to go, it’s class night and I don’t want to be late!

This is G-man signing off for now!