You know what they say about the best laid plans, and life aboard Odyssey seems to prove that maxim on a regular basis.

While we had planned to skirt to the west of Utah lake today and not arrive in the greater Salt Lake area until sometime tomorrow morning, Opal the dog had other ideas.

Opal has been having some digestive issues lately, and we have been monitoring her closely, both her diet and her, umm, output, to see if it was just something she ate or if we needed to bring her to a vet.

Last night, things came to a head when, sometime between her last urgently needed walk around 3 am, and when we woke around 7:30, she had an "accident" in the living room. This is completely out of character for her, as she is very good about asking to be let out, and usually very fastidious. So we made the decision this morning to find a vet for her ASAP.

Louise set to work tracking down vets on the internet (though, with no cell service, she had to make a list for call-out later in the day), while I got busy cleaning the carpet. Fortunately, dog poo is water-soluble, and we had plenty of paper towels on board (though I did go through our entire reserve of three rolls). We also carry an enzymatic cleaner made specifically for pet stains, and I applied this liberally after I had removed all the material through conventional means.

So after we broke camp this morning, we headed east to I-15 via the most direct route, and made arrangements with a vet in Provo. They got us in right away, and they had an in-house lab. Her blood work was mostly normal, and the diagnosis is colitis, probably brought on by something she ingested. A couple of shots, some prescription food, and $250 dollars later, and we were again on our way, with a follow-up appointment scheduled for Thursday afternoon, after we are done at MotoSat.

Tonight we are still in Provo, on the eastern shore of Utah Lake at Utah Lake State Park (map). We'll be here until the 2pm checkout tomorrow, since we also now have a noon appointment to have the carpets professionally cleaned. Frankly, with the use it gets, the carpet was already soiled enough that we needed to do this within the next few weeks anyway, and last night's episode just cemented the decision. We have selected a company that uses a dry chemical process, to avoid getting the wood underlayment and cabinet bases soaked as the steam-cleaners are wont to do.

The park is very nice, if a bit buggy at this time of year. It's also quite empty -- there seem to be only three other rigs in the whole park. Odd, considering there were quite a few rigs at the commercial park next door, and yet this state park also has water and electric hookups at every site.

After the carpet is done, we'll head up to Salt Lake and check-in at MotoSat before they close.