The trip

Jessi and I had a very nice mother/daughter trip down to NH to get Sampson. We left on Friday and spent the night at my Nana’s house. That was an event in itself as Nana was in RARE form ...not going to go into all that here, but let’s just say the Fox News agenda is working ;) I also learned that I am just like my Aunt because we both have great talents and foolishly choose to keep them as hobbies and not turn them into careers, and that is very sad because we both have so much to offer and it is just getting squandered. Oh yeah… and this new trend of nobody wearing stockings anymore is just terrible because most people have ugly feet and have no business showing them off with those awful dark painted toes ;) ;)

Saturday we got right up and hit the road to Windham to pick up Sampson. We stopped in Manchester and went to the mall and had lunch at Boston Market, which was my FAVORITE when I lived in Boston... not-so-much anymore. There was a Cold Stone Creamery there too but I was still not feeling all that great from my stomach flu and couldn't even finish the chicken. The whole trip was a total bummer to have to pass by my favorites and have my stomach turn at the thought of them... but I am not complaining about the 10 pounds I lost this month ;)

We found the place in Windham without any issues. Jessi is a GREAT little navigator! The "place" turned out to be (and I had read all of this on the website, but it didn't really sink in at all til I got there) a park n' ride by near the highway. You know... those parking lots were people leave their cars to commute together to work. The lot was about 1/2 full when we got there and as we looked around we noticed that they were all kind of standing around holding leashes. Pretty much everyone there was there to pick up a dog. Within 1/2 hour the lot was darn near FULL of people standing around with leashes. It was like a football tailgate minus the BBQ! Then someone said, "He's HERE!" and a pick-up truck with a reallllllly long RV/Camper thingy pulled into the lot. As he came to a stop the dogs ALL started barking inside as people rushed to get into line to pick up their dogs. Because of Sampson's sad tale and large size, he was kind of a celebrity dog there (SO many came up to me while we are waiting to say "You are the ones who adopted Sampson!!? I am so happy for him!! I read his story and it was so sad!!") and Jessi and I got ushered right to the front of the line. At first we thought he was a big dog that was in the entryway who looked just like the photo of him on the net, then they ushered him out and he was TWICE as big as the dog that we THOUGHT he was! Jessi's jaw dropped and she said, "Umm... wow. He's um... REALLY huge!" As we walked him away down the looooong line of people waiting for their dogs, everyone was saying "awwwwwww.... look at the old guy..." and "Holy crap... that dog is HUGE!" When we got over to the car we had all the doors open to let it air out (it was HOT!!) and Sampson got right into the backseat without a second thought. It was a good thing Sean didn't come along because Sampson takes up the WHOLE backseat!

The ride home was fairly uneventful. One minor glitch when we stopped at the NH Liquor and Lottery Store to let Sampson have a pee break (ok... so we didn't ONLY stop there so Sampson could have a pee break, but you can't go to NH and NOT get some liquor!! That's just crazy talk!!!) and he laid down in the grass and didn't want to get up. That was when I learned that if a 100lb dog doesn't want to do something... he ain't gonna do it!! After a lot of coaxing and a little pushing from behind on my part (the pulling on the leash wasn't working at all... he just looked at me like "Bitch please."), and we were back on the road. We were home just in time to decline Rick's very nice offer to BBQ chicken (as my stomach was still trying to decide if it was happy with the Boston Market lunch) ;)