By the time we were done with our lesson the repairman was done and gone. That means we should have heat and hot water now. What a luxury that will be!
So we hit the road right away to get to Indio (Palm Springs, CA area) as quickly as possible. Once again we had a very nice and easy drive. We arrived about a half an hour before the parking gates were to open. So, since I still needed clothes, we went to the large mall in Palm Desert. Mike stayed in the RV in the outer edge of the parking lot (that's the only place we fit) with the dogs while I went shopping.
Since I spend so much time lying on the ground (which is always dirty), I only wear jeans. So I haven't been clothes shopping for close to ten years. I was really hoping to find something at the first store and be done with it since we were in a hurry. Sure enough I saw exactly what I wanted at the very first store. But the smallest size they had was an 8. I knew that wouldn't do. Bummer.
So I went from store to store to store with absolutely no luck. I couldn't find the right size, the right color, the right style...what's up with all the flared legged pants - called bell bottoms back in the 70's. How are the judges supposed to see Boogie if all this material is flying around hitting him in the face. I looked everywhere and was having no luck.
By now I was at the opposite end of the mall and over an hour had passed. At the last department store in the mall I finally found just what I was looking for - and they had my size, a 6. I tried them on just to make sure only to find out there was enough room in these pants for both me and Sparkie! I wasn't wearing my glasses and figured I must have accidentally picked up a 16 not a 6. But the sales clerk told me they were indeed a size 6. How weird is that! This brand must really run large.
There were only two stores left in the entire mall I hadn't tried yet. In one of them I found some pants that were kinda sorta like I wanted - and by now I was way too tired to care much anymore. The gal told me I would probably wear a 0. What! How can someone be a 0 - isn't that like "no size."
But to humor her I tried them on. WHAT?! They were too big! This made no sense at all. So what size is smaller than a 0? She said there is no size smaller than a 0. I told her that I've seen plenty of people thinner than me and they all had clothes on! What am I to do?! I once again remember why I hate clothes shopping.
I was now running very late and had no more options. So I bought the pants even though they were too big around and too short. I really hate pants that are too short!
Finally we were off to the dog show - much later than we had hoped. When we got there we had to wait close to 45 minutes to get into the parking lot. We finally made it to the front of the line and as they checked us in they informed us we hadn't paid for a tow car. I most certainly did pay! But they said their records didn't indicate that I had paid. I kept insisting so they finally said I could just pay again and then come back up later and get it figured out - and if I had indeed paid then they'd pay me back. But I had absolutely no belief that I'd ever get my money back. They finally agreed to let us in and said we could sort it out later.
A guy in a golf cart led us to our spot. We must have passed three or four hundred RV's(I was later told they were expecting close to 700 RV's) - this place is huge and the RV's are packed in like sardines. When the guy parked us we reconfirmed that we could use our generator. "Absolutely" he said.
So we got all set up and turned on the generator so we could us our "like new" heater. Ten minutes hadn't passed before there was a knock on the door. The lady next door was complaining that the exhaust from our generator was blowing right into her 20 dog crates. So sorry lady but we parked exactly where they told us and we had reconfirmed we could use the generator - as it said we could in the premium.
About five minutes later there was another knock on the door. This time it was one of the parking lot officials. He informed us we couldn't use the generator as it was bothering the lady next to us. We were pretty irritated as we had even asked the guy when he parked us.
The guy told us that you can only use your generator if you have one of those tall exhaust pipe extenders. I told him that we had read all the rules over and over and there was nothing written about that nor had anyone told us that. He said everyone knows that - it's proper dog show etiquette. How were we supposed to know that - this is our first time at one of these shows, it's not written, nor was it mentioned when we asked about using the generator?!
He said since this was our first show ever we may not have known but we know now. Our options - 1) not use the generator for three and a half days and go without power of any kind or 2) we could purchase 30 AMP electricity at the bargain (HA!) rate of $45 a day - cash. It's $35 a day if you pay in advance. We'd already paid $35 a night just for the parking spot (plus another $20 for the car)! And we certainly didn't have that much cash with us. After a bunch of haggling they finally decided they'd take a check. How kind of them.
The show hasn't even started yet and we are not in a very good mood. Mike is ready to just leave and forget the whole thing. If we hadn't already paid so much for the parking itself and the huge entry fees, we probably would have just turned around and gone home...wherever that is. But we bit the bullet and paid their exorbitant fee.
Since one of our events is first thing in the morning I decided to scout around and find out where my rings are located. This place is huge! There are over 40 rings - and the walk between the Conformation rings and the Rally rings is 15 - 20 minutes. I am in shock over how big this place is. I've never seen so many huge tents in my life. The events themselves are not under the cover of the tents - that's just where you can crate, stand, wait, etc... during your event time only.
Here is just one of the many grooming tents. I don't know how many of these there are but there are LOTS.
This is not a good picture but you can kind of see these big white tents. They are probably each 200 feet long and a good 30 feet wide. These were lined up along all the rings.
I think we'd better get to bed early as it looks like we're going to need a lot of energy for the next three days.
Debbie
1/3/08
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