We – the humans behind “Woof the Beaten Path” – met back in the 20th century on a beach in the Bahamas. That rainy afternoon, our paths joined for what promised to be a life-long adventure. A few days later, we headed out for a month of sailing the turquoise waters of the West Indies. We’ve been on the move ever since!
In 2005, while living in South Texas, we adopted our first “fur baby” – a wiggly little mutt-puppy we named Zoe. Over the next few years, our pack grew as we continued to adopt, until we had a lively mix of five junior and senior puppers in our family. The whole pack loved adventure – road-tripping, hiking, and camping – and wherever we went, at least two tailwaggers would accompany us.
By 2014, our wanderlust had kicked into high gear, and we decided to search out a new home base, all seven of us heading off on what promised to be a grand, if slow moving journey. For the next five years, we sampled a variety of options: from living in an old house on five acres at the mouth of the Royal Gorge (birthplace of the Arkansas River), to wintering in a drafty RV at 8,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies, to passing a rainy ten months on a small northern Gulf Island off the coast of British Columbia. Sadly, it was during this protracted time of home (and soul) searching, that three of our by then “super seniors” left us on their own journeys – these over the Rainbow Bridge. We look forward to seeing them again when our own human traveling is done.
Finally, yearning for hot summer days, good Tex-Mex food, live music and warm lake water, we turned our truck south, and circled back around to where we’d started.
So…what did we learn from our search for the “perfect” home? Home is “us” – wherever that happens to be. Now we’re just two humans and two dogs, based out of Austin but always searching for our next “Woof the Beaten Path” adventure.
