I absolutely love road trips. Growing up, we were a driving family. Trips from Connecticut to South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, and close by were all done in our family car. I think I was 20 the first time I flew in a plane. I’ve done my share of flying since, but always enjoy a good road trip. Let me tell you about the first time we took a road trip with a puppy.
Canoe 52 is full of road trips. We’ll probably use our own Old Town canoe for 50 out of the 52 paddles we document here in our Paddling Stories. That’s a lot of miles for the VW wagen.
Most of our trips include our sweet girl, Rigby. Rigby came into our home in July of 2016. Canoe 52 was already underway and she was meant to go on this journey with us. We postponed a trip to Michigan in August 2016 (which we’re making up for this year!) and waited until December to bring her on a long car ride. A trip to Rhode Island in September was no big deal, but what about 17 hours from CT to Alabama with a 7 month old pup?
Here’s how it went
I have never owned a dog before, never mind take a road trip with one for almost a full day of driving! Load up the car, strap the canoe to the top, it’s time to hit the road for Alabama. As you may have read in other posts, we prefer to drive through the night. This trip was our first time giving this a shot with the pup.
We left our holiday festivities on Christmas Day around 5pm. After a couple hours we got out, stretched, fed Rigby at her usual 7pm dinnertime, and got back on the road. She slept through the night. We woke her up when we were making our own stops in order to walk her around. If dogs could roll their eyes at you, she would have been rolling her eyes when we tried to get her out of the car a couple of those times. Staying happily nestled in her bed is way better than getting in and out of the car at busy rest areas.
If you’re up for it as humans, drive through the night. We’ve avoided a restless puppy in the backseat for a number of long hauls up and down the East Coast.
Looking for tips on camping with a puppy? Check out the Top 5 Things We Learned Camping With A Puppy.
