Tuesday, July 21, 2009

So far so good!


Wow, so far the trip is going great… of course we are only an hour into it! First thing out of the gate I lost the lens cap to my camera which is to be expected. Somewhere near the center of the earth is a huge collection of missing socks from the dryer and all the lens caps I’ve lost in my photographic career!
I couldn’t ask for better traveling companions. Kito is sleeping behind dad’s seat. Skah is nodding off then coming awake to see where we are then nodding off again. Kayla is just busy watching the world go by. Trik, bless his stubby little soul, is contentedly dozing in his crate. And Blyss is in her crate looking at me as if to say, “Are we there yet, huh, hmm, are we there yet??”.
The gadget John lent us for directions is incredible. (Thanks John, you ARE the best.) I figured out how to view exactly where we are on our route. The only thing that bothers me is that I can see we have 617 miles to go. (Ugh, that is six hundred seventeen miles… did I say Ugh?). If we were to drive straight through we’d arrive in Hattiesburg at 3:59am… we’ve shaved 6 minutes off our arrival time already. This gadget even tells us when we can expect to stop for gas and gives us gas stations to select from! Right now we are going 71 miles per hour and are traveling west… is there anything this thing won’t do??? How about brew some coffee, bet it can’t do that now, huh??? My only complaint is that it shows us as being a red sedan when we are traveling in a blue RV (at first I was looking around to see who that red car was, HA).
So anyway, we are on our 3rd highway. In the distance I see the snow covered mountains rising out of the dusty plains… oh, wait, that is in my dreams. So far we are in such familiar territory that I’m not excited about the scenery, unless you count the Mercedes and BMWs we’ve passed. Once we get to northern Florida and we have rolling hills I’ll get more excited.
The kids obviously understand we are headed to a trial, that’s what riding in the RV means. They just don’t know how long it will be before we park this thing.
Not only am I excited about being able to trial in a new location and seeing if all my hard work with Blyss is sinking in (that’s into my brain even more than hers!!) but I’m excited to work with Trik in a new environment. His clicker training is progressing faster than I ever imagined. I can’t believe how quickly they pick up the clicker and how easy it makes it to help them learn. (Even when I have a BC/Bassett Hound).
*for those who don’t know… I adopted a baby from Starfish Border Collie Rescue. He and his littermates were dropped off at 3 weeks old, dehydrated and obviously not doing too well. Mary nursed and cared for them back to health and I fell in love with #5 from a picture on a poster at a trial. He was destined to be mine because he would be our #5 dog. After meeting him in person I made the mistake of picking him up and holding him… then, as they say, the rest is history. He had been called iPod but as I am technologically challenged (shhh, don’t tell my boss at the software company where I work) we renamed him Trik (as in Trick). He has been an absolute blessing. At 15 weeks he is giving me sits, downs, nose touches, 2on/2offs, even find the “jump” (with the jumps on the ground). I can’t wait to see what he turns into. It’s pretty obvious he isn’t pure BC, he’s a bit short for that. I’m thinking he might be part Corgi. Anyway he turns out is ok with me. I’m just glad he has been given a chance at a decent life. Of course, his new siblings might care to differ on that opinion!

Well, that’s it for now… more later.

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