Where will we go?  What will we do?  The life we had in Florida had been swept away.  There would be no guiding for quite some time, no service industry.  Our island had been hit hard, with the eye of the storm passing just a measly 20 or so miles from Marathon.  We now had a dog who needed to be adopted.  Sierra’s and my focus immediately changed.  We had to get Nina adopted.  This wonderful dog, who slept the whole 2 day ride to Delaware, needed a forever home.  We knew that even if we did return to Florida after the storm, nobody would be adopting for quite some time because all of their efforts would be focused on rebuilding their lives & homes, not adding another mouth to feed & house.

Over the next week, we called shelter after shelter to see if they would put her on their website to get her seen.  With no leads, it seemed as if we would be stuck with her.  Not that it was a bad thing.  Nina was a sweet wonderful dog; we would be happy to have her.  We just couldn’t provide the life she needed.  With as much as we traveled, she wouldn’t have a stable home.  Also, Nina wasn’t much of a hiker, so the almost 5000 mile trek we had planned didn’t seem like her cup of tea.  We hoped that we would have more luck in Illinois.  (Queue road trip, part 2: Delaware to Illinois — which Nina slept most of the distance, too.)

16 Hours later, we arrived in Rushville, and settled in for the night.  The following day was Rushville’s fall festival, Smile’s Day.  Through a stroke of luck, we met a young man at the Smile’s Day Parade and he was immediately smitten with her.  With no response from the rescues and shelters, we hoped he would be the one.

As fate would have it, he called back and it wasn’t long before our beloved friend was in her new home, living it up on a farm in the middle of America.  With just a day or two to spare, we packed for our new adventure in Colorado and headed back to my sister’s in Delaware for our originally scheduled vacation.

The week went by quickly, fitting in as much family time as possible.  Finally having time to relax and unwind, we finalized our plans for Colorado and said our goodbyes.  All that was left was the 30 hour drive down I-70 all the way to Granby, CO.  Good God, that drive was hands down the worst one we have ever done.  From Missouri/Misery to Denver, it all looked like Kansas.  I asked Sierra if she knew what Kansas number one export was, and before she could think I quickly said “MORE KANSAS!”.  Our only joke was when we crossed the border to Colorado, I said, “I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”  (Little did I know…. Eastern CO is STILL KANSAS!! Ahhhh, where are you, mountains!!)