June 7, 2007

[summer roadshow: mcconnells mills to kiski] ^{12:33 PM}

We took Murphy to McConnell's Mills, which is a state park not far from the Non-In-Laws. Being the nervous parents I am, I didn't want to let Murphy off the leash, even though he's had a titanic amount of leashless freedom in the past weeks thanks to wide open spaces near slow traffic roads. Boy finally took him and undid the leash and let him roam, and he became part frog. The kid is a rockhopper, boucing from boulder to boulder exploring, while retaining the nack for looking away just as you point the camera towards him. Needless to say, someone slept quite well on the way back home.

After four days of woods, kayaks and homemade pancakes, we hit the open road again bound for one of Boy's college friends with a quick stopover to his boarding school.

Boarding schools are so foreign to me, but they exist, and it kinda did look like Dead Poets Society. It's been over 12 years since he's been there, and when we went to the local sub-shop for lunch, the woman behind the counter recognized him immediately. His nickname, apparently, was "Lemonhead," because of his daily candy purchase after swim team practice.

Murphy gets motion sickness, so we feed him a little pill the vet gave him, that has drowsiness as a side effect. The drive from Slippery Rock to Kiski was only about an hour and a half, so Murphy was basically a drugged up drunkard puppy bobbing and weaving and missing steps on the stairs. It was adorable, but only because we knew why he was acting that way. Have you ever seen a drugged puppy try to chase a squirrel?