Potpourri

Schedule- coming up:

This weekend, Silkenfest; I hear tell they've got 48 pre-entries for their race meet on Sunday. Memorial Day Weekend will find us in Shawnee, OK for Indian Nations Basenji Club's AKC trials, followed by the ASFA II in Minnesota, and then the Saluki Club of America specialty in Lexington, KY. We've got some heavy travel in our future...

I also need to do a quick writeup on one of the best restaurants we've ever eaten at - in Wheeling, West Virginia!!! - and an update on Rally's foot surgery. The two are sort of related... . That will come after I figure out how to digitize her post-op X-ray. It's quite impressive. Maybe tomorrow.

The Dragon

We came..

We drove..

We bought the T-Shirt.

The Deerhound Specialty being over, we finally had to time to explore America's Number 1 motorcycle and sportscar destination.. The Tail of the Dragon. That's the portion of US129 that runs from Deal's Gap, NC north into Tennessee for 11 miles. In those 11 miles, the road has 318 curves! And all as smooth as a baby's butt, as you can see above. And all up and down, no flat places.

We took a few pictures, which you can see at the the Shot On Site website , but for the best images from the Dragon go to Killboy.com. That's "Killboy" (aka Darryl Cannon) on the right in the image below.. we had a chance to stop and chat on Sunday. Note that he's not the one with the camera. I can only hope that our business is so successful someday that we can hire associates to do the shooting for us. ;)

All kidding aside, Darryl was on his way to shoot at another curve, so we were lucky to find him here. There is always someone from Killboy.com at the Dragon... every day. If you go to his site, you'll probably even see us buzzing by!

This week, there are over 500 Mini Coopers there. Like I said, a serious driving destination. It was by far the most fun I've ever had driving the Escape, and Margaret only told me to slow down once in 22 miles!

Something Earth Shattering...

Scottish Deerhound Club of America, National Specialty Show.. Veteran Dogs, 9 yrs and over. This is the lineup. (5 were originally entered, so I thought, "OK, you're going to win something.")

At 10 years, 8 1/2 months old, Randir was the oldest dog in the lineup by 2 months. He still moves great. We had a lot of supporters ringside... when I trotted him down and back there was a lot of cheering.

The judge said, "You've got a lot of friends." I said, "I guess so." She then moved him up to second! My boy's having a hell of a specialty! Now I have to give money to another photographer!

These images by Margaret.

Scary Image of the Day

Fontana Dam. Part of the TVA system, and the highest dam east of the Mississippi. This is the view from our campsite!

First Brag...

Not a lot of time, but in Monday's LGRA race meet at the SDCA specialty, my old boy managed to win the Turtle! (For the uninitiated, that's the dog with the lowest score who finishes - in a racing manner- all three of their races. It's a very coveted award). He also won the award for being the oldest (10 years, 8 months) to do the same. Cool!