Dying dogs last wish - Road Trip

bodean · Mar 19, 2019

Crossposted from another sub forum

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dying-dogs-last-wish-road-trip.599866/#post-20150324

Long story short we are trying to plan a final road trip for our terminally ill dog

bodean[OP] said: ↑

Sorry for the click bait thread title. Looking for some last minute help/advice on a road trip.

Little background, we have a 10 year old Great Dane, she's always been super healthy, active, high energy. We are middle aged with no kids and it's always just been the three of us. A couple weeks ago we noticed a slight limp and she was not carrying her tail like normal. Several trips to the vet, some meds, more vet visits, x-rays and the symptoms were getting worse. She starting limping, dragging one foot, and struggling with her balance. So last Friday we took her for a CT scan. It revealed a large mass growing along her spine. Surgery would result in loss of feeling and control in the back legs and possibly require amputation. After some tough decision making we decided we were just going to manage her pain, and enjoy our remaining time with her.

Which leads me to why someone from Northern Alberta is in this regional forum troubling all of you with my woes. We've always wanted to do a road trip down through Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and then back up along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. I picked a 3rd gen 4Runner awhile back and was planning on doing a build over the spring to prepare it for this summer. With the recent diagnosis our time line has been jumped up significantly.

I haven't had a lot of time to do much research, our rough plans were always Yellowstone, Moab, Antelope and The Grand Canyon, and Mojave were going to be the highlights and that was about as far as we got planning.

I had recently replaced all the plugs, wires, filters and fluids on the 4R, replaced the valve gaskets, rear drums/shoes. Timing belt and clutch had been done prior to purchase, I've done a couple lengthy road trips with it to the mountains and it's been flawless so far. I built a sleeping platform over the weekend, the plan is to sleep in it as much as we can.

We do plan to leave this coming weekend, and figure about 16 days to do a loop. We have no issues driving 10-12 hours a day to get to a destination and see a few highlights over a couple days before moving on. I know it's a little early for Yellowstone, and I'm not even sure about Moab this time of year. Looking for some help with trip planning, itineraries destinations we may not know about.

I know,

The lady in question...

She has always been awesome on road trips, we can stuff her in just about any vehicle and she is happy.

Here is the rig we will be using! It's so challenging to find somewhat clean, lower millage 3rd gens in a 5 speed around here, and the sleeping platform. My slides won't be here in time, but I managed to find some bins that fit. I'm also hoping to add a small dual battery setup to power/charge some electronics at night, small 12V heating blanket, etc.

The first part of the trip we are thinking of trying to get to the Great Falls, or Helena area. I'm sure it's still to early for campgrounds in that area, and weather depending we may just opt for motels until we get further south.

Again, thanks for taking the time to read my long winded story, I hope to keep this thread updated with our trip and I do look forward to any advise you might want to give.

Shawn
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Welcome to Tacoma World!

Dying dogs last wish - Road Trip

#1
bodean [OP] Well-Known Member

Products Discussed in

Log in or Sign up

Useful Searches

Welcome to Tacoma World!

Dying dogs last wish - Road Trip

#1 bodean [OP] Well-Known Member

Products Discussed in Entire Site Forum: South West

#1
bodean [OP] Well-Known Member

Products Discussed in