How All Of This Happened (Part 2)

A quick recap . . .

We'd planned to take a quick trip to Las Vegas in January, but ended up coming to the Bay area when a close friend needed some help.

No big deal, Brush Dance is located in San Rafael so it would be easy enough for me to work from here. Jeff was still working for Brush Dance part-time and working on finding a job in NY. If he got an interview, he'd fly home and I'd follow when the friend was doing better. Perfect. A fun little adventure to kickstart the year.

One week turned into another. And another. We needed a plan.  Bella was still being boarded in NY, we were missing her like crazy. The friend wasn't seeing great health improvements. We were torn. In the end, we decided that we'd stay out here another month - even if the friend started feeling better, we were staying for a month. With that decision, we needed a Bella plan.

We could have Bella flown out to San Francisco. Flying a dog in the winter? Especially a greyhound with absolutely zero body fat? Ug. Not a good option.  Both of us could have gone back to NY, but that would have left the friend without much support in the area. Blech.

After so much back and forth, we decided that Jeff would fly to NY, take care of a few things at the condo (our Christmas tree was still up!), break Bella out of jail, rent an SUV and drive (yes, drive) across the country with her.  Jeff's wonderful sister (Ali) would meet them in Lincoln, Nebraska (where they spent their wayward teen years) and drive the rest of the way with them.

Perfect.  Well. Kinda perfect.  Actually, not perfect.

While Jeff was away, I got us moved into a pet-friendly hotel that was willing to negotiate an amazing rate for a month. Seriously, if you have to travel with a pet, the San Francisco area is the place to go - lots of options.

Weather was going to be bad the week that Jeff was driving back. He decided to speed up the schedule a bit and leave sooner than planned. No time to take down that Christmas tree!

Honestly, we didn't talk much those first couple of days of driving. From my perspective, there was a lot of, "It's so cold. It's so freakin' cold."

Finally, they made it to Lincoln.  And then there's a story about a snowstorm and a duck that resulted in this picture:

Yes, that's Jeff. Holding a duck. In January. In Lincoln.  That's a story that he's going to have to share, though.

Annnnnyway . . .

Jeff and Bella finally make it back to California. Having never owned a dog before Bella, I had no idea how much . . . how it's possible . . . fine, I didn't know I was going to be in love with a dog! But, man, seeing her for the first time after so long - she was all kinds of happy jumping up and down - and so was I.

Uh. But now we have a dog - in the Bay area. Almost three thousand miles from home. It's almost a sure thing that we'll be driving back to New York. I'm thrilled with that idea, of course - more adventure and travel!

So. That's how Bella made it out here with us.

Stick around for more of the story of how all of this happened!