First travel with Baker

We saw a lot of Florida yesterday, Priscilla, Michael and I, from Parrish to Jupiter and return, 330 miles. In Texas, that total distance would be 26 miles short of the distance from Texarkana to Abilene. And El Paso would still be 453 miles away. In Florida miles, Pensacola to Miami is 675. That is a long way, but Texas is longer. 

Jupiter is on the Atlantic Ocean. We did not see the Atlantic. We were halfway through a six-hour-plus drive, and seeing some sea water was not worth adding time and miles to our drive.

We did see open Florida. Cattle ranches, horse ranches, farms. The kind of Florida, sort of, that used to be. Miles and miles of no houses. No condos, no gated neighborhoods. We saw wooded Florida. There is still some of that in our Gulf area, but yesterday we saw more. Similar to Northeast Texas, but with palm trees and palmetto growth. Seeing the palmetto thickets gives you more appreciation of what early settlers accomplished. Indigenous and European. 

We saw Arcadia, Okeechobee and Indiantown.

We got a puppy in Jupiter, a 2-month-old black standard poodle, all of eight pounds. Baker is a pretty puppy, even for a standard. Her grandmother is 11 years old and a former show dog. Her mother and an aunt are show dogs. Baker shows her blood line by the way she stands and by the way she moves. We will not show Baker. She will be our companion dog. She will stop gnawing fingers, jeans cuffs, electrical cords, anything suspended she can reach. In a short while. For now, she is a puppy.

I told her she must live a long time. “I am 75 years old,” I said, “and you are likely the last puppy I will have.” She seemed to understand.