Camping at the Terv Trial

I haven't camped in quite some time. I bought a $17 air mattress and $11 pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter (both from Target.) I thought it was a pretty good deal. Much better than sleeping on the ground, but I still missed my pillow top mattress. The pillow top mattress is one of the best inventions, ever. Next time I go camping I will see if it fits in my car.

I got up at 3:15 (am) on Friday to get to the trial around 7. The drive should have been about 1.75 hrs, but being a Friday morning, I was sure I would hit traffic going through LA. I still had a bit of packing to do in the morning, and I wanted to leave my house around 4. I ended up leaving around 4:15. I got to the trial grounds at 6:02, and that was with a stop at a gas station for some caffeine to keep me alert. However, after my last long drive to a dog show when I almost didn't make it in time, I was happy to be early.

The trial is in a very secluded private park next to Lake Irvine. There are two bad things about the location. 1) I could not figure out how to get there without paying a toll on a toll road and 2) there is no cell reception. Other than that, it is a great place! Except for the lack of hot water. But I'm not complaining or being sarcastic, it really is nice.

I was only there Friday and Saturday since I had to work Sunday and while the trial is still going on on Monday, I did not enter because I didn't want to make the drive again in Monday morning traffic.

Pie did not Q in her agility runs the first day but Fancy got a QQ. On Saturday Fancy Qed in Standard but not jumpers and Pie got a QQ. Pie was also entered in obedience on Saturday and Qed with a 3rd place in utility and then did not Q in open so no UDX leg for us. Once again Pie passed all of the individual exercise in open (has yet to fail one of those!) then failed the groups. Not the difficult 3 minute sit this time, but the super easy 5 minute down. Pie inched forward, turned around backwards, rolled on her back multiple time, then STOOD UP!! By the time I returned from being out of sight, she had laid back down, so I thought we had passed until the judge gave us the bad news.

I have not been practicing the down in hopes that only rewarding the sit will encourage Pie to hold the sit (since it is a failure if she lays down on the sit.) So much for that plan.

Camping was ok. It rained some. I didn't sleep very well. Pie and Fancy were fine, but Dottie wanted to lay on top of me, and every time I pushed her off (rather violently since she resisted getting pushed) Pie became very worried she was going to get pushed next. I felt sorry for upsetting Pie, but I cannot sleep with 40 pounds of Malinois on my neck, or stomach or even squished up against my side pressing into me. Laying loosely at my side - yes. But no pressing, please.

ffluffy cooked some very good food for me including garlic toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes. It seems when I go camping with people they end up cooking for me since they do not approve of my food choices. Pretzels and Diet Coke isn't an appropriate dinner? Since when?

Speaking of food, I was very adventurous on Friday and tasted some of the Middle Eastern cousine I was given as the veggie option for the worker's lunch. Let's see.... there was rice, and some kind of spicy cake thing maybe made with beans, and some gruel that had something to do with eggplants, and some humice (don't know how to spell it but it rhymes with pumice- the volcanic rock) and some green salad type thing that is all chopped up and was called garlic something or other. I tried a nibble of each thing but the only thing I made any kind of progress with was the rice. Oh, and the pita bread that I put some garlic spread on.

As I was leaving late Saturday the rain started coming down pretty good. Even though I would have liked to stay all four days, I was happy to be going home to my pillow top mattress. (Sigh. Since when am I such a sissy?) But my departure was delayed by a dead battery. Agility people seem to have this problem fairly frequently so I knew someone would be able to help me out and I wasn't worried. Turns out ffluffy has jumper cables so she was the one to come to my rescue. There was a slight problem as the first time the jump didn't work. Then we discovered we were trying to restart the fuse box....

The battery was dead since I had been using the interior lights as I was setting up camp and pumping up the air mattress and such. I thought I was being cleaver turning the car on to use the cigarette lighter pump, but that probably drained the battery extra fast.

All worked out in the end and I and the dogs made it home safely. (We'll take the jumper cables with us to Oklahoma, just in case.)

One more quick note- HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!!