Book Tour Part 1: Seattle & Denver

Now that I’m done my tour after over a month of traveling (but including a two week break in Florida), I am finally back, in the cold and snow. Yay.

I had some incredible adventures, unexpectedly attended the heckin’ People’s Choice Awards (and won), met so many amazing people, and explored some great places. I’m going to take you through my tour (and attendance at the award show) in blog format, with more details and pictures I haven’t yet shared!

This trip was to take me all over the US, and thus we had to pack for all different climates. And as many of you saw in my pictures to Facebook and Instagram, I often appeared with pre-planned outfits and costumes. I needed room for all those, too.

So understandably, Mum and Dad had to significantly cut down on what THEY were bringing to make room for my stuff. Then add in my camera and lighting equipment, all the pawtographs to give out to fans (which weighed a ton), my first aid kid and emergency medications, toys, my food, dental bones, treats, and a Squirrels of the USA Encyclopedia.

All Mum and Dad had room left to bring was one pair of undies, socks, and pants each, and a toothbrush to share.

My first stop was Seattle! I’d never been to northwest USA at all, so was excited to visit here. One of the first things I did was visit the Pike Place Market which is very busy and smelly. But luckily I enjoy the smell of fish.

I even disguised myself as a local fisherman with intentions of selling some fish to unsuspecting tourists at exorbitant prices.

But for some reason, people kept coming up and asking me if my name was Gorton and asking for my autograph?! What the heck? How do you NOT KNOW WHO I AM, PEOPLE?!

Then I posed out-front the original Starbucks location with my puppacino cup! Surprisingly that worked even better for making money as people started tossing me change.. Which I then used to go buy myself a real puppacino.

While in Seattle, I also met up with some long longtime friends and fans of ours, Jessica and her dogs Gretel and Summit from youdidwhatwithyourweiner.com, a blog dedicated to hiking and active living with small dogs.

And fun fact; this article Jessica wrote on her site was the FIRST time I had been featured on any website aside from my own. In a way, she gave us our first “publicity” ever! I guess she saw the star in me 😉

Finally I had my book signing in Seattle, and had the pleasure of meeting so many of you.

Mum and Dad find it funny now that fans seem to be recognizing them more and giving them more attention, ever since they started appearing more in my episode videos. On my first book tour 3 years ago, back when Mum and Dad never really appeared in videos, people wouldn’t even know who they were; the focus was entirely on me!

I liked it better that way.

I also did a quick interview on Good Day Seattle, which I’m not sure if reflective of the Seattle culture, but was the MOST laid back TV experience I’ve ever had. I’m talking about all the behind the scenes, getting in the building, getting mic’ed up, going over the segment etc. I’m pretty sure anyone could stroll in there and ask for an interview.

Then, in the flash of an eye I was in Denver, Colorado, another place and state I’d never been to.

We took the opportunity to do some hiking at Red Rocks, which is a super cool, unworldly landscape. I led the way, keeping an eye out for dangers such as flash floods, mudslides, snakes, coyotes, and dingos.

I wore my goggles here, as Denver is one of the highest US cities (elevation wise, and perhaps – ahem, otherwise, too). But because of that, UV rays are much stronger here.

In general, Mum and Dad are also trying to make an effort to protect my eyes more, something they wish they had done much earlier. You may notice that I’m slightly squinting in many of my pictures now. As my dogtor told me, my pupils are having trouble constricting to moderate the amount of light coming in, thus on especially bright days, I squint to counteract it.

So, I do recommend you look into protecting your dog’s eyes the same way you do your own. It’s important. My goggles are made by Rex Specs.

I always have such good naps after a good walk!

One thing I never realized about Denver is how ARTSY it is! And I was staying in the really cool ART Hotel, with its own curated art throughout, making it feel like it’s own sort of museum, which we loved!

Plus, the front entrance features an installment of 22,000 LEG lights, that I tell you, I just COULDN’T resist posing under them.

I was pleasantly surprised to see they brought a whole charcuterie board just for me, too. Mum of course, had the wine.

Just down the street was the Denver Art Museum, which is built in an interesting, cubic style. Which had me feeling cubic, too.

Then, just as my tour was off to a great roll, everything got thrown for a loop with the following series of events.

While in Denver, we got a special phone call to attend the People’s Choice Awards in LA that coming weekend (keep in mind this is about 4 days prior to the event). This was obviously something I have been working really hard for – and my FANS have been working really hard for, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity – even if it meant I had to reschedule the Austin stop.

So, that’s what we did, but we still had plans to continue from Denver to Phoenix before flying to LA instead. BUT, even that got screwed up when my flight to Phoenix was delayed over and over, ultimately being delayed over 24 hours! And we had no other options to get there.

Sigh. So, Phoenix got rescheduled, too, and Mum and Dad were stuck in Denver for an extra couple days.

So what else to do but go shopping for something to wear??

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we head to LA and attend the People’s Choice Awards!!

Keep reschedulin’,

~ Crusoe