Where’s Nico?

“Watching the River Flow” was a song that Dylan wrote back in 1971. Leon Russell produced and played piano on the track, and it was released as a single, not as part of an album (although it ended up on “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume II”).

But to explain why I went with “Watching the River Flow”, I probably need to answer another question first. And that question, of course, is Where’s Nico???

The Illy River!

That’s right – we are back at the Illy River, after enjoying some time here back in mid-June. We had a wonderful time up in Olympic National Park, and are now working our way back home to our beloved Kansas City, but before we left the Pacific Northwest, we wanted to get a couple more days in on the beautiful Illinois (“Illy”) River, in Siskiyou-Rogue River National Forest.

Just look at this picture and tell me Nico wasn’t born to be a river dog!

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Before we left for the Illy, we had some more fun up in Olympic National Park. It really was a wonderful stop on our trip, and one that I’m sure we’re going to do again down the line. It was a beautiful place, both on sunny days as well as when we got a couple of nice storms coming through.

(The tree behind us in this picture is known as the Tree of Life)

We got in some nice tide pools while we were there too.

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Nico made some more new buddies, both of the two legged and four legged varieties, since our last post. One was a really cute little nine week old pup named Sonny, who Nico met at Rialto Beach:

Nico also met a couple of fun friends on South Beach:

One of them had particularly intriguing anal glands, apparently (and by the looks of that pooch’s ears, he seemed to be a bit surprised by Nico’s interest).

And of course, Nico made plenty of two legged friends. There was a really fun group of small humans that he played with on the Illy.

And this little guy up at Beach 2 near La Push, Washington made fast friends with Nico:

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ANA (Ask Nico Anything!)

Nico, what are you most excited to see and do when you get back to Kansas City?

Der lot dat Nico excite to sea. Nico miss Lindsey the mail lady, hoo giv Nico treats and pats. Nico miss hap owwers wid his friens John and Jay and Roberta. Nico even miss nayber dog Jada, evan tho I bark at her a lot and act mene. Nico also miss Bark at the Park nites at Royals games, but mama and papa sed dey tak Nico to anuder game in Septimbur.

Nico, how did you become such a good hiker?

Tank four say I gud hiker. Nico like to hike, expecal wen it vary roky so Nico get to jump on roks. I gess Nico just a natoral at it.

Nico, have you ever heard of spell check?

No… Nico haz no heer of spel chik. Is dis sum new up-and-come band?

– Ken, 8/21/25