Courtney Knapp

Westward Ho

Courtney — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:12:30 +0000

This week, we spent two days in New Orleans before driving to Baton Rogue for the afternoon. From Baton Rogue, we took Highway 61 (also known as the Blues Highway) north along the Mississippi river. We stopped for a night in Natchez, MS and spent the following night in Clarksdale, MS where we caught some great live music at Ground Zero Blues Club.

In Memphis, we visited Graceland and rearranged my route and repacked my car from a coffee shop in Cooper-Young. We then drove back to Louisiana, stopping in Lafayette before taking the scenic route through the Bayou. From the Bayou we will head into Texas to visit Houston and Austin and be on our way West.

Road trip updates

Courtney — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:45:35 +0000

In the four weeks since I left New York on my extended road trip, we have visited DC, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, Chattanooga, Columbia, Charleston, Savannah, Orlando, Delray Beach, Key Largo, Key West, Miami, Venice, Destin, Pensacola, Mobile and Biloxi. I especially enjoyed Durham and Birmingham.

I’ll have more details on the drive and the places we’ve stopped later, but our plan is to take the scenic and hopelessly inefficient route. We are avoiding highways and stopping wherever is pretty (or when Isabel needs to g0 outside).

As I to wind my way west, I will continue to explore new places, eat and drink well, and visit good friends. You can follow my trip more closely on twitter at twitter.com/mscourt

Courtney — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:38:19 +0000

¡Feliz Navidad!

Courtney — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:24:39 +0000

Puppy of the Week, Round 3

Courtney — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:49:43 +0000

This week, the Amazon CARES volunteers worked at 4 clinic sites completing 96 sterilizations. The clinics were held in the poorest neighborhoods of San Juan, farther from the city center than we’d previously traveled. The team saw just a few puppies this week as most of the patients were older dogs and street dogs (perros de la calle). However, our esteemed panel of judges crowned an extra special Puppy of the Week.

Forrest is an 10 week old shepherd mix and the penultimate Puppy of the Week. Forrest arrived at the Amazon CARES clinic after a Zoo Peru volunteer found him wandering the rainforest at just 3 weeks (hence his name).

When I arrived at Amazon CARES, Forrest had been living at the clinic recovering from malnutrition and parasites. Playful and friendly, Forrest quickly became a favorite of the volunteers who loved parading him around town on his daily walks.

This Friday, Forrest was adopted by a woman who met him while he was out with volunteers. Today, the papers were signed and Eliza brought Forrest to his new forever home just a few blocks from the clinic with a promise that volunteer could visit anytime. Congratulations to our Puppy of the Week and his new owner!

Photos of the competition can be seen on my flickr site [tag: puppy_patients]

As a reminder, the panel has a strict criteria and puppies are judged on cuteness, snugglability, and new puppy smell. A new Puppy of the Week will be chosen each Saturday. After four weeks, the winning puppies will compete in a head to head final battle of cuteness to determine who will be crowded Puppy of the Trip.