And Now for the First Time...Part 1

The one and only magnificent recounting of the expedition. Not just any expedition, this was The Expedition to pick up the goat. The four hour one way road trip to pick up a rare and endangered San Clemientine Island goat.



It started out with myself Emily, Steve, Ariyana and the rambuncious puppy Lydia Dog all in one car heading out at the crack of dawn to embark on this mission of great importance. The seating arrangments were as follows: Emily, The Never Tired, driving. Steve, The Entertainer, in the front passenger seat, entertaining. TomTom/Susan, The Most Helpful Electronic Guidance System, on the dashboard. Ariyana, The Chatter Box, chattering to herself punctuated by statements to us, in her car seat behind Emily. Myself, The Companion (and soon to be "Great Mediator" of the soon to be picked up goat. And Lydia Dog, (a.k.a. Puddle o' Cuteness, shortened to Puddle O' so as not to confuse the dog with the human) sitting in the middle... of the back and front, half on the consul half on the back seat; she is quite the lanky creature. Her role in this escapade was for introductions with the goat and her very protective self to start in a controlled enviorment though to what degree controled the goat was has yet to be discovered.



So thus it began, we ate breakfast and hit the road after stopping at the dump to clean out the car for better gas mileage. Also the dump was where we decided which voice our GPS should have, coming to the conclusion of Susan after analysing each voice with direct precision. We arranged to drive the senic route using back roads and highways rather then the interstate which proved a good decision as we saw some of the most darling houses, unusually large numbers (due to there migration) of hawks, a bald eagle or two, and enough fences and cattle to keep Ariyanna exclaiming at regular intervals "Look at the fence! Do you see the fences Granddaddy? It's a black fence" sometimes regaurdless of what color it truly was. As we began to get farther north, the swamps and pine trees thinned to rolling hills and hard wood forests with increasing amounts or large rocks. Then all of a sudden there were mountains of varying shades of blue in the distance. One of the goofier moments was stopping at a rest stop and realizing we had no leash for Puddle O' and having to walk her with a large, horse size, lead rope we had brought for the goat. This was made extra comical with her confused antics as she had never been on a leash before.