Anther AKC trial

Last week I went up to Concord , NC for an AKC agility trial.  I was hoping to have the AC fixed in my RV before going.  Back in July it seemed like the dash board AC wasn't working. It was really hot on the way home from Perry Ga. My thermometer said it as 87 degrees in there. I should have stopped and turned on the generator and then turned on the over head AC. But I didn't.  Just suffered it out. I had fans blowing on me and the dogs.  When I got home I called the good RV place but the couldn't see my RV until August 17th, which was over a month away. Ack!!  A couple of weeks later, I noticed that I had a leak under the passenger side of the dash board. Leaks in RVs is something to always avoid.  So I called this other place that can service truck engines and they said they could get me in Monday.  I dropped the RV off on Monday morning 8:30am.   Tuesday came and I decided to call them. They said they were running die through the system to check for leaks and they would call me back. Wednesday came and went. Thursday I called and left a message.  Friday I called them again. They called me back but I was busy and couldn't answer the phone. They left a message.  I listened to the message and it said that the compressor was cracked and so was the heater coil. They were getting prices for those items and will call me back with the price.  Those two items are very expensive. I was guessing 2000.00.  Then they called me back and said that the condenser hose was clogged and that's why it drainaged into the RV.  That they couldn't really get to the hose because its up inside the HVAC box and they wanted to take the HVAC box off and clean the hose out. But  my RV is very old and the box is plastic. He was worried it was break went it took if off, since is was already cracked. He was going to find a new box before he took the old one off. The first place he called didn't have any and he would call Monday.  On Saturday, I drove by their place. I had some questions. Like why they had two totally different scenarios of what was wrong with the RV??   But they aren't open on Saturdays. I notice the steps were out on the RV. I decided to put them back in. Its not a big deal that they were out but why expose them to rain when you don't have to. So I opened the door and noticed the door hinge was broken. Ugh!! The door wont stay closed now unless you dead bolted the door.  Great. You cant have an RV door that wont stay closed. Now Im pissed.  So Monday I go by and  he said I gave him the RV that way. Oh yea, I always drive around with a door that wont stay shut. That sounds safe huh??   I tried to find a replacement door handle/lock thing but couldn't .  He couldn't either so he  ordered one from somewhere.  I told him I needed the RV by Wednesday. He said no problem. Guess what?  The RV wasnt ready by Wednesday. They didn't unclog the hose and the door hinge wouldn't be in until Wednesday afternoon , by UPS..  So I waited with my dogs for the handle to come and  for him to fix it. That's another how disaster story that Im not going into. 
We are finally on our way to the trial, 4 hours later start time. Now thunderstorms are all around and I was missing the B-match.  I had to stop for gas. There were no easy  to get into gas stations by his garage. So I drove down the  highway a bit and stopped at a Flying J gas station. If you are a Good Sam RV club member, it gives you a 3cent discount on gas at Flying J.  So gas there was right at 2.00 a gallon. Whoohoo. But now it was pouring down rain, lightening  and windy.   The other good thing about using the Flying J was it let me fill my tank all the way up. Usually the pumps turn off at 75.00  But not this time. Whoohooo.  I pull up to the tank and I open my side window to make sure Im close enough to the pump. When I did that a ton of water poured off the RV and right into the window and down onto the leveler controls. Ugh!!  Im sure that wasn't good for them but they worked when I got to the trial.  So after filling up , I sat in the parking lot for about 30 minutes for the storm to pass.

(Ill explain the blue tape on the windshield.  Its how I line up my RV with the lines on the road. You sit differently in and RV then a car. You aren't as far to the left as you are in a car so its hard to judge how close to the center line you are. So I have two pieces of tape on my windshield. If Im lined up with the one on the left, then I know Im as close to the center line as I can get without going over. And if Im lined up with the tape on the right, then Im as close to the edge of the road as I can get without going off or hitting mailboxes.  It really helps if you are on a very narrow road)

The rest of the trip was fine. I got to the trial around 7pm. There was a guy managing the RV parking. I told him I wanted to park over in the grass field area. He said they only put four wagons out there . (each wagon lets 4 RV's hook up. Sometimes only  two 50 amp Rv's. )  He said the spots could already be full but I could go look. He said it would be easier just to park close , here on the parking lot. So that's what I did. I backed into a spot, got my front wheels up on levelers. Seemed level to me and hooked up my electric.  Then I took my dogs for a walk. I walked over to the field. There were several 50 amp RV spots out there. I decided to move my RV. I really didn't want to be on that black asphalt .  That's all I need, to burn my dogs feet all weekend. And then if they need to go out in the middle of the night, I have to walk a distance to find grass. SO yup, I put in my slide, undid my levelers and disconnect my electric.  I moved to the field. It was kind of a lot of work but since I was going to be there for several days, might as well have a good spot.

 

So that is my RV, the one with the head lights.  You cant really see it but the wagon, with the electoral stuff, is in-between those other two 5th wheelers.  My friend, who was also suppose to come that night but didn't come until the next morning, hooked up in front of me. She had to ask those people to move their car.  The only bad thing about being in that spot , was the  people kept driving over the RV electrical cords with their cars. Ugh!!  They aren't made to be run over and I kept worrying they were going to break. They aren't cheap either.  SO instead of driving around to get to their RV, they just drove between the RV's and over the cords.  My friends electrical went out during the night. It turned out her cord was bad. I wonder if it was from them running over them with their cars. Next time, Im putting my big orange cones out, so people have to drive around.

The next day was the trial. We did FAST first. Miley had kind of a bad run. She just kept jumping weird. She would have gotten the Send Bonus but she dropped both bars in the send. Ugh!

Java run was ok. But I didn't understand the judges call. First off, Java broke her stay. So I called her back to me , she hadn't taken any obstacles. The judge said I couldn't do that, that was training in the ring and even though I can train a zillion teeters in FAST, you cant train a startline. Ugh.  (Ok, not just because this made me made. This other person goes out there and puts her dog in front of  one of the #1 jumps. She leads out and releases the dog. The dog doesn't go and starts sniffing the ground. Then she goes to him and starts clapping her hands to get his attention, he keeps sniffing . She leads out and keeps calling him, he keeps sniffing.  She steps in towards him again and calls him and claps, he takes the first jump. OK, that's training in the ring, IMO. Why is that acceptable but not what I did acceptable. Just wondering if someone had an opinion on why)
Anyway, Java took the dogwalk, the #3 tunnel and the #8 jump and the judge called fault. I have no idea why. I wasn't doing the send, so I don't understand why she said "fault" , like I did the send. Ugh, anyway I had her do the teeter and she stopped on the first time, so I ran out of the ring and rewarded.

Next up was Master Standard

Java had a nice run except we got the wrong tunnel entrance both times. Ugh!!  Nice teeter though.



Im not sure why she missed the first one.

Miley missed the weave pole entry and then stressed.



Next was JWW. This was a tough course.

I have no idea why Java cut behind me after the weaves. I got her  head as she is coming out, I think I have her and I turn to see where Im going and then she cuts behind me.  Then this course ate dogs up. going down that line to the #14 jump, most dogs took the tunnel.  Miley did good until the #14. I really thought I had her  and then at the last second, she took the tunnel.

Friday we did T2B first.

Java was kind of crazy and missed some jumps but had a nice teeter. 



Miley did good, only one dropped bar.  The weird thing was she turned into the blue curtain when coming out of the tunnel. I was calling her name, so Im not sure why she did that.



Next was Master standard.

 Once again, so close with Java.  Got the wrong tunnel entrance at #11.  I really wanted to be  on the right side so I had a better chance of getting to the far side of the dogwalk, with a running dW.  I guess it messed up the tunnel thing. Ugh.  Many dogs went off course at the #20 tunnel. Many dogs went into the wrong end or they messed the entrance and went around the back of the tunnel.



Poor Miley, she had table trouble on this run.  I kept debating if I should leave the ring but in the end decided not to.



Then Jumpers. By this time I was getting frustrated with the wrong tunnel entrance thing. So I wanted to make sure she got the right one this time.

Java Qed!!  And got her MXJ title. She took 3rd place. There were freaking fast dogs here. She was 5.9 yps.



Miley had a terrible run. She was just freaking crazy. Just running around the ring taking jumps. We finally left.

The next day JWW was first. The rings were running way ahead of the timeline. Its a good think I went over and hour early.  I got there and about 5 minutes later, we were walking the ring. Then I took Java outside to warm up and when I got down to the ring (she was the 24th dog in), it was2 dogs until we were up. Ack!!

I had planned to front cross between 7 and 8 and then between 9 and 10.  I didn't make the second one.  But we managed to Q again. Took 3rd again with 6.6 yps.  We were only a second behind this really fast sheltie.



Miley Qed too!!!

Java Qed and took 1st place. I was given a gift with the teeter. I really thought she had called the teeter.



Poor Miley stressed gain in the ring but not at the table. Im not sure what is going on with her.

I stayed until the end to watch my friends runs and then drove home. The ride home was uneventful. Yay11