PLANT CITY, FLORIDA FOR THE WINTER

 

PLANT CITY, FLORIDA FOR THE WINTER

We drove to Plant City and parked our little camper on a friend’s property. It’s another super nice place with a huge grassy yard for me to play in! I get to play ball a lot and roll in the grass and let the grass scratch my back. It’s like I have my own private dog park! Heaven! It’s a little cooler now, finally!

 Most days da mommy and da daddy leave early in the morning to get me a few bites of luscious breakfast. This is like a breakfast dessert, since I’ve already eaten my dog food. Don’t get me wrong, I like my dog food. But I LOVE the little bites that they bring back to me. It’s so nice that they go out just to get me these treats.

The other day we took a long drive back to Salt Springs, where we used to live in the RV park. I was glad to spend the day with Mommy and Daddy, but it was pretty boring being in the car most of the day. One good thing though, I got to see my favorite buddies that live there, Rich and Carole. They are always happy to see me, and they have treats for me.

 We settled in Plant City for a few months and got ready for Halloween and some other fun events. I heard something about another trip! Yay! Another trip! I started to get excited about that because I love to travel and see new things.

 Where we live now, my Uncle Clay owns a big farm. We live on the edge of it, but we take our walks all around the farm and I get to see lots of friends. Da mommy always says we can’t visit long because they are working. That makes me a little sad, but it’s nice to say hi to them whenever I can.

 I also get to visit the donkeys, chickens, cows, and sheep. They all make funny noises. The only ones that are happy to see me are the chickens. Mommy says it’s because they think that we’re bringing food to them. They run over to us real fast every time we get close to their pens.

 My life here by the farm is great.

 Let me tell you how I got my strange name. I know because I’ve heard da mommy and da daddy tell people millions of times. Mom and Dad used to hike a lot, and they hiked about 2,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail a while back, all in one year. That is almost the whole trail, from Georgia to Maine. I think that’s a long long walk.

 Hikers on the Appalachian Trail like to use nicknames, or “trail names,” when they hike. I think it’s because they are away from their “real” lives or something like that. And it’s just fun. Daddy looks like this actor / karate guy named “Chuck Norris,” so some other hikers gave him that name. He doesn’t really know karate, and he doesn’t have a lot of money like an actor does, but it’s a fun name.

 When Mommy was heading out for her very first backpacking trip, her sister said, “That’s one of the hardest sections of the whole Appalachian Trial!” Mommy said, bragging, “No problem. I’ll bounce over those mountains.” And her sister said, “Like Tigger!” So da mommy’s trail name became Tigger.

 Mommy and Daddy put “Chuck” and “Tigger” together and that’s how they got my name, “Chigger.” I think it’s a cool name, and usually people smile when they hear that story, so I like that. Mommy and Daddy and some of their friends shorten it to “Chig” or “Chiggy” sometimes. I like those names too. Sometimes hiker dogs even get trail names, but I’m always Chigger, or something close to that. After all, my name came from 2 trail names.

 While we were staying in Plant City, I got to see my cousin dogs, Nico and Abbie quite a bit. They both like to play, so we had fun together. I also got to see my friends who are da mommy’s grandchildren. I love them so much. They used to come visit us in Salt Springs when we lived there. It’s so nice to get to see them again.

 Da mommy got a job for a few months so I had to get used to her being gone again. Da daddy was home with me a lot so that made it easier. In January we bought another new house. This one is even bigger than the last one, and it has a table that da mommy and da daddy can sit at to eat and to watch the big box on the wall. We moved to an rv park in town, which I really didn’t like at first, but I kinda got used to it. There are two problems with the rv park. First, the cats. Geez ... they are everywhere. I do not like cats. At all. When I was little, I tried to play with a cat and it scratched me across my nose. These cats don’t bother me, and I surely don’t bother them. When I see one I walk on the opposite side of the street. The second thing I don’t like is that there isn’t a big grassy yard for me to play in. We have a tiny grassy area on our lot, but the cats use it for their bathroom. It’s just not a workable situation. Mommy and Daddy, what were you thinking? I can go outside and sit with da mommy and da daddy, but I miss that big grassy yard where I could wander and play with my ball. Now we just go for walks, which is nice, and we walk a few blocks over to an office type place that has a big lawn. But guess what, there are cats there too. Arggghhh! CATS! Why do there have to be cats?

 Both da mommy and da daddy worked at the Strawberry Festival for lots of days without a break, and my friends Ian and Ryan came over during the day to take me outside and feed me. Those were long days. But one day Ryan and his wife Christy brought Nico to play with me and we took a nice long walk. That was so much fun. I was glad when Daddy said he wasn’t going to work there anymore because it was hurting his heart. I was glad for me, but I was also glad for Daddy because I want him to be healthy and safe.

 Right after the Strawberry Festival was over, in March, we were supposed to head out for a traveling adventure, and all three of us were so excited! We were going to travel around the southern part of the country with our new rv. Yay! On the road again! But then this stupid virus thing happened. We had to stay at home. So, our penciled-in plans changed again. We had to stay at home in Plant City, and we didn’t go out much. Mommy and I still went for long walks, and Daddy went to the farm a lot to do some work. These were actually good days because I got to be with da mommy and da daddy most of the time. But I think they got a little bored. And when they went out they put on masks, which I thought looked very silly. Please, please don’t put one of those on me!!

 As the “stay-at-home” order was lifted, and we started to make some new travel plans, we heard from the hostel in Hot Springs again. “When can you guys come?” Mommy answered, just teasing, “Now?” She was ready for a change of scenery. We all were. We secured some of our things that we would leave behind in Plant City in our small storage sheds, hooked up the trailer and headed north. Ah! Off to a cooler place. It was already very hot again in Florida. We stopped at several places on the way to Hot Springs.