The World According to Bella

On The Road
They call me Stellar Bella after two days on the road. I am told my behavior was A++ for all the very long hours I was forced to endure in the van.  As we burned up the miles through Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and into Texas I mostly napped.  Once in awhile I found it necessary to make my presence known by speaking my language... a bark or a low growl to let them know I had enough resting and needed to get out. I loved all the rest stops with its many good smells. They make my nose  twitch and I am super quick to snarf up a lot of tasty morsels before I am reined in.  Besides the  rest stops I got to walk through a famous covered bridge in Madison County, Iowa that really went nowhere. What I couldn't understand is why there was a bridge but not a drop of water around it??

We only stopped at what Mr. C called dog friendly hotels. I thought he seemed a bit stressed out on night number one when as he checked in the clerk said you must have a small dog with you. He said nothing about my size but then gets this stupid idea to hide how really big I am as we went into the hotel. I am not telling what he did.  All I will say is you all have seen my photo and I ain't easy to hide. But fortunately we did not get busted and got to stay the whole night. Though not sure I really cared for the place. The room had lots of scary noises, a loud heater, floors creaking and doors slamming. Needless to say I tossed and turned all night and felt trapped! Boy was I  happy when morning came to leave.
On day two I paid more attention to the outside.  Besides a lot of trucks I couldn't believe all the eating places. Maybe its cuz food is always on my mind. What I did notice were a lot of places called Waffle Houses. Did you know they are a southern cultural icon? In fact we checked the Internet and found there are over 1,600 of them in 25 states. To think I saw at least 20 of them so far and I am still counting.  Hope we stop at one soon. Heard they are well known for their hash browns, sausage and good coffee. Mrs. S keeps looking for a Starbucks to stop at.  She seems really into their coffee.  

A fun waffle fact: If you could stack all of the sausage patties on top of each other that Waffle House serves in one day total for all locations it would be twice the size of the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa in Dubai and 4 times the size of the Empire State building. Now that's a tall order!
Bella
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Check out these fun gifts to make as Valentine treats from the February BHG issue. And some are quite healthy
http://www.bhg.com/holidays/valentines-day/cards/valentines-day-cards-with-candy/?ordersrc=rdbhg1103430#page=2
some examples