Mayim's Life On-The-Road

Our dog's name is "Mayim," which is hebrew for "water" which fits perfectly because she is a Portuguese Water Dog. She is an integral part of our Family-on-the-Road and was the first one to acclimate to life in our 39' Fleetwood RV as we tour America and Canada.

As we headed into Canada this week along the scenic International Selkirk Loop, we made sure she has all the right papers to be an international traveler.

We were in Salinas, California in September and went to see the John Steinbeck museum and got to see his camper "Rocinante" named after Don Quixote's horse and lots of pictures of Charley. I'm not making this up -- Charley is in a retriever cut! He looks just like a PWD!

Mayim loves to travel. Once our RV had to be towed and it was going to be a long repair schedule. We drove from Oakland to Orange County (7 hours) with the dog in a tiny space in the hatch area of the tow car with all our luggage and computers in a space as big as she was (no room to spin 3 times) and she acted like it was no big deal.

She loves to look out the window when we are travelling in the rv – she travels on the couch on the passenger side so she can keep track of me driving and the refrigerator door at the same time!

She enjoys getting out of the RV at each new place, every three to seven days, and sniffs deeply to get all the new scents.

Sometimes we have to leave her in the RV for 6-7 hours alone. If we are going for longer, we leave her with a fellow RVer who has admired her and often has a dog too as the official “babysitter.” She stays with them through the day and dinner and then gets put in the RV for us to come home in the evening.

Originally I didn't think that a dog would be happy in an RV and I was going to leave her behind for the two years with my best friend and Mayim’s best doggie pal. The first RV trip convinced me how much Mayim loved the touring.

Plus, you would be amazed how many people are full timing with pets. Sometimes there will be this tiny fifth wheel and out will come two or three hundred pound dogs! It’s amazing how much precious space people are willing to give up for their pets. People walk their cats on leashes and parrots and finches sit outside on picnic tables during nice weather.