Our next stop was to visit my friend Christi, her husband John, and their sweet dogs and cats just outside Kansas City. Christi and I were roommates when we were both studying abroad in Ireland 13 years ago, and it was so great to see her and catch up for only the second time in over a decade! They were so sweet to open their home up to us for a few days during our trip.

Oats loved getting to know her new puppy friends, Vegas and Charlie, and little Charlie loved stealing Oatsy’s giant bed and her elephant toy that was larger than his head. This was the first time Oats had ever met cats, and it’s possible that she may now be forever scared of them :)

Dog Friendly Stop: Somerset Ridge Vineyard & Winery

One of the awesome places we visited while in Kansas was Somerset Ridge Vineyard & Winery, and it was one of the most dog-friendly places on the whole trip. Oats and Vegas came with us and were allowed INSIDE the tasting room, where the most friendly and sweet employee spoiled our pups with love and treats. The wine was delicious and the place was beautiful. As you know, I’m a big fan of dog-friendly places. Even better when they serve wine.

The pups were allowed inside the wine tasting room at Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery. What a fun day and experience for us and the pups!

Oats loved being able to join us inside the winery and then we spent some time outside in the sunshine and enjoyed our wine. It was a wonderful, fun day with the dogs, and we also stopped at a cute farm and store on the way home to get apple cider donuts (spoiler alert: Kansas ones are just as delicious as New England ones).

We did a little photo shoot with Christi and Vegas at the beautiful vineyard, and did you know that Kansas is the sunflower state?!? They were everywhere!

I also did a few family photos for this sweet family. Loved spending time with you guys!

On our way to Colorado, we stopped in rural Kansas to take a few photos. Does this remind anyone else of that scene from Castaway?

Oatsy modeled for me on this road for a bit and we didn’t see a single other car the whole time we were playing around, just photographing that classic goofy Oatsy sit all across America.

Kansas was an incredibly beautiful drive, full of sunflowers and rolling hills. It reminded me a lot of Ireland with its green scenery, which is fitting since Christi and I met there :) Can’t wait to visit again!

NEXT STOP: DENVER, COLORADO

So remember that time Oats and I drove cross country? You may have forgotten, because haven’t posted a blog since we were on the road in September! Let me explain why. A few weeks into the trip, I made a decision to hold off on creating more blog posts and editing photos so that I could just be present and enjoy my trip with Oats and with friends and family. Our days were very full, tiring, and wonderful. Often we were visiting with friends and family, making new friends, hiking, swimming, and seeing all the incredible sites all over this beautiful country. Most of our travel days pretty much went like this: wake up early, breakfast (for both of us), pack up our car for the next leg of the journey, fill the gas tank, drive to a beach or a hike or a park (or sometimes all three), spend some wonderful time outdoors, shop at a local pet store to get Oats a treat (spoiled), then drive to our next location, find a place to stay, eat dinner (Oats first of course), unpack our car for the night, meet up with friends (in several locations), quick research and plan out the following day…meaning where we would drive to, where we would hike/swim/adventure, and where we would sleep. It was amazing, but there wasn’t a whole lot of time built in to our days for being on the computer editing and blogging, so I made a decision that the adventure was the priority, and I would do the blogging when I got home.

Well…a couple crazy things have happened since. First, I broke my camera in Montana, on our very last adventure stop in Glacier National Park. My hands were very cold and I was trying to move too quickly and didn’t correctly attach my camera to the tripod, and….it fell. We enjoyed a lovely (and cold) day in Glacier National Park and Whitefish anyway, and then we headed home. It took about 5 days to get back, and then we immediately got to work on moving out of my house, which sold while I was on the road (yay!).

After the craziness of moving and closing on a home sale, I was finally able to sit down and take some time to look through my trip photos. This was when I learned that breaking a camera is hardly the worst thing that can happen to a photographer on an amazing trip.

While I was on the road, my laptop filled up, so I bought a brand new external hard drive, put all my photos on it (to free up space on my laptop for more), and drove home. I normally do multiple backups, so when I got home I plugged it in to do said backups. And the drive failed. Like...complete and total mechanical failure.

I brought it into two local places to see if they could recover the data, and called the brand manufacturer for the drive. I ultimately sent it in to the manufacturer for recovery, while also on my own working to recover some data off my memory cards and some from my cloud backup. For a while I was devastated, thinking that all of my trip photos were gone. However, I have been able to recover almost all of them through these various methods. They were not all recovered, but most. For that, I am eternally grateful. They are still a disorganized mess, but I’m sorting through them slowly and will start to finally post them on Facebook and Instagram and put together my blog posts!

Sometimes crazy things happen, but we still have all of our amazing memories. And *most* of our memorable photos. More to come ❤️

9.21.18 | Oats in Cannon Beach, Oregon

I should mention that our next three stops were all to visit family and friends (St Louis, Kansas City and Denver). We did venture out to do a few dog friendly activities, but mostly we relaxed and hung out with some awesome people that opened up their homes to us and made our road trip so much better. I am so grateful to everyone who has shared their homes with Oats and me and supported us along this journey.

After Ohio, we conquered another 8 hour driving day and headed for St. Louis to visit my aunt, who lives just outside the city. It was so wonderful to spend time with her, especially since I’ve never visited her in Missouri before. I see her often at family events, but this was such a great opportunity for us to really spend time together. She spoiled me with delicious food and wine and introduced Oats to the St. Louis “Dog Days of Summer.” We had such a great time. Thank you again Auntie Dot!

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #1: St. Louis Gateway Arch Park

I am truthfully not planning to do many “touristy” excursions on this trip, but I really wanted to see the St. Louis Gateway Arch. When my aunt told me (how did I not know this?) that it’s purpose is to be the "gateway to the west,” there was really no way we could miss it. If it’s symbolic of exploring the west, then it’s pretty much exactly perfect for our road trip.

The park is dog friendly, but it was nearly 90 degrees and very humid, even though we got there pretty early in the morning. Oats lasted about 45 minutes before overheating again.

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #2: Treecourt Unleashed Dog Adventure Park

After Oats got a little overheated (again - see our Ohio post!) I did a quick search for somewhere she could cool off. I found an adventure dog park, so I called and spoke directly to the owner. He said they had a couple great little spots for her to cool off, just no actual swimming (I also looked into a dock diving center in St. Louis, but when I called they had already closed down the pool after Labor Day) - but that was good enough for me - as long as she could cool down.

Treecourt was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting (or living near) St. Louis. There were lots of friendly dogs there with their owners, two little doggie pools with running water to cool off, tons of space to run around and explore, and a little mineral pool because evidently this area is famous for their mineral water. Oats basically had a dog’s version of a spa day, and I got to meet lots of very sweet dog owners.

Meeting the owner at Tree Court Dog Adventure Park.

Cooling off in one of two doggie pools at Tree Court.

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #3: Dog Days of Summer

We got unbelievably lucky with this one. We visited St. Louis the day after Labor Day, so my aunt mentioned that a lot of the public pools in the city open up for dogs now. There were probably between 50-60 dogs there, and Oats just swam and chased toys the entire time. I think they do a few more pool days throughout early September, but I am very grateful that we just happened to be there on the day when most pools were open to dogs. I didn’t bring my camera to the pool, which was smart because I was soaked when I left, but here’s a little phone video of her swimming.

Here’s our little highlight reel from our Instagram updates while in St. Louis, so you can see some more about our lovely visit!

My aunt also has gorgeous butterfly gardens and raises monarchs in her home to release each year into the wild. There were about 8 in chrysalis form while I was there but we also saw a bunch of butterflies in her garden, so I had to shoot a few photos. Sometimes I take pictures of something other than Oats…sometimes.

Thank you again Auntie Dot for a fantastic time in St. Louis and for welcoming Oats and me into your lovely home! What a wonderful part of our trip :)

NEXT STOP: KANSAS CITy, kansas

I am excited to announce that Oats and I will be driving cross country for the entire month of September :) We will start at home in Portland Connecticut and travel to Portland Oregon, stopping at many fun places along the way, visiting with friends and family and seeing the country together. We hope you'll join us to follow along on our adventures. I'll be posting here on the road trip blog as well as on Facebook and Instagram, so we would love for you to follow along as we embark on this exciting next adventure.

For all those who are wondering, this is a trip I've been dreaming about for years, and the timing is finally right to make it happen. It's a bit of a soul searching journey for me...basically my "Eat Pray Love" trip :) I'm going to be spending a lot of time alone, just Oats and I on the open road. To me, this seems like the perfect adventure for finding myself, reinventing myself, and just doing whatever feels right. For saying yes to things. And that's something I've been putting off for far too long.

If you're interested in traveling with a dog, I will be posting about all the dog-friendly places I'm staying and dog-friendly activities and adventures we're doing, so follow along and feel free to ask us questions about our experiences. A lot of extra planning goes into traveling with a pet, because we have to know which places and activities are dog-friendly in advance and plan accordingly. So I'll be sharing all that information here and am happy to answer any questions!

We will be staying with friends, family, and in some Airbnbs and hotels, and we will be visiting and hiking in many national parks. Since not all national parks are dog-friendly, we're figuring out the best alternatives for still seeing all the beautiful sites this country has to offer. Stay tuned to learn more about where we go, what we learn, and all our favorite places!

SUPPORT OUR CROSS COUNTRY TRIP!