Loose Park - Kansas City, MO

Without a doubt, my favorite traveling companion is our dog Brock Lee. He is our only pet who actually enjoys traveling with me. Our little dog is horrible to ride in the car with. She barks at every car, person, and tree thinking it is invading her space. She has a particular vendetta against the windshield wipers. And our cat is...well, she's a cat. She wants nothing to do with anything that takes her away from napping in the sun.

But Brock Lee loves car rides! And he loves Loose Park in Kansas City, Missouri. It is a beautiful park with a lake, open lawns, Civil War markers, tennis courts, picnic areas and a rose garden. I was enjoying the great sunny weather and Brock Lee was under the impression every child and other animal was there to play with him. Luckily, he was easily distracted by the many strange scents in the park. He was trying to smell everything possible. He spent most of the time dragging me along the trail chasing every smell through the bushes.

All was going really well. Brock Lee was behaving himself as well as he ever does, which is to say he hadn't done any permanent damage to anything or anyone. Then we went to the herb and textile garden where I discovered the newest addition to Brock Lee's fears. Currently it includes golf carts, guinea pigs, scarecrows, and porch stairs. Now we can add statues. We approached a statue of a naked woman holding a bowl and Brock Lee lost his mind! He was jumping around and barking at it before running away. We saw geese and ducks earlier - nothing. But an inanimate anthropomorphic stone carving terrified him. When I told my father about it, he hung his head in shame and said, "Some hunting dog you are."

A hunting dog he will never be, but he's already a great traveling companion.

Total Travel Time: 2 hours
Total Travel Distance: 20 miles
Soundtrack: "@#%&*! Smilers" - Aimee Mann

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