SEA

All of you back home think this stands for Seattle. But nope, not this time. In this case it stands for Southeastern Agility – the name of the group that put on this weekend’s agility trial.

The trial this weekend was held in Marietta, Georgia at the Cobb Equestrian Center. It was a very pleasant place for a trial if you don’t take the weather into consideration. Wouldn’t you know a cold front came through just for the weekend. Low’s were in the 20’s the high’s were in the 30’s – not too bad (ha ha) until you throw in the 30 mph winds. It was downright cold. Sunday was the worst and fortunately we got to meet people on Saturday as on Sunday people were so bundled up you couldn’t tell who anyone was – just big bundles of clothes. And on Sunday most people just worked out of their cars so even though there were plenty of dogs to run it seemed pretty empty.

We arrived Friday mid-day and were the first ones there. On the upper level is the huge covered arena – probably just about big enough for three rings although this trial only had one. That left lots of room for crating and vendors on all four sides of the ring although everyone seemed to set up on the ends. There were very nice bleachers on both sides (but not the full length of the arena - just in the center) although I only saw two people ever up there. I’ll tell you about them later.



There were a few spots for RV’s to park (with electric and water) probably only 20 yards from the arena. But that isn’t the main RV parking area there. About 10’ from our RV was a hill that went down to the lower level. There is a very large pond there with lots of geese and turtles.





As Wazzu and walked back and forth the length of the pond the geese kept following us. I guess they thought we might feed them. But no such luck.



While Wazzu and I were taking a little walk on Friday we came across these goose eggs.



Along the length of the pond on one side, there are 40 concrete RV spots complete with electric and water. However, to get to the arena you had to walk up a hill so we parked on the upper level to be near the arena. The pond was very pretty and a nice spot to let the dogs run and swim. We had hoped to let Slugger swim but it was just too cold. Wazzu did fall in while chasing something on Friday but fortunately the cold spell hadn’t quite hit by then.

This trial was the first one this club ever held and I must say for a “first time” this club did a pretty good job. As with most places back east, the ribbons were small flats. It was help yourself which I think is the better method – not that we take ribbons anymore but it just seems so much easier. They posted the scores on the inner arena railing which worked well as many people can look at the results at one time. They got the results up in a very timely manner.

Workers weren’t given lunch although they did bring in pizza and sub sandwiches with chips and drinks which you could purchase for $5.00. They did bring in donuts and bagels both days along with coffee and tea which was free for everyone.

They had a nice photographer there but man were her pictures expensive! She took a number of pictures I really would have like but at those prices there was just no way. There were two pictures however that I just couldn’t pass up. One was of little Slugger jumping. We have no jump pictures of him since we rarely enter him in any events that have jumps. But he was running so fast and clearing the bars by a lot and in this particular picture he had such a look of determination on his face that Mike and I both thought we needed that picture.

The second picture we couldn’t pass up was a very unusual shot. She only got two shots like this and it just so happened one of them was Sparkie. You can’t actually tell it is Sparkie as she is inside the tunnel. But it was a clear tunnel and the lighting was just right so you can see her silhouette just perfectly with Mike running along side.

The vendors here held nothing back. They brought huge trucks – like half semi size trucks full of their goods. They set it all up and it looked like real stores! And they had numerous items I’d never seen before so it was fun to look around. Wazzu however kept leading me to this one store in particular so of course I had to buy her what she wanted. She picked out some really nummy Buffalo Bites. The lady said these are also fine for people and that a lot of people buy them for themselves. But I think I’ll let the dogs have them as they are crazy for them. Wazzu also picked out a huge bone for herself and one for each of the youngsters as well. They think she is a good shopper!

Oh yes – we did do some agility while we were there too! As you might imagine, I was freezing. However, Wazzu thought this was just the perfect temperature and she loved the big wind gusts that would ruffle her hair. She was so “up” for every run. She was speedy and she was happy. However, I must say that didn’t translate to anymore Q’s for us. In fact, we were under our average. But I just couldn’t keep up! I couldn’t get to where I needed to be sometimes. To be fair however, there was a time or two when Wazzu just thought she just had better ideas. LOL. But we both had big smiles every run and just had a blast running together. I just love it when Wazzu is so happy and goofy. She has quite the sense of humor and really let it show this weekend.

I didn’t really think this was possible but Sparkie is running faster and faster all the time. And this is causing some trouble in the communication between Mike and Sparkie. When Sparkie speeds up like this, Mike has to get his commands out even earlier which is hard to do without practice. On Saturday, Sparkie thought she was Superman. You know, faster than a speeding bullet and can fly though the air. And fly she did. On her first run she was called for flying off the teeter, and missing both contacts. And none of those three things left anything to the judges imagination as she launched WAY early. The next run Sparkie once again flew off the first two contact obstacles. So when they got to the next contact obstacle, Mike ran as fast as he could to beat Sparkie to the end. He then started to bend over to catch Sparkie and make her stop in the yellow. Instead she launched herself and jumped all the way over Mike and through the next two tunnels before Mike even knew what had happened. The crowd all gasped and then laughed. Yup, she thought she was Superman.

Sunday, she seemed to remember that you were supposed to tough the yellow and never missed a contact all day. But she was running faster than ever. On the second Regular run of the day she and Mike were having a total run of beauty. At the very end of the course they had to make a turn then do the last two obstacles. The second to last obstacle was a discrimination as well as the distance challenge. Just as they made the turn a huge gust of wind came up and blew Mike’s hat off. His natural reaction was to grab for his hat. That lift of the arm gave Sparkie the clue to go out – unfortunately the correct obstacle was the “in” obstacle. So a most beautiful run was blemished right at the very end.

Little Slugger may not have had a great weekend on paper but he was great. For the first time in a long time we entered him in Chances. It is a big chance to enter him in that event as it could have the dreaded teeter included. And this was the case on Saturday. So even though the did the challenge and the rest of the course they had to run by the teeter. But it was a positive experience for him and he worked so hard. Sunday we lucked out as there was no teeter. Once again he did the distance challenge perfectly but he and Mike somehow got tangled up on the third to last obstacle. But both runs were great showings for him. He ran fast and acted very happy to get to participate.

The last run on Sunday was Tunnelers and it was a very nice flowing course. So it was fast and furious! All three dogs did great and ran just as fast as they could. Sparkie blew everyone away. If you blinked you would have missed her – although if Will had been there she definitely would have had a run for her money…..and Will most likely would have come out on top!

We also had visitors! When I realized we were going to be at a trial in the Atlanta area I contacted my cousin Joan, who I haven’t seen in probably 15 years, to see if she might be free to come visit with us while we were in town. As it turned out, she was available and lived about an hour from the trial site.



So Saturday, Joan and her friend Margaret came to visit and watch the dogs do some agility. They arrived in time to see each of the dogs run twice. They had never seen agility before and seemed to think it was quite interesting. Margaret is a long time breeder and dog trainer so she was very curious about agility. I was very impressed with her vast knowledge of dogs and really enjoyed visiting with her.

After the trial ended for the day, Mike ran out to Chili’s and bought dinner for all of us and brought it back to the RV. We ate and talked well into the evening getting caught up on many years worth of events and reminiscing about old times. (Her oldest son, Baz, was the ring bearer in our wedding almost 24 years ago!) It was a great time and I feel so blessed to have had this great opportunity to spend some time with both Joan and Margaret.

Joan enjoyed our time together so much that she called on Sunday afternoon and said she was coming by again. Once again she arrived in time so see each dog run twice and we also had plenty of free time to visit some more. Then after we were all done running and pretty tuckered out, Joan was kind enough to run out to O’Charleys and get dinner for all of us. Mike and I had never heard of this restaurant but the good she brought back from there was fantastic. I don’t know if we’ll ever come across an O’Charleys in our travels but if we do we wouldn’t hesitate to eat there!

Joan’s visit was a spur of the moment thing that we put together just the day before we arrived in Georgia. And while I was eager to get to see her I had no idea the true blessing this would turn out to be. Certainly one of the highlights of our trip for me. She tried to convince us to stay longer but we politely explained to her the numerous reasons why we really don’t like Georgia and why we are anxious to leave just as soon as possible. She may have to come farther to see us next time as we are making plans to make sure we don’t ever come to Georgia again!

I think the closest we’ll come to Georgia is maybe eating a Georgia peach some time! Mmmm, that sounds good.

Debbie
3/2-4/07

Memories

When we started out today we knew it was going to be a day of not very fond memories – but we had no clue what was in store for us.

You see, 15 years ago was our very first RV experience ever. We were living in Ohio near Mike’s family. Mike’s dad had just purchased a new RV and had taken us for a couple hour drive. We had a lot of fun and thought what a good way to travel with our dog. So we asked if we could borrow the RV and take a trip down to Disney World. A few short months later we were on our way.

We were having a great time and our 85 pound German Shepherd, Mandy, was just the perfect RV dog. All was going well and we were anxious to get to Disney World so we were driving well into the night. Suddenly the engine just quite – no sputtering or noise of any kind – it just quit and we coasted to the side of the freeway. This was before the days of cell phones and we didn’t have a tow vehicle. It was close to midnight and since we were out in the middle of nowhere there weren’t any lights of any kind. As we were trying to figure out what we were going to do we notice some parking lights from a vehicle in the median. We thought we were in luck when we realized it was a police car. We started flashing our headlights and honking our horn but there was no response at all. After a few minutes the police car started to move and we thought we were in luck. But instead he just made a u-turn and left. Our faith in the police force certainly went down a notch. We truly had no idea what to do.

About half an hour later a police car came by and stopped – we still don’t know if it was the same policeman or not. But anyway, we explained that we had broken down and needed help. After much discussion he said he would call us a tow truck. A couple hours later we got towed to a truck stop just south of Cordele, Georgia. Of course, you can’t stay in your vehicle when it gets towed so the driver, Mike, Mandy, and I all had to squish into the front of this very old and dirty tow truck. Once again Mandy was perfectly well behaved even though she was squished.

Before we broke down we hadn’t seen anything for miles. And when they towed us to the truck stop we saw nothing in that direction either. We spent some time sitting on a bench at the truck stop until some guy finally came and said nothing would happen until morning. When we inquired about a place to stay for the remainder of the night he said there wasn’t any place around but he was fixing up some rooms over the truck stop that were going to be hotel rooms and they were all done other than some decorating. He offered us a room for $25 a night (remember this is 15 years ago) so we decided that was just fine. We have never seen such a garbage pit. It was filthy and wasn’t close to being done. There was a very old mattress (no sheets) and a sink that kind of sort of drained but the water looked so very dirty. It really was gross.

As it turned out, the motor was completely shot – it couldn’t be fixed. So they towed us to a nearby RV park where Mike then found someone to hitch a ride with to go rent a car. We were a little upset to find that only a couple more miles up the road was a real hotel where we could have stayed for LESS than we were charged at the truck stop.

Anyway, we ended up staying in the broken RV’s for a number of days until we were rescued. So when we saw that we were going to be passing through Cordele today we decided we were going to go fast. Funny thing is the truck stop and RV park look exactly the same as they did all those years ago. We made it through the area with no problems and figured that our luck with Georgia had changed.

We pulled into our RV park in the pouring rain. Oh well, we’re only here for the night so we’ll just stay inside and watch TV and get a good night’s sleep before another day of driving. The rain stayed steady when suddenly the satellite stopped working. We thought it was really odd as the satellite only goes out when the weather is really bad and it just didn’t seem that bad. Only a minute or two later we heard sirens and saw flashing lights out the window. Just as I was getting up to look out and see what the commotion was there was a knock at our door. We were told to turn on the TV to the local channel 13 as there was storm cell heading right toward us with potential tornados. Sure enough we were in the direct path but it looked as though it was still a ways off. Even so we weren’t real worried at this point. But it wasn’t too long before they came by with the sirens again and told us to get to the Bath House NOW. The cell was coming directly toward us and was getting close. At this time it was about 9:30pm.

We quickly got ready and off we went – with the dogs of course! There are two Bath House’s at this park. I saw everyone headed to the one farthest from us. Even the people at our end of the park were heading toward the other Bath House. I asked the worker if there was a reason for this and tried to find out which one we should go to. He said the one most people were going to was built of blocks. The one closest to us was also built of block but had wood siding over that. He figures that most people were heading to the one that looked like block. So we headed for the one closest to us.



When we got there the bathroom was stuffed with people. It didn’t look like there was any chance of fitting two more people and three dogs in there. But at times like this I figured I was going to make a way! But I was very surprised when the people all said “you can’t come in – there just isn’t room.” Wow, I really thought people would be more considerate and caring during an emergency. So we went around the building and noticed there was another bathroom there. Turns out those people had all crammed into the Women’s Room but no one had gone around to the Men’s Room – it was hidden I must say. Anyway, when we got there a guy was just going in dressed in his jammies. He was a guy about our age – and I must say looked very good in his jammies! We were in there just a minute or so when Mike decided to walk the two younger dogs around outside for a few minutes leaving Wazzu and I alone with Mr. Cute Jammies.

The guy started talking to me and after some small talk mentioned that he’d been near a couple hurricanes but never a tornado. You know I was really calm until he said that. Suddenly all the emotion and memories came back from the hurricane we went through in Fiji. Our hotel was destroyed and we had to be evacuated to another place which also then had to be evacuated. During the first evacuation we were literally within just a few feet of being killed. We just made it but the people just a couple feet behind us were killed. That was by far the scariest thing we’ve ever been through and suddenly now I felt my blood pressure going through the roof, I felt shaky, my head started spinning, and I got very scared. I realized that this wasn’t helping one bit and that I needed to collect myself and calm down quickly. The reason I felt this was so important was I didn’t want to scare Wazzu anymore than she already was. Plus I knew I needed to be at my best so I could react appropriately should a tornado touch down. Within a couple minutes I was once again clam and rational. Interesting how quick your adrenaline can get pumped up just from some memories coupled with impending trouble.

Mike came back inside as the weather outside was getting worse. More people kept coming in to join us and hunker down. It was very interesting to see how each dog handled the stress. As always in times of stress, Wazzu gets even more subdued (if you can believe that) and really withdraws. The doors to the stalls were all closed and she crawled under the door into one of the stalls as that felt like a small safe den to her. She laid down in there with just her head sticking out so she could keep a very close eye on me. All traces of a bold, loud Pointer quickly left Sparkie. All that was left was a very scared Whippet. She was wet and cold and was shaking and crying. She wanted Mike to hold her but he couldn’t do that as he had to keep track of Slugger too.

Slugger thought this was GREAT! More and more people kept coming in to join our little party. How fun that so many people kept coming in to see him! His tail was wagging so hard and he was just so happy. I really think this helped to calm many of the people as they would pet him and smile and you could see their minds were distracted from the potential danger.

About 40 minutes later the workers came by and told us that a tornado had touched down at the local hospital. We were told the cell had passed us by and we were free to go back to our RV’s. But there was still a tornado watch in effect until 5:00am. They told us to sleep in our clothes and keep our shoes right next to the bed. If another cell was heading directly at us they would go around with the sirens again.

We stayed up until 1:00am watching the weather and seeing the various cells going just to our right and left. Since Mike has to drive again tomorrow we decided we’d better try to get some sleep.

We feel very fortunate that the tornado spared our RV park and our feelings and prayers go out to the friends and family of those that were killed and injured in the local hospital.

We’ve also decided that Georgia is just not the place for us. We’ve only been here twice and both times were much less than pleasant. We’re here until Monday and then I think maybe we’ll try to avoid Georgia at all costs.

Debbie
3/1/07