In Tupelo, Mississippi we met “Voz” Vanelli (right) and his friend Jason in front of Vanelli’s Restaurant. Voz was one of the most colorful characters we met during our six weeks on the road.
After a day of driving through dangerous torrential rains that were toppling trees all along the Natchez Trace Parkway, the skies cleared in the early evening as we sat along the banks of the Mississippi in Natchez. Louisiana is across the river.
Albie surveys the cemetery at the Grace Episcopal Church in St. Francisville, Louisiana, a lovely little town on the Mississippi River.
Our older son, Dan, went to Tulane University and now lives and works in New Orleans, a city we have come to love. We spent three nights there, including a stop at our favorite ice cream shop.
JoAnn Clevenger, the proprietor of Upperline, one of New Orleans’ best restaurants, originally hails from Alexandria, Louisiana, as Albie does. The day before this photo was taken, I sat down with JoAnn and spoke with her for two hours about what makes New Orleans so magical. Photo by Dan Zheutlin.
This photo is from a previous trip to New Orleans, but the woman in the middle, Doreen Ketchens, also known as Queen Clarinet of the Crescent City, made me fall in love with New Orleans years before I ever set foot in the city. I happened upon her playing the most extraordinary music on the street in Portland, Maine just weeks before Hurricane Katrina and we stayed in touch ever since. This is her usual spot at the corner of Royal and St. Peter Streets in the French Quarter.
I had very few ”must do” items on our agenda, but one was to stop in Alexandria, Louisiana so Albie could have a reunion with Keri Toth and Krista Lombardo, the two women who saved him from a dire fate. The shelter there puts down close to 90% of all the dogs that come in. Albie stayed alive there for five months before we adopted him. Krista volunteers at the shelter; Keri was our adoption coordinator with Labs4rescue, the organization through whom we adopted Albie.
The day before we reached Paris, Texas, we met a young man in Louisiana who was from Paris. When asked what we should see during our visit he suggested the Eiffel Tower replica topped with a red cowboy hat. Then he ran out of ideas.
Kurtis Walker of Okemah, Oklahoma owns the property, pictured here, where Woody Guthrie’s childhood home once stood. A stop in Okemah was also on our “must do” list, a way of paying tribute to one of my lifelong heroes and America’s greatest folk song writer. The day we spent in Okemah was one of the highlights of the trip, a town of friendly and generous people. Photo by Nyla Walker.
Lance Warn and Wayland Bishop of Okemah, Oklahoma in front of a re-creation of part of Woody Guthrie’s childhood home, made with wood salvaged from the original, inside the Okemah Historical Society. Photo by Kurtis Walker.
Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo is an American icon, ten Cadillac car frames buried nose first at a 52 degree angle in the Texas panhandle. The wind was blowing a gale from the North, pinning Albie’s ears to the side of his head.
Route 66, the road John Steinbeck dubbed “The Mother Road,” and along which hundreds of thousands of people fled the Dust Bowl for California, hardly exists anymore. But it lives on in the popular imagination and in art work like this in the towns, such as Tucumcari, New Mexico, along the route.
Albie, standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see.
It had been nearly half a century since I’d last been to the Grand Canyon, but the day we arrived it was completely socked in with fog. But we’d come this far so we waited for hours hoping the fog would break, and it did.
Albie, the international diplomat, greets a tourist from China at the Grand Canyon.
Another of the iconic murals that adorns building walls in the towns along Old Route 66, this one in Seligman, Arizona.
Albie opened the way for countless conversations along the way. At home he doesn’t always welcome the approach of strangers, but on the road his manners were impeccable as these three young girls in Tehachapi, California discovered.
In Tehachapi, California we found more murals that summon the America of another era.
High above Yosemite Valley at Washburn Point I pay homage to my alma mater. Photo by a complete stranger.
Again, in Yosemite, Albie does his part to encourage friendship between America and China.
It might look like Albie is soaking in the magnificence of Yosemite Valley, but he’s actually looking for a squirrel that had just darted over the wall.
Albie, Ollie and me in front of the house where John Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California. Photo by Andy Gelman.
When we reached the San Francisco Bay Area, we spent a few days with my brother-in-law Andy, his wife Ceci, and their dog Ollie. It was hot the day we stopped at the Mission San Juan Bautista after visiting the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. So Albie and Ollie took refuge on the cool tiles under the portico.
The trails at Lands End in San Francisco offer some of the most spectacular views available within the limits of a major American city.
Albie gazing at the Sawtooth Mountains along U.S. 20 in Idaho.
Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho is an other-wordly expanse of volcanic rock that extends for dozens of miles, the result not of a volcanic eruption, but from lava oozing through fissures in the Earth. Geologically speaking, these lava formations are fairly new: between 2,100 and 15,000 years old.
It almost always pays, if you’re staying somewhere off an Interstate exit, to drive the mile or two into the downtown of whatever town justified the placement of the exit in the first place. Miles City, Montana has a classic American Main Street with a western flair.
At a Starbucks in Bismarck, North Dakota on a cold and rainy day, we met Louis F., a Marine Corps veteran, who had been biking around the country for more than two years to find out, he told me, “if Americans are still patriotic.” Political polar opposites, we nevertheless talked amiably for an hour.
State Capitol buildings are a good place to start any visit to a capital city. Some, such as this one in Madison, Wisconsin, are impressive. Others, such as the Capitol building in Bismarck, North Dakota, we found wanting.
It looks like Albie could be sitting near a beach on Cape Cod or the Jersey Shore, but this is actually a beach along Lake Erie near Mentor, Ohio.
Our very last stop before heading home was Ogunquit, Maine, where I spent many summer vacations growing up. I had hoped to walk Albie across the footbridge that spans the Ogunquit River to the beach but discovered, to our disappointment, that it’s no longer allowed. I think Albie got the joke.
Albie and me in Half Moon Bay, California. To say I love him would be a vast understatement. Knowing what his fate could have been on any one of the roughly 150 nights he slept on the floor of a cage in a high-kill shelter has made our relationship all the more poignant. Photo by Ceci Ogden.
Acknowledgments
First, of course, I am deeply indebted to the love of my life, my partner in crime, my soul mate, my better half, and my best friend . . . Albie. No, maybe that was supposed to be my wife Judy. In any event, my thanks first and foremost to Albie and Judy; Albie for being such a faithful, ever-patient and genial traveling companion over all the miles, and Judy for never hesitating to encourage me to take this trip and for holding down the fort with Salina and Jambalaya, our other two rescue dogs, while we were away. I like to think she was glad when we got home, however. The other dogs certainly were.
To all the people mentioned in this book, each and every one, thank you for being a part of the journey. A few deserve special mention: Voz Vanelli in Tupelo, JoAnn Clevenger in New Orleans, Kurtis Walker and Wayland Bishop in Okemah, Oklahoma, Andy Gelman, Ceci Ogden, and Ollie in Mountain View, California, Bill Monning in Sacramento, California, Jon and Lois Moroni in Mariposa, California, Mary and David Peterman in Boise, Idaho, Louis, the wandering Marine Corps veteran we met in Bismarck, and Wini and Paul Mason in Ogunquit, Maine.
I am eternally grateful to Krista Lombardo, Keri Toth and Labs4res
cue without whom Albie might never have left the shelter in Alexandria, Louisiana alive. Our reunion with Krista and Keri as we traveled through Louisiana was short but oh-so sweet.
This is the seventh book I have worked on with my outstanding agent Joelle Delbourgo. Through several rounds of feedback, she made sure I kept improving on my execution of the proposal for this book until it was ready for prime time.
This is my first book with Pegasus Books, a smart, nimble, independent press based in New York that punches well above it weight. Thanks a million to Associate Publisher Jessica Case, whose enthusiasm and gentle but insightful touch ran from start to finish, to Maria Fernandez for the interior design, Mary O’Mara for her careful copyediting, Daniel O’Conner for his meticulous proofreading, and Spencer Fuller of Faceout Studios for the stunning cover design. The result is a far better book than I would have written if left entirely to my own devices.
During our travels, Albie and I relied heavily on the travel web site BringFido to help us find pet-friendly accommodations and restaurants. After the trip I wrote them to see if they might help sponsor my book tour and they quickly said “yes,” enabling me to undertake a more ambitious book tour than would have been possible without them. I am most grateful for their enthusiastic support.
Finally, I thank my car for its flawless performance over 9,187 miles. It didn’t break down, not even once, and we were often a long, long way from help if it had.
THE DOG WENT OVER THE MOUNTAIN
Pegasus Books Ltd.
148 W 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2019 by Peter Zheutlin
First Pegasus Books edition September 2019
Interior design by Maria Fernandez
The author is grateful to BringFido for their generous support of the author’s book tour.
DO RE MI
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
WGP/TRO © Copyright 1961 (Renewed) 1963 (Renewed) Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. and Ludlow Music, Inc., New York, NY
Administered by Ludlow Music, Inc.
International Copyright Secured Made in U.S.A.
All Rights Reserved Including Performance for Profit
Used by Permission
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN: 978-1-64313-201-3
ISBN: 978-1-64313-270-9 (ebk)
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company
The Dog Went Over the Mountain Page 25
