3 years ago
MILLIKEN, Co. (KUSA) - One man is celebrating more than the birth of our nation this 4th of July.
Richard Carroll is also marking the 5th anniversary of his "tough old dog."
It all started on Independence Day 2001. Carroll was cooking up a pile of hotdogs for a family gathering when one of them rolled off the grill.
To cover up Carroll's fumble, Josh Severing quickly grabbed the errant dog. "It was either eat it or put it on the antenna," Severin said. "I went with - put it on the antenna."
As a joke, Severin stuck the hot dog on the radio antenna of Carroll's 1992 GMC pickup truck.
"We got home, I looked and it was still on top of the antenna," Carroll said. "I thought, I'll just leave it. The birds will eat it or something or it'll fall off."
But five years later the shriveled, blackened hot dog is still there. "It's hard as a rock," Carroll said, "pretty much petrified, I guess."
During those five years Carroll has put 80,000 miles on the truck and his road warrior wiener has rolled along with him through rain and hail, sleet and snow, steaming heat and freezing cold.
"I know one year hunting it was 35 degrees below one morning," Carroll said. "It hit trees and we've had 100 degree weather this summer - snowstorms, hailstorms. It's a tough, old dog."
Carroll will soon be getting a new truck but he plans to switch antennas so he can hold on to his unique, weird, bizarre traveling companion.
"It's hard to believe," Carroll said. "I don't know how long it'll last."
