14 Days Gone

I managed only one post while I was in Italy and Germany the last two weeks. On our travels, we stayed in very small towns and very small inns, and the connecting to the internet wasn't a sure thing. There were so many pent up blog posts rattling around in my head at the moment – I'll get them organized and start getting them all up here in the next several days.

I've never been without my dogs for that long. Two weeks felt like forever. We had fun on our trip, don't let me give you the wrong idea. Loads of fun, actually. But as our return date got closer, the more antsy I got. In fact, we were in Munich a day early – that's where we flew home from – and I had to really resist the urge to see if we could get an earlier flight.

The dogs stayed at our house, where I thought they'd feel most comfortable. I had my wonderful aunt come in and stay with them. She's not a dog owner, but loves to be around dogs. I'm wondering if two weeks of dog hair didn't drive her a little batty.

The reports from her were good – all the dogs did well and caused no problems. (Thank goodness!) I emailed home every chance I could get to get updates on how the dogs were faring. The report was always the same: the dogs are fine, but we think they miss  you.

The eight hour flight home from Germany felt endless. I didn't think our luggage would ever drop onto the circulating belt. Clearing passport control and customs seemed to last forever. And driving the speed limit, especially after racing along at over 100 mph on the autobahn, was torture.

Finally — finally — we pulled into our driveway. We raced out of the car and ran into the house. The dogs looked happy to see us until they realized it was really us. Then they were ecstatic! Jumping, standing on their hind legs (something they almost never do!), whining, and circling and bumping us. It was sheer joy for both the dogs and for us!

I have never been happier. It appeared that the dogs were pretty pleased, too. Now we're trying to get back into our regular routine and it's all falling into place rather easily. There's nothing like coming home to an overwhelmingly happy homecoming!!

Look for more posts and pictures from the tour of Italy and Germany this week!