The trip that wasn't

 Time to document this before I forget so that I have it for posterity.  Last Wednesday, June 9th, we rented an RV and left on an epic 10 day road trip. I was so, so excited. I had planned the trip for about 6 months and we were going to stop at places I've wanted to see for ages. It was going to be completely epic and memory making. We left here and drove to Holbrook, AZ. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive and we got stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes. We left here around 3pm and arrived in Holbrook at almost 9pm. When we got the RV we just kind of threw everything in there and took off. We wanted to get going. When we got to Holbrook, it was impossible to find anything and get the dog food and make us something to eat. It was rough. We also had a really rough night. The campground was right by a freeway and people were coming and going all night. The dogs didn't sleep much, we didn't sleep much, and we were up at 4am. We took our time getting moving, coffee, shower, organizing, etc. We fed the dogs and they hardly ate but did lounge around in front of the RV. Around 7am we packed everything up and headed out to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. They were pretty cool. The Painted Desert was beautiful. The Petrified Forest was weird. I don't know what I exactly expected but all that we saw were logs laying on the ground. Most of them had been cut up at some point in time. It was just strange. From there we began to head towards our next destination - St. George Utah. The plan was to spend 2 days there and see Bryce and Zion National Parks - epic. We drove for a while and then stopped to get gas and let the dogs out. That's where things went bad. Bella couldn't walk. At. All. I got her out of the RV but she really couldn't stand. She'd get up- with my help - and then take a step or two and fall down again. She could not use her legs at all. WTF!!! What were we going to do? I tried to call her vet and couldn't get through. So after talking about it we decided that the only thing to do was to go home. We could not keep her out like that, we had to figure out what was wrong. So, on day 2 of the epic adventure, we headed home. Luckily we were right outside Flagstaff which means we were only about 2 hours from home. We got home and see was a little better but still not walking well. We got her into the house, gave her some water, and proceeded to unpack the van. I called internal medicine vet and she said that we should take her to the ER right away. I called her primary vet and they said the same thing. But they had me check her gums by pressing on them to turn them white and then seeing how long it took to turn pink again. It took a long time. They said that meant she was dehydrated and would probably need fluids. I gave her some more water and she laid down and slept on the cold tile. I decided to wait before taking her to the ER. That night was rough. Bella could not get up on her own and she walked like a drunken sailor. She really did nothing but sleep. Lola slept soundly through the night also. The next morning, Bella was a little bit better but not much. She could not get up by herself and definitely had trouble walking. Lola did not get up in the morning. She slept and slept and slept and slept. It was odd how late she slept. Bella laid around most of the day. She was getting up on her own a bit and was definitely walking better. She still just laid around most of the day but was definitely improving. Then this morning she was almost back to her old self. She could get up on her own and was walking normally again. It was good to see. She is still sleeping a lot but she is definitely moving better. 

As for the trip, I managed to cancel all but 2 of the campsite reservations that I had made. So I got over $200 back. We returned the RV yesterday and they only charged us for 3 days. We got all the rest back, a little over $2,000. So it was a bust but at least we got most of our money back. Initially I was sad, very sad that we were not going to do the trip and I was really worried that we may have pushed Bella too far and we may lose her. But I got over the trip and Bella is on the mend so it's all good.