Hi!! I am Morgana, THE Pretty Princess Hound of the Leiter Hound Clan. I have noticed that the Hooman Slaves have not been posting pictures of us hounds, even though they are constantly snapping very unflattering shots of us. I got with my younger siblings, Monty and Morgana, and we planned a take over of the blog. So why mom and dad are at the store we are letting you know what we hounds have been doing!!

We spent the winter in lovely South Dakota. We saw this monument to some dead guys, I think it was called Mt. Rushmore. The three of us hounds decided we need our mugs in stone somewhere. We did enjoy the snow a whole bunch!!

Patrolling Our Surroundings

Mahana in her winter coat

My little brother Monty sporting the lumberjack look

And me sporting the best winter wear for a Princess

We then made a loooong road trip across the world to a place called Ohio. My hooman daddy is from there. He seemed to enjoy visiting his hooman family. We did not complain as we hounds got a bunch of attention!!

Mahana meeting her hooman Grandma

Mahana meeting her hooman Grandpa

Monty giving his hooman Grandpa a hard time

We got visit Aunt Betsy’s house after our vet visit

Here we are enjoying a beautiful summer day in Ohio

We went to a dog park where we meant some pretty wild Basset pups named Arthur and Fred. I let Monty and Morgana keep them busy.

We now live in Louisville, Kentucky. Hoomans here seem to have an accent like my mommy. We live at an RV Park at a Flea Market, I hate fleas so I don’t know why anyone would sell the. We are parked between the indoor market and the outdoor market. It is nice as all my hooman subjects get to come by and show the respect to me their Pretty Princess.

Well I better get off before mommy and daddy catch me. Monty keeps naggin’ me to ask y’all to send us treats and toys. Mahana just wants to tell y’all she loves you. Here are some random pics of us that we think should have been shared with y’all.

Until next time, kisses ans slobber, Morgana

Apparently Ohio is competing with Eastern Washington for the rainfall totals. It is so wet here I saw a new ride share service Canoeuber paddling down the road near me. We are finally getting a ‘break’ from the rain. Independence Day week we are only saw a handful of days of rain, although those days were heavy. The forecast over this coming weeks is looking much dryer.

Since my last update we had an interesting electrical issue. So apparently when assembled the personal may not pay attention to detail. In our case loose wire nuts. I started smelling this electrical burn smell and noticed my main line surge protector was not showing normal lights. After some trial and error I realized that the problem was on my end and not the campground. This meant a couple of nights of no power. Fortunately the lights are on the 12 volt side and the battery was fully charged so we had lights. RV Mobile Tech came out and found the problem. Where the main power wire come ins there is a metal junction box where that wire connects to the wire that goes to the panel and inverter. The wire nut on the neutral loosened up causing the wire to make contact with the metal junction box. He got us fixed up and back in service!

Went to dinner with my sister Betsy and her family. In a little town near is a quaint pizzeria called Fracasso’s Village Pizza. They had a really good pizza pie there. After dinner we went to the Alum Creek Dam and Recreation Area. Water was at super high flow because of all the rain.

Great Blue Heron we saw as we were leaving the rec area. Picture by my niece Katy

My other sister Tami, her hubby Bob and her daughter Arieanne came down for some of my awesome John Wayne Casserole with watermelon for desert.

Me catching both my sister and her husband with watermelon in their mouth. 🙂

July 2nd was not friendly to us. Dianne came home from work 3 hours early with the stomach bug. 3 hours later it hit me, with a vengeance. Great weight loss program. Dianne could finally start eating again on Saturday and I could on Sunday. It made for a rough week.

July 1-6 was the annual 13 Colonies Amateur Radio Special Event Station. Lots of fun trying to make contact, competing with 100s of other amateurs world wide, with each station. I got all 13 colonies and the extra station out of Philadelphia, PA station. I just could not get the extra station out of Great Britain.

That wraps up this update. Until next time, stay cool!

So much has happened since our last update in March. We extended 8 weeks here in Rapid City. Partly because we could not find an assignment where we wanted to go and partly because we were concerned about the weather and traveling. Man, are we thankful we decided to stay. We have had 3 major snow events in the last 6 weeks.

Between the snows we managed to do some stuff in the area. First was the visit of my cousin Rick Summerton and his family. I had not seen Rick since the 80s. He and his family live in Wyoming, just a few hours away. So Easter weekend Rick, his wife Stacy and their children Hunter and Emilia came up from Casper and spent the weekend here. Friday night we met up for dinner and caught up. Great time and it was like we have been hanging out since 1987. Rick’s kids found humor in the similarities we have. Saturday we went to check out a couple cool sites near Rapid City. First stop was the National Park Delta-09 Minuteman II Missile Silo Launch Facility. Having grown up during the cold war, the threat of a nuclear attack was part of my growing up. I even remember watching the movie The Day After and the feeling that I had afterward.

We then traveled to Wall, SD and visited the Famous Wall Drug Store. Wall drug has been around since 1931. It is a shopping oasis, tourist exhibits and eatery surrounding a drug store. We all had a fun time.

That evening, joined by a fellow traveling nurse from Dianne’s work and his family, was time around the fire making Smores, pie iron fruit pies and more catching up.

Easter Sunday we met up after church at the Reptile World. This was a super cool place. Lots of exhibits and shows. I personally liked the tortoises.

I truly had a great time catching up with Rick and meeting his family. Look forward to seeing them again.

Dianne and I also have done a little sight seeing, now that the weather has gotten better. We drive through Spearfish, Deadwood and Sturgis, yes motorcycle Mecca Sturgis. We got to see some beautiful falls in Spearfish Canyon, absolutely stunning scenery and some cool wild west history.

We are planning on visiting a few more places here before we pull out May 19. We are headed to Westerville, Ohio, just outside of Columbus. Dianne has taken an assignment at the Ohio State University Cancer Center. This will be a fun 13 weeks.

Well friends and family that is all for now. May the Force Be With You!!!

So the last couple of weeks have been a mixed bag of weather. It can be sunny and in the 50’s one day and a cold snowy day the next. Of course the last few days and the next 10 days look to be highs in the teens and lows in the single digit to negatives. Been awhile since we have been in temperatures like that.

We have not done much the last few weeks. Did visit a local candy maker Mostly Chocolates. They have some delightful selections there. We bought some to sample and they did not last long!!! We also found a pizza buffet, Pizza Ranch. Good pizza for buffet pizza, plus they have salads, hot veggies, various potatoes and chicken on the buffet as well.

Dianne flew home to Georgia January 25th to the 28th. She got to see family and friends. It had been for years since we left so it was awesome for her to go home. She had a good time and thanks everyone for the visits and meals.

We had a good snow over the last 36 hours. Most snow I have seen in years. Been pretty cold too, -11 degrees this morning and only warming up single digits. Life Lessons learned over the last few days, car batteries that are cheaper work in Georgia and the Pacific Northwest, but boy do you want those cold cranking amps in negative weather. Hoping to not have to buy a new battery to deal with the cold, we shall see.

RVing in the cold has a new set of challenges. Under-skirting the RV has been a huge help. The heated water line has also been an asset. The metal door frames and window frames frost over every night. Had to install a heat lamp to keep the black and gray valves from freezing closed. For anyone who does not RV: the black valve empties your black tank, the tank where all your toilet water goes and the gray valve opens the gray tank where all the sink water goes.

Anyway, a few more pics from the last few weeks. Until next time, stay warm!!!!

Happy New Years!!! It is 2019, and I thought I would write a Blog Update!

Well, we have been in South Dakota for a couple of weeks. It has been interesting to say the least, but more on that later.

As we packed up the boys and got them moved in to their own apartment, the realization hit us that for the first time in our marriage it was going to be just Dianne and I and the Hounds. On one hand you are glad to see your kids do their own thing, but on the other it means not seeing them everyday. Compound that with the fact that travel nursing took us to South Dakota, leaves us about 9 hours to our closest child. We shall see where this exciting new chapter takes us.

Dianne’s work in gave her a pretty nice send off. Everyone met up at a local restaurant called the Ram. Fun was had by all. Dianne received numerous going away gifts and is going to be truly missed by the staff at Good Sam in Puyallup.

With the boys working retail, we had to do some finagling to get a night together. It worked out and we had some Christmas fun. We did finger foods and made ugly sweater sugar cookies. We had a little more time with them before we left. We helped them get moved in their new place. It was bitter sweet, leaving our youngest behind. He has been in our home for 21 years. We knew the day would come, but we did not imagine it would be this hard.

And so the road trip to South Dakota began. With Dianne in the Trailblazer with Morgana and Mahana following Monty and I in the GMC pulling the RV. Day 1 was fog, like hours and hours of fog. And not just fog, but fog and twisty mountain passes. And then there was the rain as well. We made it to snowy Spokane. Next day was travel across Idaho and into Montana. Other than a little snow, it was a pretty good drive. We arrived at our stop from the night and the wind and snow was intense.

Day three was extremely challenging. The wind was horrid. In the four years we have been doing this travel nursing, I have never been as challenged towing the travel trailer as I was this day. When we finally stopped in Wyoming I was ready to be out of the truck. The last day was sunny and cold. We had a little wind at times and I90 in Wyoming was snow covered in several places. But by early afternoon we were safely in Rapid Safety and setting up the house.

Dianne is doing well at the hospital here. A lot of the staff seems to be Travel Nurses. This assignment has her doing call. It has been awhile since she has done call. Her first call in on a Saturday she ended up being there all night, 12 hours! She slept good on Sunday.

We have had two snow events. The first was good snowfall, but nothing too bad. But this past weekend was a Blizzard. Several inches of snow with 40 to 60 mph winds. Been several years since I have experienced that. And then I had to drive Dianne to work, in the middle of it, at 0500 in the morning. No biggie. My daddy taught me well!!

Christmas was different for us this year. For the first time in our marriage we were alone. Just Dianne and myself with the Hounds. We enjoyed finger foods and Christmas movies on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day I spent working on skirting the RV. I was surprised to find how much of a difference skirting actually makes in controlling the climate in the RV. Overall, it was a really laid back and relaxing holiday. We did miss not being around family.

New Years Eve and Day was finger foods and BYU TV Relative Race binge watching. Great show. Very relaxing day. The afternoon was sunny and the temps got out of the single digits to the mid 20s so we took the dogs out to play in the snow. It was funny watching these short legged Basset Hounds running and romping through the high snow drifts. Their sweaters were covered in snow when it was all over.

We are enjoying the people here in South Dakota. The folks here are very friendly. Seen several cowboys here as well as lots of Native Americans. We are part of the Mount Rushmore Ward at church. The folks at church at super friendly. We are looking forward to seeing what the next 11 weeks holds for us here. Until next time, may 2019 be your year!!