As anybody who knows me or who has been following this journey knows, Eleanor has been my constant companion and helper for 11 years. I wouldn’t dream of making this trip, journey, without her.

She has been a real trooper these past seven days. However, she has, of late, been struggling a bit. She has not been drinking water like she should (Ramen juice has helped), her urine output has been limited and her bones seem to be hurting her.

I have given her her Glycanaid and her Rimadyl, even some pain medicine, with little improvement. Add to that the increasing temperatures and need to keep the car cold, and Eleanor is hurting.

When I began to look at how to finish up this journey, I ran into an Eleanor specific problem: The Four Corners Monument and Monument Valley offered no place, besides the car for Eleanor to stay while I visited these two places.

Leaving Eleanor in a car with the A/C blowing cold is not an option at this point. Scratching the monuments from my trip, would only address half the problem. I was still looking at four more days on the road.

While I am confident I could do the rest of this trip, I don’t believe Eleanor could, with any real level of comfort, make it.

For this reason, and this reason alone, I have decided to ship the car to LA and Eleanor and I will be taking the Southwest Chief Amtrak to LA later today.

Eleanor is my family, not just a dog.

 

Eleanor Why Eleanor roadtrip