29/03/2025
My apology for the length of this post, but I had many things I needed to say and possibly wanted to say more, along with photos to post of my time with my Dad. With this post being my last, the photos will I hope show the fun times we had together these past 12 years.
It has been nearly 10 days since I left my Dad’s side to cross over ‘The Rainbow Bridge’; I hope y’all will help keep an eye on him as I did. OK occasionally I would go off on my own but I did try to always keep track of him. Thank you in advance for the help on this.
When I found him, or maybe let him find me in Fallon, NV back in 2013 I was only about a year old and sort of a wild child. But I knew he was going to be mine forever, I played hard to get and did eventually get thrown into the truck with the back seat filled with his tools (ouch). The drive home that day was an adventure, for that matter the first 4-5 months were an adventure. Possibly my first time in a vehicle, I really did not like the rumble strips on the side of the road. But I had gotten used to them eventually in traveling the country with my Dad as we did. In all I traveled with him to 33+/- states and close to 250,000 (possibly higher) miles in all the vehicles, balloon adventure, and more. It was fun going to dog parks in other parts of the country, finding the back roads to do a short run on in my younger years I could go for miles at 5-7 mile per hour and at times more. Later I slowed down a bit but my Dad had a number of good places bookmarked on the GPS and I know he will be stopping in at those places to gather stones to put on my marker here in Gallup, NM my final resting place.
I got to attend balloon events all across the country, with around 650 flights. People used to ask if I liked it, being in the balloon is like no other experience, recently Dad was watching a video online and I heard the burner noise and got up to look to see if I missed something. One time at a ‘glow’ Dad did not have me in the basket and I went up to see what was going on and he let me in for the evening show at Fiesta 2024, I knew we weren’t going to fly, but I knew I needed to be in the basket with my Dad.
Getting to meet hundreds even thousands of kids at school presentations across the country, my Dad always tried to answer all the questions about me first then talk about balloons and ballooning. The most unusual question he got once was what do you do if you gotta go potty. . . anyhow the kids were always fun to be around. Was with with him at 6 or 8 BFA Junior Balloonist Summer camps, at times I got to stay with him at the camp and other times I had to be at the doggie Airbnb, meeting new friends in new places where the camps were held.
Dad is still saying as he heads out the door to go to the garage, barn or shop ‘Be right back’, I wish I was going to be there to see him. He will get over that in time I hope, because it sounds silly for him to say it to an empty house. He still looks over to the empty seat in the van or truck as he heads to Home Depot (where they used to keep snacks for me behind the counter in Reno) or Ace Hardware. I loved the flea market in Gallup and yummy frybread, spam sandwiches too. He hardly ever left me at home, he tried to setup appointments for the early AM, and parked in the shade for me to wait for him to get done with the Dr. or whatever, after that we would go for a run or the dog park. He took me everywhere, if I was not allowed he tended to not go or do those things, he was all of my life. He seems to remember that I liked to be fed at certain times or as he called it ‘Tummy Time’ did not matter the time zone or the clocks changing, I knew when it was time to eat. The little white boxes that your get with leftovers, I knew those held yummy things and if I was good I would get a little bit, one time he and Karalyn left one of the boxes on the truck dash and I left it alone because I knew it was not for me (or at least not all of it). The last little bite of a sandwich he still holds onto it for a second or two since I am not around to ask for it.
He is still not getting it yet, when he is leaving the house still he looks around like he is leaving something or ‘missing’ something, he is and so am I. I miss him as I know he misses me. But he can stop and visit for a bit, since I am still here in spirit no matter what, he put me in a good place on the property out front on the island in the middle of the roundabout driveway.
He posted on his page and I appreciate all the nice things people said about me to him, he needed that (so did I). I think this post and all the photos he selected may show you some of the fun we had over the years.
Will close with a couple quotes my Dad found,
If you are lucky, a dog will come in your life, steal your heart and change everything. (For me it was a human coming into my life)
‘In life it not where you go- it’s who you travel with.’ Charles Schultz
FB seems to adjust the order of the photos, some are from long agon and others are more recent. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much and as hard as it was for my Dad to post these few. Many were taken by other people since my Dad did not take very many, so thank you.
