Huntington State Park beach

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We went RVing at Huntington State Park.  The weather was nice, but kind of cold in the morning.  We were suppose to go, back in October, but that's when we had all that flooding and the highways were closed the day we were suppose to leave. So I called them and they said they didnt give refunds but I could transfer my reservation to another date. So that is what I did. I found out later, from a friend, that she was given a refund for 3 days of her trip because she couldnt get their either. They were staying 2 weeks.  Im not sure how that happened. Weird.

We went on Friday mid-morning and then met Stephanie for lunch. She went back to work and we went on the the park.  We had a nice level spot that was right next to the path that leads to the beach.  I made sure of it this time. When we stayed at Hunting Island park, we had to walk passed all these campers in tents and open type trailers and I was worried we were waking people up.

Every morning there were clouds on the horizon so we didnt get great sun rise shots.

The dogs ran alot the first day.  I think they were exhausted after that. They didnt seem exhausted the first day but by the 3rd , they didnt run around much.

I dont know if you can see it or not, but this bird is eating a snake.

Lots of people were taking pictures of this bird. Not sure why.

That night we went to BrookGreen Gardens. They have on the weekends a thing called "A Night of a Thousand Candles".  Its was very cool. Tons of lights on all the trees. Also tons of people.

 This was the front gate. It was still light out when we got in the car line to go in.

 This is in a gardens with lots of trees all with tons of those hanging lights.

 There were statues everywhere.

This was beautiful but I just couldnt get the shot right.

We had walked 10 miles by the end of the first day. Killer.

 We keep trying to have fires. We finally broke down and bought a bundle of wood from the camp store.

We just wanted to roast marshmallows. LOL

From our campsite, out to the beach , and then 2 miles down, there was this sign.  No dogs pass the sign. We never walked down there without the dogs. Not sure what is pass the sign. It just looks like more beach.

 Stephanie helping us with the GoPro.

We came back  Monday. To bad we woke up to pouring down rain.  This place doesnt have the dump tanks at your site. So you have to pull up to them when you leave the RV area. Even though we knew it was going to rain, we couldnt dump the tanks early unless we wanted to take everything down and move the rv. Then set everything up again. So I was standing in the rain emptying the tanks on Monday morning.   We got back to Columbia and it was a beautiful, sunny day.

Oh so close!!

 So one last try to get enough points to get to go to AKC nationals.  Ive never had a dog that could double Q before. So when Java started double Qing this fall, I looked up what I needed to get to nationals.  I probably shouldnt have gone to UKI nationals if this was that important to me. I could have gone to a 4 day AKC trial and gotten the points I needed. But O' well.  So this weekend was my last shot. I had all the Q's and Double Q's. I just needed 80 more points. I knew it was a long shot for me but I would try. When I got there I went through my points again and only 71.  Ok.
The first day we Qed in standard and took 3rd place. Man there are a lot of really fast little border collies now in the 16 inch jump height. Ack!!

This course had some challenges.  Coming off the running a-frame, making the turn and getting the tire , instead of the weave poles.  Lots of dogs took the #6 jump and then went into the tunnel.  I was really hoping we would get the correct end of tunnel after the dogwalk.




Well we Qed and got 28 points or 29, I cant remember. We took 3rd place behind 2 border collies.

Jumpers we were having  a beautiful run and then she popped out of the weaves. Oh well.

Saturday, no Qs at all. Man we needed at least one Q , to take the pressure off.

Now its Sunday.  Standard was first.

OMG, we were so close.
I was so worried about the opening line. I knew I wasnt going to get much of a lead out and how would I tell her where to go when she gets to #5 and makes the turn?  (Miley had gone off course there).



The turn wasnt a problem at all. The teeter was. If she hadnt left early, I would have been in the correct position to cue the jumps. Ugh!!

I kept debating going home after this. It was Thanksgiving weekend and I hadnt spent much time with my family.  Poor Miley, stressed in the standard ring. As soon as I took her outside she had really bad diarrhea.   I had to take her to the RV and wash her up.  I walked her a few more times before Jumpers.  She stressed again in jumpers and I had to leave the ring. Again, I took her outside and she had bad diarrhea again and I had to go wash her again at the RV. Poor Miley. She continued with diarrhea until Monday after noon. She had a few more baths. She wasnt to happy about that.  I sure hope it was her upset stomach that made her act so crazy in the ring and we arent back to all that stuff again.

Next up was Java. I stopped watching people run because it was making me nervous.  We stepped to the line and Java was on fire.




I was falling so far behind I had to push in for the RC on the flat at #4, and basically use my arm to cue the turn. Then she was just flying and seemed to know where she was going that I put a front cross in after #11. (I hadnt planned on this. I was going to RC after #12.)  But it worked beautiful!!.  And we Qed.  She ran 6.3 YPS which was only good enough for 4th place.  A border collie ran this in 20 seconds. Holly crap that is fast!!  Java was 24.06.   So we missed nationals by like 23 points.

Oh well, at least we had a nice last run.  The drive home was really nice. I was expecting bumper to bumper traffic, due to Thanksgiving weekend. But I didnt hit any traffic at all.

Ive Got to FIX THE TEETER!!!