Thursday, July 21, 2011

Day 21

I guess this breeder is now just going to ignore me. Even after I forwarded our previous conversation. A simple "we changed our mind" would have been nice. I was kind of counting on them to make up for the breeders I missed with the phone debacle. I am really glad I got a far more diverse sample pop than I had been expecting.

We grabbed Gavin again and brought him back to our campground. He and Darien played in the pool for hours. Misha (I hope I spelt that right) or 'Moth' from Chaz drove 3 hours, so 6 hours total!, down from Wisconsin to visit. Way to make us feel special :) She has THE most gorgeous basenji ever. Watson is so stunning, once again there are pics, you will all have to wait. We had a lovely visit whilst the kids splashed. Watson seemed horrified that people were chosing to go in the nasty water. Basenji's have very experessive faces.

Laura and I made poutine for the Smiths for dinner, we decided after last night's very American chili dogs we could share some of our national cuisine. We even managed to find curds, though they weren't quite right. The poutine ended up tasting pretty authentic and was met by approval.

Laura had a collar made for Smudge that says Cpt. Oblivious in a military style. Its fantabulous! I had a coupler made of the right length for my guys. Both of us are very excited.

Saying good bye is so hard. Darien kept hiding so he could stay with Gavin. Gavin kept sayign he could keep him it would be no trouble, no trouble at all..... All of us will miss their family very much (including the dogs) and were discussing ways and hows of coming back. (they would love to come visit us, but their dogs are not allowed in Ontario, and they have no one they trust to leave them with)

Sad and tired we return to the cabin. Tomorrow we head to Ohio. Not only are we sad to say good bye, we are sad our trip is almost over. We have met so many fantastic people and had such a great time we wish this could go on for the rest of the summer.

day 20

Still no word from the last breeder...

The KOA people feel so bad about our neighbours they offer us one of the Kamping Kabins. Its tiny and cute (pics will be forth coming at some time) and has AC!!

Becca has a ton of orders to fill. I am surprised, though not sure why, just how many orders they get!! Their collars are awesome, so I shouldn't surprised. So we take Gavin with us to the local swim park. IL is strange; they have bodies of water but no one swims in them so they have oodles of swim parks. This one is small, a couple of pools, 3 water slides and a lazy river. But the cost of going to Splash valley is about 9 dollars a person, so it was very worth it. The dogs stayed at Becca's in the AC. I got quite the sun burn but it was worth it.

visited again for the evening. Becca watched Off Season (one of Dekka's movies) and liked it. Ben had a tick crawling on him, again it was the Canadians identifying the nasty insect lol. It was lovely to go back to a little cabin with ac to sleep.

day 19

We chill in Kankakee. The only attraction is Ben and Becca. Can't say we are enamoured of IL. We hang out all day at their house, we are introduced to their super secret collar lair :) Initation was HORRIBLE, but we can't tell (or else...)

Darien and Gavin are so similar its funny, they get along very well with bits of fight. After the fight a few min later they are thick as thieves again. Both are experts on everything, just ask them. Or don't they will still tell you, lol.

Emailed the breeder again, seems they forgot they were all enthusiastic to participate and forgot what this was about. We booked into a local KOA, our first of this trip. Its small and not exciting but the people are really nice. Laura and I go and set up the camp site leaving Darien with Gavin. We go back and have a lovely dinner with their family. Seems Aden is all interested in the "Canadians" having dinner with them again.

We get back to the KOA at about midnight and our neighbours are partying it up. Their dog is off leash and is under our trailer. Scared the crap out of Kat and freaked out Dekka and Smudge. They are burning what seems like pressure treated 4 x 4 posts and the smell is horrible. They partied it up till after 2am. :(

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Day 18

We get up, due to the time change Laura tells me its almost 8 when its actually just almost 7. Oh well I start breakfast and get woken up. Sam stops by, he is a very friendly and surprisingly the two bags play trailer tetris fairly well.

We sample some of the rowdiest whippets I have ever met. The owner says they have a 'Greeting Disorder' as they are so excited to see new people. I covet his large male who is 2 and still very terrier like.

We then plan to meet up with Becca and Ben (from Chaz). On the way we stop at Amishland to do some shopping. There is pretty much no Amish in Amishland, its all nick nacks, a buffet and a tanning salon (Amishland makes me think tanning..)

We meet up with Ben and Becca, Darien and Gavin become instant fast friends and we hit it off with Ben and Becca. We get invited to stay the night, sadly this doesn't work out well as their dogs, particularly Ophie is stressed about dogs in the house. Speaking of dogs Dekka was in a crate and Luke came charging up to her, Dekka snarked and snarled, Luke loved it, play bowing and barking back. YAY barking buddies!! It was so funny, he was enamored and she was furious. Luckily Luke is as sweet and handsome as he is derpy.

We get to touch all the collars, fondling and admiring lol. I even get to see some of the customers stuff before they do :) Hey Charlotte.. I touched your collar before you :p

We have one more kennel to sample, but there is no hurry. We are hitting a CPE trial on the weekend. Ben and Becca are great so we plan to stay in the area for a couple of days to kill time, but will stay at the local KOA so they can get some sleep.

day 17, through KY

Getting into KY was cool, we went through a long tunnel. The signs warning us about this tunnel started nearly 100 miles out with big red signs. Darien got some pics.

We miss TN already, but KY is nice. We got to sample more whippets, it was a bit of an ordeal for all concerned to co ordinate it, the breeder was off at a show. She was soooooo helpful though and got her dog sitter to meet us at her kennel. One of the young whippets grabbed my sample bag and tried to run off with it. Such gleeful whippets :)

KY had all these signs for "The Biggest Loser" show, even the businesses were encouraging contestants. It was bizarre. Laura also manged to explode a huge engorged tick in her face as we were driving, she was removing them off smudge. She had little black tick bits all over, ewwww.

We were to meet a fellow just in IL to pick up rubber crumb. This rubber crumb is for our agility equipment. It is very reasonably priced compared to buying it at home, but shipping is outrageous. So since I was going to be in the area I planned to pick up a couple of bags (where on earth would we tetris 2 50 pound bags of rubber bits?) The rubber place isn't open on the weekend so we need to meet up with him today. But then we had an issue.

Seems my wallet dropped out of my bag in a bathroom. We didn't notice till nearly 2 hours away when we went to get gas! We called the place where we stopped to use the bathrooms and luckily a staff member had found it. We had to back track to go get it. This put us really late. Luckily Sam, the rubber crumb fellow made it work, he found us a campground near him just the other side of TN/IL border that was near him. He would then show up at 8am to do the paperwork and sell us the crumb.

This turned out to be awesome as traffic made it even longer. Even with crossing the time zone in our favour we were running really late. We are driving along at just after 9pm almost out of KY when I look at the GPS. The GPS has little symbols that tell you what your next thing is, a T crossing, a left turn, a roundabout (which we have seen lots of)...

The GPS was showing me a boat. Yes a boat! Laura whips out the map and looking closely it seems the crossings are all ferry crossings. We are a bit perplexed as we have toll roads turned off. The good news is that this seems to be a free ferry, the bad news is it closes in 15 min and is 9 miles away on a twisty turny hilly road.

We make it. My car and trailer are "on a boat" Whoot.

I have no idea why they don't just make a bridge, the Ohio river isn't that big, and we have seen far more bridges over larger things in more out of the way places..

We made it to the camp site, set up and fall into bed.

Day 15 and 16 'in the Holla'

I know I have been remiss in posting, its hard to catch up with spotty internet.

Met up with a breeder and sampled a lot of lovely whippets.

We then stopped to meet a friend of Laura's in NC before we trekked through to TN, She was lovely, the epitome of a southern hospitality.

After a cool drink, and learning what the trees we have been admiring are called (crepe myrtles) we are off again.

I REALLY wish I could upload pics with this connection. The road into Tia's place (where we were staying) was the most rustic lane way I have ever seen, with these signs saying "does anyone know you went this way" and such. I took pics, so you will get to see tall hese signs.

Tia and her family live in a Holler on the side of a mountain. What is a Holler you may ask? Its a group of homes on a property that you could "holla to each other from" in a depression on a mountain. We decided we wanted to live in a Holler. Her family is fantastic Darien loved hanging out with the girls. They have a huge pack of dogs, seems each house has a few. Kat was a little freaked out at first, but she got over it. These dogs had really good dog manners and there were enough of them to intimidate Dekka that she could be loose too. Once again I have pics I can't upload of us and all the dogs and kids strolling down to the creek to wade.

We decide to stay two days. We do ALL the laundry. Thanks Tia!!!!! which is soo needed as things still smell musty from the great rain in PA.

The next day we hang out again, its nice to plop down for more than a night, esp in such great company. We meet up with Renee (from Chaz) and her Fila Kharma. Both are cool and unique (one again there are pics) We also get our nails 'did'. The difference it seems between getting your nails 'done' and 'did' is about 30-40 dollars. Having our nails 'did' was ridiculously cheap here in Greeneville TN.

We are super sad to have to go in the morning, this place is just amazing and the people feel like family.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

day 14

Rolling Hills park is even prettier in the day light. We found a place to go swim, I am sad I didn't bring my camera,the shore was mostly sandy but there were sand cliffs between the land and the little beach, it was unique and picturesque. The lake was just cool enough to be refershing, the footing was sand and we didn't see another person. Really sad we are only staying one day. Though not so sad about leaving the ticks behind. Laura pulled over 30 deer ticks off me, and a few off Darien. They were soooo itty bitty and hadn't been attached long but still eewwwwwww. I guess I and Darien will be getting blood drawn when we get home. Laura had no ticks, seems they must have been on the tent and I had been the main tent taker downer today. Darien helped a little and ended up with little tick infestation. Pulled two ticks off Kat (the big ones with the long legs..) but the other dogs seem fine.

NC is gorgeous and the first place that doesn't look like home.

Drove south to Raleigh and found a Walmart. Bought a phone for cheap and some time, so now I have a phone again. Called breeders and got samples. Hooray!! Tomorrow we are off to TN.

day 13

Got up and cooked a lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon and hash browns as we re tetrised the trailer. We got everything re organized and said bye to Betty, as Bill had left to take the judges to Cabalas before they had to home. Did you know Cabalas have dog kennels so you can put your dog in one whilst you shop?

Due to no phone and the dearth of pay phones these days I missed a couple of breeders by not being able to call.

Betty gave Darien a Liberty Bell JRT classic t shirt, I really hope they have more trials, this one was so much fun. We got on the road a little later than planned. It was another long day, but not super long day. Though the plan was to go from near Philly PA, to past Raleigh NC, we found a state park called Rolling Hills just north of Raleigh. Luckily the ranger was still there at just after 9pm. The crickets are louder than at home, and the volume of the katydids was crazy... but it is comforting to have night wild life sounds, MD was too silent. This campground seems almost deserted and beautiful by night, too bad we are only staying till the morning.

Days 11 and 12


Day 11

Hit the Liberty Bell trial. I think I over entered poor Dekka.. 3 agility runs, 2 rally runs, 1 brush hunt, and an obedience run. She dealt well, she could see GTG from agility, so agility was a bust we got a few low placings. She won rally 2 (the highest offered). Kat was entered barn hunt, GTG and a couple of confo classes. She placed well in GTG and won suitability to Grey fox. Darien won youth obedience, got second in confo and third in agility and GTG. Unlike in Canada youth handlers have to use the same dog in everything. So we borrowed a really lovely dog named Belle.

The people have been wonderful, and the potluck at the end of the day beyond delicious. We made, well Laura made, I was too hot, a tastey mint oreo (which you can't get in Canada) cheese cake (with philly pre made cheese cake filling, which you can't get in Canada) in a pre made oreo shell. It was a big hit and dead easy, even whilst camping.

Spent some time talking to the conformation judges. Both were from the UK, the one now lives in the US. The one that came over to judge used to be huge into whippet racing. Learnt a lot about how other dogs got added to whippets and where to go for more info. This alone (forgetting the fun, the people and the ribbons) would have made the trip to this trial worth it.

Our tent was still wet, we should have set it up earlier in the day, but we were so busy running to one even or the next we never got a chance till late afternoon. We had hoped it would dry by the time we went to bed, no such luck. There were puddles on the floor still. Laura tried mopping them up with our least sodden towel. It was a very damp night.

Day 12

Second verse, same as the first. Almost, there was no obedience, or rally. Dekka got entered in GTG. GTG at this trial was a bit weird, but in a good way. The tunnel didn't have bars, the dog could shoot out past the rat cage at the end and run around trying to eat the cage. Dekka loves rats in little cages, rats in take out containers! Rats to go. Dekka had been having issues with leaving the tunnel to go around, but with this set up she didn't. Being our first JRTCA trial she was back in novice. She won the class with a time of 1.4 seconds. Kat got second, I forget her time but it was one point something. Dekka's agility was a bit better, but for some reason would choose contacts over tunnels when right beside and I wasn't expecting that. Its weird here, you can enter all three agility levels, so some people with rockin USDAA dogs entered all the classes, even agility 1.

Kat won suitability to greyfox again, kind of. For a joke someone entered a dane in the class. The judge came up to me (a different judge than the day before) and asked “you won this yesterday didn't you?” When I replied with the affirmative he asked if I minded if he gave the dane first. I said it was ok but I wanted the prize (first prize were these fantastic crate pads made by Betty, one of the people running the trial. So she kind of won :) I love the crate pads!

Darien made more friends and had a great day even though he entered Dekka in all his classes. She was NOT interested in playing agility with him what so ever. Her little head was on a swivel to watch me at all times. There was a couple of snarky people who were making fun of Darien's less than stellar agility run. Glad he didn't hear them. But other than the few biatches around agility all the people have been fantastic, so not too upset.

We helped with clean up as we are spending the night. Darien got compliments from a few of the adults about what a good kid he is. He was full of helpful today.

We were so gross by the end of the day we could smell ourselves. So we left the dogs under the shade and took off to go find water. We eventually found a small state park that had water... it had a beach that said no swimming. You were allowed to wade. It was strange, there were fish that kept biting our feet, bums and other less mentionable areas!! It was full of little kids, we were the only adults there. We sat in the water up to our shoulders and scrubbed ourselves with sand to get clean. Sounds strange but it works. We still would much rather had soap, but we left feeling much much better.

Tomorrow is a long day. Might try to find a cheap pay as you go phone. I missed a breeder near the trial as I was supposed to phone to meet up with her in the evening as she was trialling this weekend too. Tomorrow we drive back south down to North Carolina. Tonight we have very tired dogs, and finally dry stuff.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Day 10, day of rain

Torrential down pour rain. EVERYTHING got wet.. The phone no longer works. The tent leaks, and it was put away in soaking rain. I swear tents expand in the rain. I felt like I would never be dry again.

Driving was interesting, there were flash flood warnings, some of the roads were completely covered in water. I have never seen so many people pull over for rain before. We booked into a hotel in Lancaster as we damp all over. Lancaster is interesting, they have outlet malls, even a bible outlet (you know for all your biblical needs) there was also an Amish Etc...

We were going to hit the trial grounds to camp but we were glad to be in dry beds for the night. Tomorrow off to the Liberty Bell trial!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Day 9

OMG ticks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I woke up to a tick on Dekka. Then went to check Kat (she has been sleeping with Darien) and she had 4 on her. Then Laura noticed another one on her, and Stef found 2 more. Sadly that wasn't the worst of it, we found over 30 on Smudge. Ick!!! At least none on the humans today.

Then we tried to spend the day at the lake with Stef. It started well. We swam, and visited. I started making a late breakfast of eggs and bacon when Dekka started to shake. Oh crap it was thunder! We did manage to eat before the rain. Then it looked like it might go past us, so we decided to wait. Silly us, we got soaked and then the storm got closer and the thunder was cracking. We came back and the rain stopped. I started a fire and we got things out of the car just in time for another storm to roll through. We ended up chillin in the tent for the afternoon as storm after storm rolled past. My fire kept going though, super fire!

Stef had to leave :( Kat tried to keep her by pinning her down and keeping her hands busy petting a dog, but at least we get her back again on Sunday for the JRTCA trial.

Days 7 and 8

Since we met the PA breeders at the trials, we have no PA whippet spit to collect.

Spent the day by the lake. They have a fabulous spot for people to swim, moor their boats and picnic. Dogs allowed!! We packed a lunch and had a good time. Since we are just killing time its been very relaxing. This is an awesome campground, very clean and picturesque.

There are a lot of little skunks running around. They are awfully adorable, the size of kittens, all fluffy and non smelly, waddling around our camp site loop. I was walking Kat and Dekka one last time before bed and they saw one. Oh the screaming. Kat was possessed, people came out from their campsites to see if I needed help it sounded so bad. I guess some JRTs ARE loud...

We also have stupid birds. They are asking to be noms. They flit right by the dogs and are oblivious to the dangers of canine teeth.

On Wed night Stef (Nolu) drove up from Virginia to spend the night. Whoot! It was so much fun to meet her.

Day 6 and promised pics *edit... no pics (grumble grumble)

A lovely drive through PA to get to our camp ground. Saw some Amish men doing hay with belgains. Very pretty countryside. The campground is lovely but very hilly. Our site has no shade, thank goodness for the aluminet I got at Clean Run.

This is our campsite.

[Will add pic later]

This is what Dekka thinks of sitting around
[Will add pic later]

Smudge looks like he belongs in a camping ad
[Will add pic later]

And I know ppl are reading this. We love comments... so comment and make us feel less lonely! :)

* we spent 30 min having an issue trying to upload pics. Photobucket says no, imgur says BIG..

Monday, July 4, 2011

Day 5

Hit another trial today. Lots more whippet spit :) Including some from Finland! Hot and humid, still worried about samples being dry enough.

Came back and ended up doing the never ending walk through the woods. We had been told there was a beach where one could swim dogs. The map was HORRIBLE. We ended up walking for a long time in the wrong direction. Dekka and Smudge were having issues with the heat. We did end up finding it. But it was so warm it didn't really cool us off. It was fun though, and MUCH much closer than the way the map made it seem.

We made a delicious dinner, cheap steaks that were still tasty, and then we roasted local corn and potatoes.

Off to PA to stay for a few days. Whoot!

Day four

Day 4

We finish unpacking and apologize to our neighbours. They all seem cool, thankfully and say that our aircraft sounding air pumps and headlight pointing into their tent at 1am was fine. We don't really believe that, but they are very nice.

Off to the race meet in Delaware to pet whippets and gather buccal swabs. The petting of the whippets is very important to the study. It helps keep the researcher sane after extreme fatigue from the day before. Everyone at the event lets us sample our whippets. The whippets all come from a diverse area. There are a couple there that were born in Australia, one from France, a few from recently imported European lines, as well as some from the US but born as far away as California.

Drying the samples completely in this humidity might be difficult. I hope they are dry enough!

After we were done, had taken much “whippet spit”, admired whippets and snuggled itty bitty whippet puppies we took off to the beach. Darien had made friends at the race meet, which not only ensured he had a good time and kept out of my hair, they also told him of a nice beach that dogs were allowed to go to. The beach was very close on Delaware bay. The water was extremely warm and salty. The dogs LOVED it. Dekka of course was in there as soon as she could. Kat was enthusiastic to swim for the first time and even Smudge offered to go in on his own. Dekka has learnt how to fetch rocks from the bottom. She doesn't come up with the same rock, but she comes up a rock, which is impressive to me. She will even put her head under water whilst swimming to try to grab a ball that is being tricky.

On our way back we hit a pet store just to see what is in a US pet store vs ours. A few different lines of products, nothing major. We were surprised that things were the same price or even more than at home. We then returned to the state park and went for a walk on the park trials down to Chesapeake Bay. Some lovely views, I hope to upload the pics soon and will post them. Dekka fearlessly lept into the waves to get a stick and fought her way back up slippery and steep rocks so I could through it again. The water wasn't quite as warm, but that was really a good thing.

Back at the campsite Laura took off to find a pay phone to call her dad and let him know how things were going. In that time I found a tick. On me. AHHHHHH! The tick tool is in the back of the car... I had to be saved by the neighbours. Their family was very interested in tick removal as it was as much a novelty to them as it was to me. The tick was situated in the back of my knee, so here I was standing there with all these very nice non english speaking asians with their heads right near my butt staring at my leg. Glad to be an educational assistant! The tick was removed and was very tiny. Still ewwwwww. Darien had one too, but by the time he found it the car, and the tick tool, were back.

Off to go shower and to inspect myself vvvverrrrryyyy closely for more ewwww AHHHHH ticks. Tomorrow we are off to another whippet event to collect more whippet spit.

Day four

Day 4

We finish unpacking and apologize to our neighbours. They all seem cool, thankfully and say that our aircraft sounding air pumps and headlight pointing into their tent at 1am was fine. We don't really believe that, but they are very nice.

Off to the race meet in Delaware to pet whippets and gather buccal swabs. The petting of the whippets is very important to the study. It helps keep the researcher sane after extreme fatigue from the day before. Everyone at the event lets us sample our whippets. The whippets all come from a diverse area. There are a couple there that were born in Australia, one from France, a few from recently imported European lines, as well as some from the US but born as far away as California.

Drying the samples completely in this humidity might be difficult. I hope they are dry enough!

After we were done, had taken much “whippet spit”, admired whippets and snuggled itty bitty whippet puppies we took off to the beach. Darien had made friends at the race meet, which not only ensured he had a good time and kept out of my hair, they also told him of a nice beach that dogs were allowed to go to. The beach was very close on Delaware bay. The water was extremely warm and salty. The dogs LOVED it. Dekka of course was in there as soon as she could. Kat was enthusiastic to swim for the first time and even Smudge offered to go in on his own. Dekka has learnt how to fetch rocks from the bottom. She doesn't come up with the same rock, but she comes up a rock, which is impressive to me. She will even put her head under water whilst swimming to try to grab a ball that is being tricky.

On our way back we hit a pet store just to see what is in a US pet store vs ours. A few different lines of products, nothing major. We were surprised that things were the same price or even more than at home. We then returned to the state park and went for a walk on the park trials down to Chesapeake Bay. Some lovely views, I hope to upload the pics soon and will post them. Dekka fearlessly lept into the waves to get a stick and fought her way back up slippery and steep rocks so I could through it again. The water wasn't quite as warm, but that was really a good thing.

Back at the campsite Laura took off to find a pay phone to call her dad and let him know how things were going. In that time I found a tick. On me. AHHHHHH! The tick tool is in the back of the car... I had to be saved by the neighbours. Their family was very interested in tick removal as it was as much a novelty to them as it was to me. The tick was situated in the back of my knee, so here I was standing there with all these very nice non english speaking asians with their heads right near my butt staring at my leg. Glad to be an educational assistant! The tick was removed and was very tiny. Still ewwwwww. Darien had one too, but by the time he found it the car, and the tick tool, were back.

Off to go shower and to inspect myself vvvverrrrryyyy closely for more ewwww AHHHHH ticks. Tomorrow we are off to another whippet event to collect more whippet spit.

Day three the long haul

Day 3

Wow what a day!! Over 700km and over 15 hours of driving. All to be stood up by a breeder. Oh well, we did get to see New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Oh and we were on the look out for a loose baboon spotted on the hwy we were on just outside of NYC, sadly we didn't get a glimpse.

The day started well enough. Took us longer to pack up then planned. Then we drove out to MA, very pretty with hills all covered in forest. We get to where we are supposed to meet... eeeeh no breeder. Dang. So then we head to Clean Run to visit their actual store and pick up some things. I have wanted an aluminet shade cloth tarp thing for years now. With shipping its never seemed worth it, but since I was in the area...

Then down to push through to our camp site. The drive was much longer than the GPS said. There was a lot of construction and lowered speed limits. Traffic through NYC wasn't bad, no where near Toronto bad and we were going through there just after 6pm.

New Jersey had the most expensive toll road to end all toll roads. Just over 23 dollars!! The worst part was we sat there for 45 minutes (no exaggeration, we noted the time) to go through the toll so we could pay. People here honk a lot. Then to add insult to injury it cost 6 dollars to cross the bridge out of Jersey. My little car and trailer did not do 6 dollars worth of wear and tear on that bridge.

Even with out this delay we were running late. Laura called the camp grounds on my cell phone to tell them we were still coming. Happily there is a self check in option if you come in late.

We arrived at about 12:30pm There were more deer strolling around than I have seen in my life. They aren't the least bit afraid of the car and just stood there staring at us wondering what our problem was. We also saw 2 baby foxes cross the camp road as we came in.

So tired, we just tossed up the tent. No fly, no nothing. We did pump up the air matresses which sounded like aircraft in the very very still and silent night. MD has no cricket or frog sounds, I have never heard such a silent night in the summer. After having been on the road since 6:40 am we just fell into bed and slept. Tomorrow we are to hit a race meet and get some 'whippet spit' as my mom says.

Day two

So no peanut buttered tree, though it seems we simply missed this ritual. The kids however were loud. The most interesting spectacle that occurred was between our neighbours (the ones with the loud kids) and people a few spots down. They had an unending supply of kids and adults who talked to them just like the people on the Jerry Springer show.

So the Jerry Springer show had a few episodes. It started just with adults trash talking the kids, waiving hands around and in general being all dramatic. We leave for a bit. (Darien managed to break his brand new sandals.) When we come back the Sheriff's car is there as is the park police. Most provinces in Canada don't get their own police, yet the parks get their own special police force. Not sure why, other than the specific case with the Jerry Springer campers. This camp ground is incredibly small to need its own police force.

So drive in to see the Sheriff, the park police, a couple of park rangers and the adults from both camps. We can't tell what they are saying, but their body language is full of crossed arms, hands on hips, and some indignant hand waiving. Later we hear the issue involved the kids of one family talking trash to the other. But really its was just dramatic and like reality TV. Seems this family gets kicked out of the park almost yearly.

The park also has the most 'non fun' swimming area of all time. They could have saved time and just put a sign saying NO FUN out in front of the swim area.



On a more typical tourisity note, we went for an amazing amazing walk with the dogs. Darien will do a photo blog in the next day or so, but until then check out these pics.

Tomorrow we are up bright and early to meet a breeder in Massachusetts. Then head down to Maryland to camp near Chesapeake Bay.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Day One!

DAY ONE (yesterday.. I imagine I will be a day behind for most posts)

Started out nice and early. We successfully played trailer tetris and got all of our stuff in the trailer, 3 tents, bedding, pillows, chairs, coolers, tubs of food and clothing. In the car was my sample stuff, electronic stuff, the 3 dogs, and 3 people.

The border crossing fellow was extremely cranky. I wish I had the luxury of saying what was in my head.

Me: (*hands over passports and the notarized letter from Mark stating that Darien is allowed to cross the border with us.)

Cranky: So have any of you been arrested? (*hands back the notarized letter, and scrutinizes the passports)

Me:No.

Cranky: Alcohol or tobacco?

Me: No

Cranky: Where are you from

Me: *motioning to Darien and I. Indian River
Laura: Whitby.

A few more random questions about where we live and what we do. The fact we are students seems weird to him.

Cranky: Have any of you ever been arrested?

Me: No (umm Not since the last time you asked...)

Cranky: Do you have a letter stating its fine for (points at Darien) to go with you.

Me: Yes, its that letter I handed you with the passports that you handed back (Gee are you dumb?)

Cranky then wanted to see the letter from Professor White stating what I was doing sample wise. I had figured I would need the letter if Canada customs found them weird. Nope this guy hadn't found the sample kits, he just thought anyone travelling for academic research was suspect.

Cranky (*looking suspiciously at the letter) Where is Trent University? (said with utter disdain)

Me: Peterborough.

Cranky: Have any of you ever been arrested?

Me: No (seriously, is the stress of your job getting to you? Do you need to go sit down?)

Cranky: Alcohol or tobacco?

Me: No. (pretty sure you asked that one too, haven't been anywhere to buy any since you asked 5 min ago)

etc etc...

He finally let us go through and we could relax and get on with our trip. We made excellent time and arrived at Thompson Lake State park in NY by about 2. Darien has found a friend who is up from Florida. They fast became 'like bros' and were running around the camp ground together. Most of the campers are seasonal and are quite friendly. MANY dogs at this camp ground.

The shower facilities (even with the suspected risk of impetigo) get 8.5 stars out of 10. The water is hot, almost hot enough for me. High pressure and free.

Its been a long day and we are in bed, seems we get to look forward to shrieking kids at 5am and a peanut buttered tree (not sure, will post tomorrow)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Almost ready to go!

Getting ready to go, this time next week I will be in a tent in another country. Whoot. I hope everything fits in the trailer, I have been messing with the rubbermaid tubs and calling it trailer tetris with tubs. It has a nice alliteration to it :)

Still have to get a form signed by a notary public to prove I am not trying to abscond with my child. Also have to get the car fixed up. Most things are packed. Entries to the JRTCA trial we are hitting have been sent off.

I also need to clean my house (CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.. wait no its clean all the things?) as I am having a house sitter come and watch the beasties whilst I am gone.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

EPIC thesis trip!


Its starting to come together.

I have the samples kits (at twice the price I had planned on)
I have whippet breeders/owners lined up to visit.
I have passports and travel insurance.
I have a tent (and this one stays up.. bonus) see pic
Dogs have proof of rabies.
Still need a trailer hitch put on the car. Yes I am towing a trailer with my kia rio.

we leave 2 weeks tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Identity crisis over (almost)

And not the sort of thing you might think when I say identity crisis.

During exams in April I lost my drivers licence. I went to Service Ontario to get it replaced and my health card updated. I found out the same teller could also renew the sticker for my car. I was a happy camper as this seemed very convenient. Nearly a month later and I get my health card in the mail. The only hitch is, it isn't mine. Its the same name, with a different middle initial, this person has almost the same birthday (same day and year but two months older) The signature on the card is mine as is the address. This perplexing piece of identification is followed rapidly by a driver's licence of similar bent.

When I got the health card I called the 1 800 number. They said I should go back to my local Service Ontario. So I did. But some horrid trick of fate I got the same woman. She acted as if it was all my fault. Didn't I notice the numbers were wrong on the piece of papers she gave me back in April.... The reason this is such an annoyance, aside from the whole wrong person with wrong ID thing, is that I need to get a passport. I need to leave at the end of June to go gather samples for my thesis in the US. I try to explain this to the teller. I get a whole bunch of "not my problem" and "there is nothing we can do"

Frustrated I leave Service Ontario.

I call my Mom to vent, moms are excellent for this. My Dad deals with the ppl in at Service Ontario on a frequent basis. He has been a businessman most of his life and was disgusted by their customer service and the next time he went in he talked to the supervisor. He got the same "not our problem, and nothing we can do" lines. One fellow there suggested I talk to Jeff Leal our local MPP. So I called his office, they were wonderfully eager to help.

An interesting turn happened when my Dad happened to be talking to someone farther up the chain in the Service Ontario ladder (to use a mixed metaphor) by total chance. This came up. She seemed quite angry nothing was done.

Seems my Driver's licence is being couriered to my home tomorrow. I am very grateful to the higher ups at Service Ontario as well as the one worker who suggested I talk to Jeff Leal's office.