GETTING OUR PAWS WET IN LAKELAND – 02.17.2011

This evening, Orso and us took off to Lakeland, Florida, for Orso’s first 4 AKC dog shows.  We embarked on this road trip in style, having rented a Town & Country minivan for Orso’s comfort.  This minivan was perfect!  We were able to load all the luggage and doggie gear all the way in the back of the van, behind and on top of the 3rd row seating.  We hid the 2nd row seating into the floor of the van and created a large flat area where we put Orso’s lounging bed and a bunch of toys.  We rode in captain’s chairs, which were OK but not the greatest for our backs.  The ride up was long but sufficiently comfortable.  Orso slept the entire way, so we kept forgetting he was even there.  We left Miami at 6:30pm and had to stop a few hours into the trip to get food, stretch out and feed Orso.  By the time we got into Lakeland, it was almost midnight.  We arrived at the one of the only dog friendly hotels – La Quinta Lakeland West – and were disappointed to find out that the only room with a king-size bed, fridge and microwave that was left over was a smoking room.  We had asked for a nonsmoking room when we made the reservation, but for some reason that information was “misplaced” in the computer system.  Our room was clean and fairly spacious, but it smelled like a nightclub.  It had the nastiest odor of stale cigarette smoke!  Yuk!  Unfortunately, we had no other choice, so we unpacked and settled in.  On the bright side, Orso loved the room because of the carpet and spent the entire time we were unpacking playing and running around.  We finally settled in and went to bed just past 2am.  The pillows and sheet wreaked of smoke, which made it hard to sleep, but our exhaustion set in and away we went into much-needed slumber…  Below are a few shots from today’s road trip.