FROM TRAILER TRASH TO TRUMP TOWER

Where'd this thing come from? It's not an RV!

Daisy stressed out at 40,000 feet.

Brian adds up the bill.

Daisy dragged a piece of roadkill onboard.

Almost ready for take-off.

The pilot--two bucks richer and wondering who's the tall dumb guy in back.

Descent into Teterboro.

Ho-hum.

Daisy. She's free! Ready to take Manhattan.

This "trumps" the trailer park.

Central Park horse and carriage. Whoa! Whoa! I'd like to see my dad pick that up in a baggie.

Our highrise hound.

Madame of Manhattan.

Daisy's two-bedroom crate.

This picture lies. I really don't have a double chin. Yet.

Dressed to the nines--Denise. And to the threes, Corita. For our high-fashion meeting.

Happiness is a well-stocked jet.

24 hours later at 42,000 feet, bound for Tampa.

$30 million-dollar jet and a three-inch television.

Unfazed.

After a month on the road, life can become fairly routine. Hardly boring but you do settle into a routine. But two days last week were anything but. My cell phone rang. It's my close friend Denise in Naples, about 100 miles south of here saying our television project (one we've been working on through our company Next Step Media LLC) is moving into its next phase and we must go to New York for a meeting tomorrow.

Well, here we sit in an RV park in Tampa. Paul has nothing but Levis and t-shirts--not much to wear in New York's cold weather. Plus we have Daisy dog. So we can't possibly just pick up and go. But to know Denise and her husband Brian, who we have known for some 25 years, is to know there is always a way.

HELLLLOOOOO!!!!! Enter their private jet.

They fly to a small executive airport here in Tampa, pick us up and off we go into the wild blue yonder. We are delighting in the experience, zipping along to New York City at about 540 miles per hour but for Daisy, sound asleep in her crate, it's just another day on the road even if that road is 40,000 feet down below. Unlike her owners, she's completely unfazed. This is one cool dog. Whether in the truck, the car or a private jet.

We land at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey where we're picked up by a limo and into Manhattan we go. And the only way to follow a private jet is to stay with the jet-setters at Trump Tower International right on Central Park.

So here we are one day hanging with the roadies in their various RVs on the highways and byways of America and the next day waltzing in high-faluttin' high style in midtown Manhattan. And Daisy was the hit not only with folks at Trump Tower, by the way, a very pet-friendly place, thank you, thank you, thank you, but also with hundreds of dog-walkers just across the street in Central Park.

So Daisy took to Manhattan in quick fashion like no other dog ever has. Absolutely non-plussed by the highrise hustle-bustle. And within minutes she was the madame of midtown. One cool critter.

Let me just add if you want to spice up your life, pay a visit to your nearest animal shelter and adopt a dog in need. I assure you, it will make you a richer person in more ways than one. Whether jet-setting or just trailing one of these tin cans.

We had dinner and wine that night at the hotel. Paul picked up the tab which wasn't bad since Brian's given up drinking for Lent. But watch out for Easter. (That's when Lent ends.)

Denise and I had our business meeting the next day. Things went well. We shall see where the next step takes us.

That afternoon we packed up, went back to Teterboro in the limo and with Daisy in tow Paul made the best move of all. He tipped the baggage handler two dollars for carrying Daisy onto the plane only to watch that baggage handler slip into the pilot's seat. Paul felt like a fool for the rest of the flight. Daisy felt nothing since she slept the whole way.

All in all, it's one of those experiences we'll never forget. And how could we possibly thank Brian and Denise? They are too good to us. Well...HELLLOOOO!!! once again. What better way to show our gratitude than with combat quantities of M&Ms, chips and pretzels from Costco.

Methinks our life has slipped back into routine. And Daisy's slipped back into her crate. Such is life on the road. A pretty good life. We're off to Naples tomorrow then onto the Everglades and Key West before returning home. It's all about the dog.