See Maebe Run

The Main Event: CPE Nationals

Over the next three days, Dharmaspoon Guy and Gal participated in the three day Canine Performance Events National Event. There were about 300 dogs and each dog had three runs a day. The event was held in an air conditioned sand floored arena. Arena comes from the latin word for sand. Sand was used during the time of gladiators to absorb the blood from the various fights, as the show promoters wouldn't want anyone to slip as they fought each other to the death. Eventually the places in which these events were staged were known as arenas.  Anyhow, there was no bloodletting at this show. There were a few slips and falls, and many many stairs to climb, as the crating was on the upper level and the rings were below:

During the event, we competed in a variety of different types of agility, including standard, jumpers, wildcard, colors, full house, snooker, and jackpot.  Here's a link to the rulebook if you're not familiar or are really curious:
http://www.k9cpe.com/forms/2010rb.pdf

Maebe and Django competed in all of the available agility runs while Cadence learned to be in the hectic environment. Also, out of necessity, he learned how to negotiate more stairs than he had ever seen in his life. We live in a ranch with no basement and here we was, having to climb hundreds of them a day. With some patience (on mom's part) and lots of cheese, Cadence ended up a champion stair climber.

The dogs did well on the first day:

On the first night of our trip, we hung out with some relatives. We went to a dive of a Chinese restaurant down the street. The wait was long, the people friendly, and food good.

Day 2 was another great day. Everyone did well and had fun.

In the evenings we would walk the dogs and relax with nice cold beer:

The third and final day went well to, with Django finishing with a very nice snooker run. We ended up with a lot of ribbons over the course of the long weekend. Maebe got 4 firsts, 2 seconds and a fourth.  She recieved the distinction of reserve high in standard for her jump height, which was quite an honor, especially since the year prior, she couldn't even quality to go to the event.  Django had four qualifying runs and was awarded fourth at his jump height in the Veteran's Game classification. We were both very proud of his years of consistent performance. Here's what all of the weekend's winnings look like in one place:

We had a wonderful time, got to know some of our fellow competitors better, got to see family we hadn't seen in awhile, and most importantly, got to spend some quality time with each other and the dogs.

From the Buffer State to the Sunshine State

Georgia's role as a Colony was to buffer the rest of the Colonies from what the British saw as the no-man's land of Florida. And not just because of the oppressive heat and the alligators. Florida was controlled by Spain, who they apparently didn't get along with. And of course, there were the original inhabitants...the elderly the Native Americans, who already didn't appreciate the Spanish conquest of their lands, let alone the British incursion. So, a couple hundred years later, we found ourselves driving through the former buffer colony to our main destination, Kissimmee, FL and a three day agility event.  Today, I wouldn't say that Georgia serves as much as buffer as more of an end-point of the South on the East Coast. When you enter Florida, it's as if no one is actually from there. The only other place I have really observed that is Washington, DC. And of course by that, I mean the only the places that the Metro goes.


We started out early, intent on making it there in time to set up for the agility trials that would follow over the next three days.

The drive was uneventful, with the roadside business offerings repeating themselves, exit after exit. In Georgia, this consisted of the following:


1. Gas
2. Food
3. "Adult" superstores
4. Pecans


In Florida, it was:
1. Gas
2. Food
3. "Adult" superstores
4. Citrus Fruit
5. Discount Tickets to various theme parks


It was about 1 when we crossed the border:

We arrived @ our destination, an air conditioned arena around 3, and set up our crating area:

By 4, we were pretty exhausted...

Some of us were more tired than others... 

We got to bed early, ready to begin 3 days of agility heaven.

Caves to Cold Beer

At the county level, Kentucky has some Talibanesque laws around one's ability to purchase alcohol. This in a state that produces 97% of the world's bourbon.  The practical result of these laws are that the problem drinkers, rather than drunk walk to party store down the street, are drunk driving across the county to get to a place where they can buy their hooch.  There's actually research to support the idea that county specific prohibition reduces highway safety. 

Now, the Dharmaspoon Guy is not a heavy drinker by any means. But when he's on vacation, he wants to have a nice cold one at the end of the day. At this point in the trip, he was unable to do so...and after all of the ticks he removed from EVERYONE and EVERYTHING, he really needed one. 

Luckily, on the third day of our trip, we were leaving the place of no beer and plenty of ticks and caves and ponies and dinosaurs behind us as we headed to Georgia.

With Dharmaspoon Gal at the wheel, we took off in earnest to Cordele. She always drives. I always park. That's the division of labor we agreed to. Driving keeps her awake (and safer, for those who have driven with me) and the backing up the trailer is this inborn skill that I discovered I had when we got the thing.

The day was a long one. And not just because of mileage. We had to drive through Nashville at rush-hour, 

make a detour around a sinkhole that devoured a section of the Interstate, sit in construction at the Tennessee/Georgia border, and drive around Atlanta just to get at our destination, a former Pecan plantation next to an abandoned truck stop (which I assure you was much more peaceful and scenic than it sounds.)

We were ecstatic to discover that the campground store carried some very well-deserved ice cold beers, which we thoroughly enjoyed:

We settled down early in the evening, in preparation for the push into Florida the next day...

To the swamp and back: Mammoth Caves and Ticks

During our only full day in Kentucky...

... we dodged a dinousar...

... and went to Mammoth Caves National Park...

... and took the Historic cave tour...

... in which we learned about how slaves turned bat poop into gunpowder, sort of ...

...and rich people paid lots of money to deface the inside of the cave ...

...and the generously proportioned people were challenged.

We learned that a cavern and a cave are the same thing...

...and got to take the same exact picture everyone takes upon leaving the historic entrance, though I had an actual camera and not an iphone.

We went back for the dogs and then spend the afternoon hiking some of the surface trails....

... and saw where a river enters the caves...

... and passed by the entrance to a smaller cave...

... but didn't go in.

Over the course of the hike, the dogs became infested with ticks.

... and no, that that one ...

... but these. Dozens of them. 

We spent hours removing them....

... before retiring to the campground for a nice quiet evening.

To the swamp and back: Michigan to Kenticky

On the first day we drove to Kentucky. We set up camp at Horse Cave, which is about 20 minutes away from Mammoth Caves.

The campground was on kind of a farm and on that farm, Maebe made a new friend...

To the swamp and back: Introduction

On March 17, 2010, Dharmaspoon Guy and Gal, Maebe, Django and Cadence hooked up the A-liner to the Vue and headed south to the Canine Performance Events National Event in Kissimmee Florida. The next posts chronicle our journey.