Kemba the Ranch Hand

LA/XC-4 DAYS FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN, AND SEVENTEEN:  POSTING FROM SANTA MONICA

Yesterday Carol, Kemba, and I drove up the PCH to visit our good friends, former-Westporters Susan and Rick.  (Carol flew into L.A. Thursday for a long-weekend visit; as I’m sure you know by now, this whole cross-country road trip thing is not her style.)  Susan and Rick have re-established themselves on a ranch in Santa Ynez, a little north of Santa

Barbara on California’s mind-bogglingly gorgeous Central Coast, right in the heart of wine country.  We did some tooling around in their neighboring post-card-cutesy towns of Solvang and Los Olivos, but the towering attraction was the Buckeye Ranch (yes, Rick was born and raised in Ohio, and lives and dies for THE Ohio State University), their 20-acre spread in the middle of paradise: blue skies, big-country mountain views, exotic birds chirping, and a car passing  by every hour or so.  They have two dogs, and one of them, Archie, a Golden, could easily pass for Kemba’s big brother.  Kemba was absolutely in his glory, given the run of the ranch, dashing around off-leash all day long with Archie and Emmett, the grumpy bearded collie.

And did I mention the horses?

Okay, Susan has four beautiful horses.  Now you do remember Kemba’s first run-in with horses in Memphis, yes?  Well, yesterday he was Mr. Bigshot, barking fiercely at them — as long as there was the safety of a fence between them.  But if one so much as snorted in his direction, he shot 75 yards in the opposite direction.  And at the end of the day, when Susan led them back to their stalls, Kemba “helped” — from a distance of about three football fields.  Yup, Kemba sure showed those horses who was boss!

Jumping back a bit, I want to tell you about a huge Kemba workout breakthrough.  Carol and I were on our daily Santa Monica Beach boardwalk stroll with him to Venice Beach and back, and it was clear the pup thought we were moving way too slow; he told me this with his not-so-subtle bull-like straining at the leash.  And then I’m thinking, hmm . . . I haven’t gone for an actual run since I’ve been on the road . . .  And I am wearing running shoes . . .  And one of my main goals for Kemba when he’s fully grown is to go on long runs with him . . .   So I broke into a jog.  And Kemba adapted to my (pretty damn slow) pace with a graceful, regal trot of his own.  He never crossed over in front of me.  He never stopped to sniff a candy wrapper.  He just kept up a perfect pace, for maybe a half mile.  EUREKA!  We did this two more times later in the walk.  I’d thought I’d have to drill him in this routine, but he took to it like a duck toller to water.  Dr. B has advised me to wait till he’s a year old (4 more months) before we go long distances, but how great will that be?!  What a great little animal!

My low-cal, on-the-road diet of a hard-boiled egg for breakfast, a Muscle Milk mid-morning, a Clif Builder’s Bar mid-afternoon, and a high-protein Applebee’s dinner has taken a bit of a hit here in L.A. and Santa Monica.  Some great meals with Carol, Robby, and his friends at the likes of Chez Jay, Boa, and Casa del Mar.  Hey, a man’s gotta eat.

Speaking of eating, Kemba continues his road ritual of chewing up at least one important non-food item a day.  Yesterday, it was the wheel on Carol’s rolling carry-on bag, which is now just a carry-on bag.  A few days ago it was my

car iPhone charger, so on Saturday, I stopped in at the Apple store on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.  None of the 20-something or 30-something Apple Genius geeks, with their handy-dandy, hand-held, do-everything devices, could seem to process my credit card.  Their “system” was down.  So I had to pay with cash.  A bit old-school, don’t you think?  I couldn’t care less, but the computer system down . . . at the Apple store?  Genius, my _ _ _.

Problem:  Kemba absolutely loves it here in Santa Monica.  He loves our big room-with-a-view at the Loews.  He loves

his morning visits to Joslyn dog park.  He loves having Carol with us.  He loves seeing Robby every day.  So of course Beagle Man is about to screw all this up for him.  It started yesterday with our all-day trip to Santa Ynez.  Yes, he had a great time . . . but it was still a lot of car-time, away from his now-familiar “home.”  Today we go to the Huntington Dog Beach — described by the

regulars at Joslyn Park as the ultimate doggie heaven — and then Laguna Beach, to visit with my friend Kristi.  Again, dog fun stuff , but a good bit of driving.  And then tomorrow, we check out of Santa Monica and start heading up the coast, the beginning of our return journey.  Back to the four-hundred mile days.  And the highway rest areas.  And the different motel every night.

Something tells me it’s not going to be pretty . . .

I PLAN TO POST AS CLOSE TO DAILY AS POSSIBLE WHILE KEMBA AND I ARE ON THE ROAD.  BUT YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY:  MAN PLANS, GOD LAUGHS.    OH, AND BTW, YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM.