Clara Across America

The Clara

Across America

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Welcome to "Clara Across America"! We hope you enjoy 'our' adventure and make it your own too! We'd love to hear how you like our pages!

Well 1st you may be asking yourself who in the heck is "Clara" and why is she so special that she gets to go "Across America"? Clara is a little one eyed Pembroke Welsh Corgi loved by Lisa Hirtle of Rockland, MA. She gets to go "Across America" because Lisa (Li) has this friend, Katrin Andberg from Foxboro, MA who told her of a woman she knew of who had a goal of walking 1 mile in every state before she was 50 years old. For her 50th birthday her children sent her to Hawaii! What a nice story, huh? Well, Li, being Li, said, well how about Clara!? WE can do that!!!! Oh no, said Katrin! But regardless, "Clara Across America" was born. And it does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

So, Li, Katrin and Clara along with a pack of other dogs (visit The Dogs Page to learn about everyone and The Humans Page to learn about Li and Katrin), drive, yes DRIVE, in Katrin's GMC extended-cab pick-up truck across the country. We have decided that we will go to all states, minus Hawaii (so 49, as Hawaii has just such strict dog quarantine laws it's too risky, plus it's an island and not really 'Across America") and Washington D.C. making a total of 50 and one little football dog will have made it all the way "Across America"

The adventure began in October 2005 when we traveled from MA (where we live) to St Louis, MO by way of Niagara Falls to go to the NADAC Agility Championships (you see we both compete in agility and Katrin is a NADAC judge, currently on hiatus). From there we have been all over including a drive to the Pacific Ocean and Washington State, up to Maine and down to Florida. As of August 19, 2007 we have been over 1/2 way to our goal, we've been to 26 states. Check out the "Links to "Trip" Pages" to see where we've been.

We have our next trip in the works! We will be flying to Tucson, AZ in May 2009! We have hopes to either drive to CA or TX and possibly NM from AZ getting a few states in.

We've decided to leave Alaska for last and make that a really monumental trip.

Once we have made it "Across America" we hope to write both a children's geography book, geared at children on the autistic spectrum (Katrin is a high functioning autistic), and an adult humor book. Both chock full of our fun and odd photos and sense of humor. If you know of anyone who may be interested in publishing either in a few years, just let us know.

I, Katrin, do most of the narrating on this web page, though some times I bounce around in tense or Li's voice or the dog's (now that's even more fun! :-)) So just go with the flow and laugh a bit. We're just hoping everyone has a good time along on this once in a lifetime adventure with us!.

To support our adventure we have designed a very creative front/back t-shirt! Check it out!!!

We would also LOVE it if you passed our URL along to your friends, family, co-workers, anyone you think might enjoy this adventure. The link is www.maplewooddog.com/caa (CAA stands for Clara Across America if you hadn't guessed). But all photos & writings on this website are Copyright (c) Lisa Hirtle and Katrin Andberg so please ask permission before using, thanks!

Happy Travels!

Starting out on our August 2007 trip. (L to R) Li, Clara (PWC), Monty (CWC), Katrin

(& in back behind the gate, in the pick up, are Niche and James both Flat-Coats)

Send all comments to katrin@maplewooddog.com

No photos or writings to be reproduced without author permission