Mea'Ola's Meanderings

Well, here I go again. We had just gotten home from the Alabama road trip when mom told me we were heading down near Fort Lauderdale to spend the Fourth of July with her daughter's family,,,seriously?? Another road trip? Mom wasn't joking. We got home on Sunday the 28th and were back in the car and on the road on Thursday the 2nd.  Mom likes this overpass, it has old train outlines on it and it also means mom is close to the exit for the Florida Turnpike and we're closer to her daughter's house.  Mom's daughter has a dog, a puggle to be exact, Ruby. When we first met, Ruby started snarling and growling right off the bat. Her mom told her to go to bed, I was polite and stayed quiet. Then Ruby came running up on me all nasty and snarling and growling again so I told her off. Not a good thing to do. My mom was afraid Ruby and I might have an argument. It was decided that Ruby and I would need to be kept separated all weekend. Mom put me in the room ...

Here is Part Two of my Alabama Road Trip with mom and her friend Savannah.  The day after all my hiking in the first part of the trip, mom decided to leave me at the house. They were heading to a state park over in north Georgia, about 50 minutes away and were hoping to stop at some antique places along the way. Mom said it would be way to hot for me to wait in the car. I didn't mind staying home, I slept all day.  Anyway, it is now our third and final day in Alabama and we're off hiking again. After a lot of discussion the night before over cocktails on the back deck it was decided we would all go back to DeSoto Falls State Park because it was close and there were more waterfalls we could see.  We hit the trails early in the day due to the chance of afternoon thunderstorms. These trails were not as well used as the others ones we had hiked. It didn't take too long to reach Lodge Falls.  Like the waterfalls in the previous post, these weren't ru...

Hi everyone, it's Mea'Ola again. We recently got back from a long weekend road trip to Alabama for mom's birthday. One of her very good friends joined us and we had a fun time.  It was my longest car ride ever, 7-1/2 hours, plus a detour and some additional time for getting lost because Google Maps forgot to include a jog in the road. We even stopped to ask a man for directions and he admitted that the road numbers made no sense. Anyway, we left early on the morning of June 24th and met up with mom's friend Savannah at a gas station. Once we had Savannah's stuff in the car and introductions were made we hit the road.  Mom and Savannah were really happy to see this sign because it meant we were almost to the house,,,,then we got lost and spent an hour driving around until mom finally got a cell signal and was able to get the house address into her phone.   This was one of the roads we traveled down trying to find the house. It sure is pretty he...

Hi everyone, remember me, Mea'Ola? Its been two months since my last post. Mom and I have been hanging out at home and not going anywhere to stay safe and healthy. Mom was really lucky 'cause she works for an attorney and that was deemed an essential business so she got to work and even better,,she worked from home 75% of the time. Tomorrow she has to go back to the office full time and I'm really going to miss her being home with me. Anyway, today we met up with a really good friend of mom's to take a walk on this beach called Mickler's Landing and see the sunrise. This lady must be a real good friend because mom and I were in the car for 45 minutes to get there and there are other beaches only 18 minutes away. But I digress. We got to the beach and I was really excited, so very many smells from lots of other people and dogs. I had a hard time behaving. Mom was getting a little annoyed with me. She finally told me I had to sit down so she could get a photo...

It's another beautiful weekend in Florida so mom took me on another adventure. This time we walked over to a city park near where we live. The golf course is mowed, but not really in playing shape. There are walking paths and a fishing pier. We walked down to the fishing pier on the river.   From the fishing pier we headed out on a long boardwalk. I spied something off to the right and mom said we would check it out on the way back.   I heard waves on the shore and stopped to listen. We were heading down the boardwalk to the boat area in the photo and then just past that.  On the way back mom found some stairs and we went down and walked on the beach a little but there were jellyfish so we didn't stay on the riverbank very long. Mom took this photo towards the fishing pier where we started. This was maybe halfway back to the fishing pier. As promised mom took me to explore what I had spied on the way out. It was a large...

One of the things my mom likes to do, is to attend the Riverside Arts Market in downtown Jacksonville. Until the coronavirus hit it was open every single Saturday, year round. Mom took me one Saturday morning, it was a bit chilly with the wind off the river. There were lots of people there. At first I was a little freaked out by all the people and most of them had their dogs with them also. Mom kept telling me it would be okay and that I was a good girl. We even stopped at one booth and got to sample a dog treat.  After a lap past all the vendors mom said we should walk along the river. The distance would be good for our training for the fall trip. On the picture of the map below we started at the bridge at twelve o'clock and walked down to the bridge at about 2 o'clock. It was nice in the sunshine, when the wind wasn't so strong.  I liked to stop and look into the water along the way. Mom tried to get me to sit on a bench and take a photo of me with ...