Mexico

My sisiter invited me to go on a trip to Cancun with her.  It was an all inclusive trip, so once you got to the hotel, it was all the food and drinks that you could stuff in yourself.  It was great!  The only thing had I had to worry about is getting up to use the restroom. LOL  

This was the hotel we stayed in. Its called Aqua Live.   Its only adults.   It has  5 resturants to choose from  and several bars.  And multiple pools. 

We never went into any of the pools. We meant to but it just never happened. 

I spent most of the time sitting out on the beach and reading a book. 

We never got any good sun rise shots because it was always cloudy on the horizon. 

The first day there my sister had meetings all day long, so I spent the whole day sitting on the beach with people bringing me drinks. LOL, what a  life.   I did walk down the beach several times. 

There was lots of seaweed.  Every morning the staff would dig huge holes and drag  bags filled with seaweed and dump them into the holes.   What an endless job. The next day it was all back again. 

And even though I tried to be really careful and put lots of suntan lotion on, I burned the crap out of my feet. Ugh!!  It must have been from walking through the clear water, when I took my walks.  The rest of the time I was under the umbrella.  My poor feet, they were happy to go home and not see the sun. 

This was the first day when my feet were normal. (I didnt take any after pictures)  

This was the view from our hotel room. Which we were allowed to eat and drink as much out of the  mini bar , as we wanted. 

 I think the best meals were at lunch time. There was an outside grill that they cooked different things on in the afternoon. 

This guy decided he wanted to come eat lunch with us.   He didnt seem aggressive but we just didnt like sitting that close to him, so we moved. 

One eveing there was a Catamaran boat ride in the bay.  Good thing my sister thought about taking dramamine before we went.  Even though it was in the bay, the swells were big and several people were sea sick. 

The water was so blue/green even way out and you could still see the bottom. 

This was the sunset from the boat.  I never took my good camera with me. I was worried sometime would happen to it so all the pictures are from my phone. 

The next day my sister and I went on an excursion.   We took a "jungle tour".  It was really a jungle.  You took thses speed boats across the bay and then through the mango groves.

  

Going out there , the water was pretty rough.  I was thinking it would be worse coming back it but it wasnt.   Remember the seaweed?  Well, it kept getting stuck in the propeller.  So we would have to stop,  put the boat in reverese real fast and then forward. That would get the seaweed off and we could then keep going.   There was this one guy in the group, I dont know if he had never driven a boat before or what but he drove sooooo slow.   We kept have to stop and wait for him, or we would all make a big circle a couple of times, so he could catch up.     Anyway , when we go to our destination , we went snorkling on a protected reef.  It was pretty cool.  It was kind of cloudy on and off, so the reef wasnt as pretty as it could have been. Plus I kept feeling cold.  But still fun. Some of these really big fish would swim right up under us and scared me a couple of times. 

This was our last day there. So in the afternoon , we spent time on the beach. 

Then we walked down the beach and went to the Mayan Ruins that were right on the beach. We could just walk to them.  There are more extensive ones in Cancum but we didnt want to take the whole day doing that. 

This guy was on the path to the ruins. 

This is my selfie on top of the ruins.  

Did you know they dont have diet coke in Mexico??  Whats up with that?  They only have Coke Light.

Yuck!   But I made it through.  And you would think with all the tourist they would have English TV shows on the TV.  There were a couple of channels but most were American TV shows but with Spanish dubbed  over.   

It was a great trip and Im so glad my sister asked me to go. How lucky am I !!

First test RVing adventure.

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Last weekend , after coming home from a trial, we took the RV to Dreher Island state park. Sorry to say,that Ive never been there before.  Its about 20 miles from my house and Im not sure why I never went there. Its beautiful!!

Our spot had a great view. It was spot 51.  The only negative was the waves hitting the shore made Guieness very excited and he kept barking.  There werent to many people camping so it was nice. We got a chance to check out other RV spots.

I really like this spot 47.

This spot was more in the cove, so no waves to cause Guiness to bark. And it had its only little beach , so if it was closer to summer , you could go into the water.

This park had a wonderful hiking path. I have no idea how long it was. We turned around after a while because my feet were hurting. (remember I had been at a trial earlier) 

 Stephanie was home for Spring break. She only stayed a few days and then had to go back to work on her  end of the year art project.

 The only bad thing that happened , was the last day, when I went to put the slide it, it would respond. Lou was alraedy at work.  I had tried everything. The only thing I didnt check was the fuse.  I still havent gone back to check that.  You can hand crank the slide back in.  I had no choice. I needed to move the RV and it cant be moved until the slide it is. So hand cranking it in was the only choice. 

When it got this close to being in, my arms were now killing me. It took my whole body of pushing and pulling to work the crank.  I got to the point and sent my husband this picture. I told him I didnt think I coulc do any more.  But of  course I did.   That night I had a deep ache in both shoulders.  Not muscle pain,like you get when you exercise a lot. This was different. I was to the point of crying.  I wont ever do that again. I have road side assitance, I should have just called them. Believe me, I will call next time.   

This weekend I plan to bring the RV to my house, to work on some thing.  We'll see if the slide is working. It it isnt, Ill check the fuse. 

The trial.   

I went to an out door trial last weekend.   It was freezing the first morning.  So when I got there they decided to delay the trial for a little while. There was frost all over everything. 

First up was T2B.  This should have been an easy course to run. Big circles.  Nope, not for me. LOL

I just got to far behind, running down that line. She was already 2 jumps in front of me and by the time I said, "tunnel" , she was  was pass the first entracne  and had to decided which entrance it was. She chose the wrong one. Oops. 

The really nice thing about this trail is they had all the excellent classes first.  So once you ran, you were done and could go home. I may see if I can work that out for you next trial. Now this was a one ring trial , so it was easier to do. ( They had two rings set up, but one judge). 

This course ate up dogs.  There were hardly any Q's in all jump hights. Im not sure why.  For me, I didnt want to push to far pass the weave poles, so I stayed back. (Miley) I front crossed  poorly and must have blocked the teeter and Miley ran passed it. Ugh!  Java, I got behind running the a-frame line and she thought she was suppose to take the chute. She didnt but he called a refusal.  We had some other trouble to, farther down the course.  (Many dogs had weave pole problems. Not sure what that was about). 

Then came jumpers.

It had that same line that T2B had.  Hey I get a do over. LOL  this time I was ready. I started yelling when I was far back, 'tunnel, tunnel, tunnel".  It worked. Java Qed and took 2nd place.

http://youtu.be/DLKo4pzqutk

My friend didnt start the video on time, so I didnt get the begining.   Then Miley had the best run ever!!  Perfect jumping and took 3rd place.  But the person filming hit photo and not video, so I didnt get it on tape. I was so disappointed.  I feel like each and every run with Miley should be charished. I really feel she doesnt have to many more running days left and we rarely get through a course without dropping a bar. I know the person was trying to tape my run but I cant say that I wasnt upset. Not at the person, just because it happened.   

We were done by 12noon. I did stay to watch a friend run but it was so nice to be done. 

I put all Java's videos together.

http://youtu.be/8x1CVXQaARs

Sunday, went up early and then found out I didnt sign up for T2B. Ugh. Then next  was Standard. Once again not to many people Qed on this course.

Miley dropped a couple of bars. Java was doing awesome and then I took it for granted that she would take the tunnel after the table. Ugh. Didnt happened. She took the dogwalk twice before I got her in.  This trial was on an uphill grade. I was trying to put her in the tunnel and try to get uphill to make sure she knew to go to the #13 jump.  It was tough running up hill from a stand still .  I think the rest went ok. Bummer!!!  

Next was jumpers.  

I just didnt see that #4 was not that obvious. I didnt look at the course map before hand. And when you walked the course, it seemed like a straight shot into the tunnel.  Anyway, I didnt support the jumps and she ran pass them. Ugh! I was so upset with myself.

Miley dorpped at least 3 bars. Again, her run didnt get taped because  my friends, each thought the other one was taping.  Ugh!!

http://youtu.be/VfdpvttVc1M

Another Trial

Ok, Im going to try to blog on my ipad but not sure its going to work. I cant even get this picture to be at the top of the page. 

  

The trial was up in North Carolina. Lets just say it was freezing cold.  Its been freezing cold the last few days so I expected it to be cold.  First I left my on bag on the table. It has all my agility stuff in it, like my ipad holder for my tripod ,my hand warmers, balls, and my notebook for keeping records of trials. Ugh.  So in case I ever do this again, Ive ordered this tripod holder for my phone. That way I can still tape myself without having to ask anyone. I feel like every time I ask someone to film me, I screw up my  run. Im going to keep it in my car, that way I wont forget it.  They delayed the trial an hour every morning.  When I went to my car Saturday morning it was snowing. It didnt know we were getting snow. 

It was really snowing at my hotel but  the closer I got to the trial, the better things got. My windshield wiper fluid froze and I couldnt clean the windshields. Ugh. Irritating.  Anyway, it was freezing cold inside the barn. Ack!!  I had multiple layers on  and unlike other people, I wasnt taking them off just to run. LOL I did find a spot close to the two heaters they had in the crating area. I really didnt want my dog to be cold. The poor pony that lives in this barn, had to big buckets of frozen water. 

(Oh good, I finally got my curser to go below the picture. )

First up was Master FAST

I felt and so did other people, that this was a hard send. I was happy there was a dogwalk because usually   there isnt in FAST.  First off, Java hasnt been stellar about finishing her weaves  and then with her being 25 feet away, I wasnt sure how that was going to go. So I did all my practice things first , like the teeter and 2 dogwalks.  Then I went in for the send. She got into the weaves and I step around the line. She stayed in the poles.  Then when she was in pole #10, I started saying tunnel, tunnel and she finished   the poles and went into the tunnel. Lots of dogs pulled into the handler at this point.  Then I ran down the line, toward the a-frame and told her to Climb, and she did it!!!.  Whoohoo!!  Only 3 dogs in all of FAST Qed and we were one!!.   I was freezing cold but happy!!

Next up was JWW.

I dont know how I screwed this up but I did. LOL  I watched the little dogs run. I ring crewed the class, it was freezing in the ring. Poor little dogs with no hair. They couldnt even run right. This one girl finally picked her dog up and told the judge she didnt know what was wrong but they were leaving. The judge turned  and looked at me and we both said at the same time,  "The dogs freezing".   So  anyway, I had seen the dogs almost go off course after #6. So I knew it would be a problem. This map makes the course look like its spread out but it wasnt. It was all squished up in the middle of the ring. There spacing between #6 and #18 was tight. I figured if I got my front cross after 7  soon enough, she would read it. NOT!!  Afterwards, I wish I had pushed into the pocket between 5 -6 more, then I  would have shaped her jumping effort to 6, so she wouldnt have been headed directly to 18. Then just RC 8. Oh well, live and learn.  

 

Next was Master standard.  I knew she was not going to do a 2o/2o on the dogwalk, based on what happened in FASt. So I was just going to run and pull hard to the left and telling her "Left, left, left".  Guess what, she did it and hit the contact!!!   I even left her at the weaves and did a blind cross between 14 and 15.  How confident was that???   And we Qed and took 2nd place to the fasted little border collie that I know. We always seem to be 2 seconds behind him in course time.  But who cares, it was awesome. 

Last up as T2B. 

We Qed in this class too!!   I even did a few more blind crosses.  I had to really be in front of Java to get those blinds in, in time for her to know where to go. It was awesome!!  It was a good day besides being freezing cold and I kept thinking about going home. LOL  

Then next day was a little warmer in the morning. But for some reason I was really tired. I kept thinking about driving home right after I left the hotel that morning.  But I forced myself to go to the trial.  Beside some of my stuff was there. Most of it was in my car but I left the crate and a pad on the ground, so I figured I better go back to the trial.  Our first run was ISC jumpers.

This was a tough little course.  She broke her start line, so even though she still managed to get the #2, a backside , correctly , I was late going down the line to the weaves. So she went to the tunnel and had her front 2 feet in the tunnel before I called her off. Ugh.  The rest was absolutely beautiful!!  We even got the other backside, #8.   I did an pull after 9. to shape her approach to 10, so she would get the correct tunnel entrance. (Lots of dogs went off course here).  The whole thing felt pretty great. Several people even came up to me and told me how great it was, (even with that mistake).  LOL 

Then it was ISC standard.

I screwed it up. The beginning was nice but then I was on the inside of#8 and trying to pull her into me over the jump, I guess I didnt slow down enough and she ran by  the jump and then when I tired to fix it she jumped it the wrong way and then it fell apart. We got back together at #13. Then she flew off the teeter.  I said "Oh No!!"  But it came out harsher than I meant it to.  I was surprised she stayed in the weaves after that. 

But the was T2B. An freaking easy course. 

And I messed it all up. I pulled her off #2, #8 and #14, but she did both her teeters  correctly.  Im not sure if  my harsh correction caused her to be very clingy or if I was lazy or what. Someone came up to me and said , "Wow Java was really naughty in T2B".  So I talked to her a little more about it, trying to figure out if it was here or me.  

 So I decided I was going to run  this next course hard ,and make sure she was confident about taking everything. This was Master standard.  That little part at 15-17 was tricky.  We managed to stay on course but we dropped the panel jump.  I was happy that she was back on track. 

Because they started the trial day 1 hour later, my jumpers run would now be another 3 hour wait. I wouldnt run until 4:30pm.  That means I wouldnt get home until late and I wanted to see my husband. So I decided to go home and end on a good note.  Besides we had already done 4 runs that day, I was good. 

 No Video, sorry. I left my ipad holder at home. 

 

Just some info for me,  A couple of days after getting  home after the Perry trial, Miley started waking up at  night again.  She had been doing so well for 2 months. I have not idea what happened.  She has now even started waking up twice a night to go outside to pee. 

Mickey, his  skin culture came back with no pathogens.  Hmmmm. So we decided to do nothing and see what happens. We did up his Thyroid medication  a few week ago, since his level was still way low. So far , so good.  His skin is still continuing to get better.  So hopefully it was just his thyroid causing all the skin issues.