He’ll stay in NYC to do a circuit of national shows, make a fast stop in Princeton, NJ, for a book-signing, and then fly to Houston to meet me, my dog McKenzie, and a 45-foot wrapped bus and a crew consisting of tour manager, bus driver and a couple of tour assistants to help with events and drive the chase car. On April 25, we start our BIG Bus Tour, with a series of events in Houston, then hop on the bus for the drive to New Orleans … then Tampa … then Miami … then Jacksonville … then … well, you get the picture. Our days will start before dawn with media interviews, then a lunchtime event for veterinarians, then a public event at a PETCO. Every day, five days a week, for seven weeks. (Above is what the bus will look like, so please wave if you see us!)
Yes, it’s completely insane, as all truly wonderful ideas are.
For those of you near one of those 30 cites, I hope you can turn up and say hello. Here are the details. But really, that’s not what I’m writing about today.
I have four dogs, one cats, eight chickens and two ducks. Getting personally ready for this tour is, for me, something akin to planning the invasion of Normandy. Although I’m not an inexperienced traveler, packing to be away from home for nine weeks (I’m leaving early for Texas to visit with my friend Mary on her ranch before the trip) is pretty challenging. At least McKenzie, who’ll be the official tour dog, doesn’t need to pack clothing — two simple vests with her name on them (one red, one purple) will be her entire wardrobe for the tour, along with some fancy leashes and collars. Throw in some tennis balls, a lot of poop bags, 40 pounds of Honest Kitchen, some probiotics to help prevent G-I upsets (I’ll be on my own probiotics as well!), Frontline and Heartguard, a crate, some shampoo and the all-important tennis balls (so important I list them twice) and she’s set.
Not so me.
Every week we’ll have a day for laundry and rest, sometime two, so there’s that. But I still have to pack enough “business casual” to get me through five or six days straight, with enough diversity to handle everything from heat waves to downpours. Oh, yes, and since my role (in addition to dog-walker) is reporting on the tour, my biggest challenge is electronic: Coordinating the laptop, iPad, videocam, smartphone and digital SLR for a continuous stream of updates to multiple media platforms — including McKenzie’s page! Honestly, I love that stuff, so the actual work of it is a challenge I can’t wait to tackle. But the packing? Ohhhhhh … hate.
Then there’s the home front issue, and in this, I got lucky. A former colleague who’s between homes will be staying at the house with his dog, caring for the animals who remain here, Ilario and the poultry. Since he’s a writer, he’ll also be taking over my pet duck’s popular Facebook fan page.
As for the three dogs not traveling with me: Drew is staying up north with regular blog commenter Susan Fox. Faith, the youngest retriever, left for Mary’s ranch a month ago (I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to get the youngster field-trained, since Mary’s one of the best field trainers around). Woody and McKenzie will drive to Texas with me, and Woody will then stay on the ranch for a vacation — although I doubt Mary can stand to keep from putting more training on him, too!
You know … now that I type it all out, the fact is most everything IS locked down, and I’m in great shape! I guess really, there’s not much else to do but enjoy the adventure. And yes, I intend to!
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