Tail-Wagging Travels

Buying a camper, selling the house and packing only what fits in your RV and the car you’re towing — it’s a dream many have but few ever pursue. While it may sound more like the basis for the song “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo,” for Co-op members Erik and Jeanne Anderson, it was real life, down to the accompaniment of their four-legged travel companion, Hershey Pup. What began as a joke between Erik and a coworker slowly became an intriguing possibility.

“The idea came up when I was working at an assisted living facility,” Erik explains. “The job could be stressful and, one day, when I was talking with our CEO, she said, ‘Erik, you know, you could just give up all this stuff and buy a Winnebago and travel the country!’”

It was a humorous, fantastical suggestion — at first. Then it came up again, and again. After giving it some thought, Erik brought the idea home to his wife to discuss it with her. Both were intrigued by the thought of setting off on such an adventure, but one major question remained: Could they actually do it? The answer was yes.

Four years after making their decision in 2016 to embark on a cross-country trip, that also included several Canadian provinces, with no set return date, the couple planned and prepared. As neither had ever set foot in an RV, they purchased one and began learning everything they could about the vehicle and the RV-living lifestyle. From books and blogs to YouTube videos and advice from fellow full-time RV campers, Erik and Jeanne consumed all the tips and tricks necessary to make their plan successful. In 2019, about a year out from when their journey was set to begin, they decided to make one important addition to their trip: a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. Erik credits one of the couple’s granddaughters with choosing the name Hershey, a perfect title for the adorable dog covered in brown spots, with freckles and a brown-button nose to match.

Once underway, Hershey Pup soon discovered that he loved life on the road as much as his adoptive parents, and he quickly became a regular facet of their social media posts and travel updates — so much so that Erik says he has often been stopped by fellow members of the RV community who want to take a picture with Hershey Pup. If Erik posted an update about their travels to his Facebook page without including his now-popular sidekick, the first question from many of their online followers was, “Where’s Hershey?”

As their dog continued to gain admirers and fans across the country, many voiced the same suggestion to Erik and Jeanne — “You should write a book about Hershey Pup!” The thought hadn’t occurred to the couple, but for the second time since first considering an RVing adventure, they were presented with an exciting new idea that intrigued them both. They decided to write a book for children, detailing Hershey Pup’s travels through New England while highlighting the state bird and flower of each state he visited.

“Just like we had never owned an RV before, we had never written a book before, so we had no clue how any of that stuff worked,” Erik says.

In 2023, their research and creativity paid off. The couple published “Hershey Pup Discovers New England’s State Birds & Flowers,” just in time for Christmas. Since its release, the book has found a home in two Delaware libraries, and Erik and Jeanne even had the opportunity to discuss it with a fourth-grade class in Wisconsin. While it wasn’t in person, Jeanne recalls the children’s eagerness to discuss the book, as well as their excitement at getting to “meet” Hershey Pup over Zoom.

“At one point, the teacher asked the group, ‘Does anyone have any questions?’ and every hand went up!” Jeanne says. “That was the most fun!” The couple says that this will be the first of a five-book series depicting Hershey’s travels across the country.

You would be hard-pressed to find a dog more qualified to be the subject of a travel book than Hershey Pup. Camping in many of the country’s National Parks, he and his humans have had the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful parts of our nation. Wild horses along the Assateague Island National Seashore, the Black Hills of South Dakota, “hoodoo” formations in Bryce Canyon — the Andersons have had the privilege to see all of this and more. The couple says that once they visit Alaska, they will have been to every state.

Following their four-year RV excursion, Erik and Jeanne have since — for the time being — settled in Lincoln, Del. Of the many joys the trip included, both Jeanne and Erik agree that it’s the places they visited and the people they met along the way that they value most.

“When we see places on TV now, we’re like, ‘We were there.’ When we see something we saw on the road in a magazine — ‘We were there,’” Jeanne says. “You can’t take those memories we’ve made away from us.”

“We have no regrets about this trip,” Erik says. “It was just an amazing journey for us.” As though voicing his own opinion of the trip’s success, Hershey Pup — never far away — barks eagerly in agreement.