Wednesday 29th August ~ We landed at Heathrow on time, Caesar (and us) certainly benefitted from the relaxing trip, all the BA staff were very kind to us. As usual, none of them had flown with an assistance dog before so after we had landed and everyone had gone, we obliged with some photos.

It took us some considerable time to get away from the gate. OCS, the company who are supposed to assist passengers with disabilities were less than helpful ... I had some hand luggage so could not self propel my wheelchair the distance involved to get to the baggage hall. Tey knew this, but it took an hour to get someone to help push! It was bad enough for me, but a dog coming on a transatlantic flight deserves early opportunities to clear the airport. Not to mention the two occasions when the "pusher" wasn't looking where he was going and steered my wheelchair right into Caesars' heels.

Just over three weeks, eight thousand miles and the most inconsiderate person we encoutered waas right there at Heathrow!

As if that wasn't bad enough there was pandemonium in the luggage hall, resulting in us making a complaint to BA about the man charged with helping us. Thankfully, another, very kind airport employee (employed by BAA) came to our aid and resuced us, escorted us through customs and to our awaiting car, thank you sir, you're a gent! Karen was then able to nip Caesar to the nearest grass to spend. He came back with a real spring in his step!

We were driven home by our friend and fellow geocacher, Trisha, only stopping at Winchester to grab some hot chocolate and of course a geocache!

The days that followed have involved sleep, sleep and even more sleep ... for all three of us! We've been relaxing and catching up with ourselves with frequent walks on the heath for Caesar. There's nothing quite like home, as far as he is concerned probably the worst thing about America is the leash laws ... oh so restrictive.

Tuesday 28th August ~ Our last day in Michigan, our last day in the United States, and we're tired and ready to come home!

After a long lie in, we put the finishing touches to our packing and set off to Wal-Mart for some last minute shopping ... well it would have been rude not to, right?

As we had room, we stocked up on all sorts of bits and pieces we can't get at home and bought some cheapo dvds and cds. Many things are so much cheaper!

At six o'clock, Daniel (whom we met via a colleague last year) arrived to take us to the airport. We arrived just after seven and no sooner than we had entered the booking hall, we saw the BA staff waving and smiling at us. We were expected! They'd been looking forward to seeing Caesar all day! Of course my beautiful sweet, patient boy obliged and offered hugs all round.

As people surrounded Caesar to say hello I spotted another assistance dog in the terminal. A black lab wearing a Paws Vest. I made a mental note to go and say hi after we had checked in, but quickly changed my mind when I realised it was a pup in training who'd had an accident on the floor! In all the time we spent in USA this time, this was the first assistance dog, other than those partnered with other members of the IAADP board that we had seen.

After check in we were welcomed to the BA lounge where we enjoyed a peaceful hour with champagne and British newspapers before we headed through security. Afterwards, we had a quick nip through the airport (via the duty free store) to our gate and awaited boarding.

In no time we were on board and were given super reclining seats in Club World for the long flight home. We departed at 22.20. Champagne, supper, sleep ... tomorrow we'll be home!

Monday 27th August ~ Our primary task today was to take Caesar to the vets office to begin his preparations to return to the United Kingdom under the PETS scheme. Easier said than done as the taxi we ordered (in plenty of time) arrived about 30 minutes after our appointment time! When it arrived it was one of those cars where you really start to wonder if it will give you a safe ride or not! The driver had gotten lost on his way to us and on the way to the vets office he drove clutching my piece of paper with directions on as if it were the last will and testament of a millionaire!

Thankfully, the vet (who we had kept informed of our progress, or lack of it) was still able to see Caesar when we arrived. It was interesting that she hadn't seen a European Union Pet Passport since we were there last year! Caesar had a thorough examination to determine his fitness to fly, had Milbemax and Advantix administered and his microchip checked. His passport was then completed and we were free to go.

Wendy was delighted with the vets comments, especially when she said Caesar was very fit and had the heart of an athlete!

We took a different taxi company back to our hotel, and then finished off some of our packing. Fortunately, some of the more fragile items we had bought at Bronners Christmas Wonderland were all still wrapped and packaged, so that bit was easy.

Carol & Heart dropped in late afternoon as they were passing by on their way back to Detroit Airport before flying back to California. We shared tales of the days we had been apart and dinner at Baileys' Bar & Grill. Their Chicken Chowder is really worth going out for.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Sunday 26th August ~ All three of us were so tired after the fun of the past week that we spent the day lazing about in our suite watching tv, catching up with the computer, walking Caesar and sleeping ;o)

It was nice to be able to collect our thoughts a bit and do not very much!

Mobility ~ I've had a couple of emails from friends asking how my new mobility products are holding up. For those who don't know, my new wheelchair and trike both arrived just days before we left for USA.

The chair is very comfortable and the seat angle suits me so much better, helping with posture and so on. As far as the chair is concerned there has only been one real hiccup, that was while we were in Chicago. I suddenly felt very lop sided and checked to find one of the front wheels had managed to buckle under. When we got back to the hotel we managed to get a maintenance man to assist us (would you believe the new £3000 / $6000 chair came with no tools)? We managed to get the wheel back to where it should be and it hasn't given us any problems since. When we arrived in Michigan we made jolly sure we bought the vitasl tools in case this happens again.

As far as the new trike is concerned, it too has only had a couple of hiccups. The new battery has twice shown it has plenty of charge and then within minutes gone so flat the trike switches off. Fortunately once we were in the hotel car park anyway, but on the other occasion we got a bit standed some way from the car.

Goldstock ~ The Golden Retriever summer camp is being held next weekend and I've also had a couple of emails asking if we are going as we are in USA. The answer, in short is no. Although we had a good time last year, there were some things that went on there peripherally, that really bothered us. The site isn't ideal for a wheelchair user and there isn't an accessible toilet in the place ... that said, it is sometimes possible to "get by" with a bit of help. The major reason for choosing not to go was the behaviour of some of the folks there last year, leaving their dogs locked in cars while they went off and socialised in bars and restaurants. Why drive your dog across the country to go to a dog event and leave it locked in a hot and stuffy car while you enjoy yourself? Makes no sense to me, particularly knowing that Dogs Die in Hot Cars.

Saturday 25th August ~ We were all up early this morning as noise at the hotel woke us. NOT a good start to the day.

At 10am Tanya and Brooke left us to drive home to Ohio ... we were sad to see them go, but know we'll be meeting up again soon at the Assistance Dogs Europe Conference in Frankfurt in October.

Drie & Darryl, geocaching friends who live nearby our hotel arrived shortly afterwards to collect us and take us geocaching. They had kindly arranged an event to coincide with our visit and we started the day off well with completing an Earthcache together at Lake St Clair. The event was brilliant, we met so many geocachers, swapped coins, travel bugs and cachng stories and so on. Afterwards we went to a Johnny D's Coney Island Diner for dinner (this was a taste of America as we have seen in the movies) and some cache and dash caches afterwards. It was a brilliant day, we all had such fun, even Caesar with all the love and attention he was getting. We met many wonderful people today, who embraced us as part of the geocaching family. Thank you all.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted and just about had time for a quick drink before settling for an early night.

Friday 24th August ~ Our last morning in Frankenmuth, the days here have flown by and we have all enjoyed staying in this pretty and friendly town. After an early breakfast we did some last minute shopping and set about packing the car up for the trip back to Troy. We decided to do one last geocache in Frankenmuth, which took us to a beautiful little spot along the river and then on the way back we popped back to Birch Run for Karen to do some last minute shopping. We had lunch there and set off.

We stopped off at Indian Springs Metropark at White Lake, just outside Pontiac to do an earthcache, a special type of geocache, which centred around puddingstones. This was really fascinating, and we were sorry we didn't have more time to spend exploring the park.

A puddingstone aka Jasper Metaconglomerate in Wendys' hand.

We eventually arrived back in Troy just after 6pm and it started to rain as we were unloading the car ... that didn't stop Karen getting up to some high jinks though ... the sight of her skateboarding / surfing across the car park on the hotel luggage trolley is something Tanya and Wendy won't forget in a hurry, it was so funny we all fell about laughing.

No sooner had we got inside the thunder and lightening started ... seemed worse than we had experienced in Frankenmuth the past couple of nights and we watched as the car park got covered in water. We put the tv on to see Tornado Warnings for our area! Holy Smoke! Karen & Wendy had never witnessed anything like this before ... the local news was giving reports of tornadoes touching down in the district we had driven from just an hour earlier. Scary stuff, but we were inside and all fine, the biggest job was keeping enough noise in the room that the dogs didn't get afraid.

We spent the evening relaxing eating pizza and reflecting on the wonderful few days we'd had upstate.

A news image of the Fenton Tornado, Michigan, Friday 24th August 2007

Thursday 23rd August ~ This was to be the last full day together for us all, as Carol was heading off on further travels towards the end of the day.

We had a prompt start after breakfast and headed down to River Place to take a ride on the riverboat, that was fun and showed us parts of Frankenmuth we hadn't previously seen. We took plenty of photos there and then headed back to the shops for some last minute buys before heading off to Bronners. We did the geocache outside, and then headed into the Christmas store. By this stage both Tanya and Carol had developed more than a passing interest in geocaching!

We lost track of time while Christmas shopping and left sometime after 6pm. Carol set off to visit friends further upstate and Tanya, Karen and Wendy set off to get a meal and spent the evening relaxing in our hotel room, we were all, including the dogs Brooke & Caesar, exhausted!

Late evening jacuzzis are so relaxing!

The Yellow Hummer Girls on Tour!

The Bavarian Belle Riverboat

Beautiful Frankenmuth

All shopped out!
It's Christmas! Bronners' style!

I wonder if Caesar realised he's never seen Mary & Joseph in August before?