A Memorable Memorial Day

Sometimes it seems like my life is built around dog trials.  After all, they happen when they happen and I can’t schedule them to fit my schedule.  But whenever possible we show up…Cody, Bo, Dutch and me, and whenever possible, John, Rue, Kota and our RV.  A couple of weeks ago, we had an opportunity for the whole crew to travel.

The occasion was Gary Young’s Open Ranch/Nursery Trial a couple of hours away at his and Kathy’s lovely place near Gordon, TX.  Not only did we want to take Bo and Dutch to compete in the Open Ranch class, we really wanted to take Falcon and the Royals on the road.  Falcon (our Volvo 610 tractor) had just come home from Waco where it had had a new clutch installed.  This would be our maiden voyage with the new clutch.  We were cautiously optimistic that the repairs would solve the problem we had experienced earlier when the truck had intermittently lost power for a few seconds.  

So…..we left Rick and Linda minding the place for a couple of days, loaded up, hooked up, and headed north.  When attending dog trials, we usually park at the trial site, boondocking with fellow competitors and enjoying the company as well as the competition.  This time, though, we were told the entrance to the property was too tight for a rig our size.  We made a reservation 26 miles down Interstate 20 at Horseshoe RV Park in Ranger.  (It wasn’t quite what the pictures on the website promised, but the gravel sites were level and the power was good.)  There were also plenty of wildflowers all around, including many of these beautiful American Basketflowers.

Unfortunately, Ranger is a small town that has seen better days.  The vacant lots, cracked sidewalks and faded downtown mural pretty much say it all.  I hope there are better days in this little town's future. 

The weather cooperated, though, with lovely cool, cloudy days, and the trial field was nice and green.  I was proud of both my boys.  

It was Dutch’s and my first outing at a trial, and both days we got numbers instead of letters, so I was very pleased.  (Thanks to John for the photo above, as well as for taking videos of some of our runs.) Dutch and I are still getting acquainted herding-wise, and sometimes he doesn’t quite understand my whistles, so I was a little apprehensive.  I shouldn’t have worried.  He had two lovely outruns and lifts, and we made it all the way around the course with the sheep.  We even got a pen on the second day.  

I was especially proud of the way Dutch handled the sheep on his first run.  Most of the sheep used were white Dorper ewes and lambs, with a few black heads and spotted ones mixed in.  Dutch, however, drew three of the four (I think) black sheep…two ewes and a lamb.  They were coming down the fetch pretty well, when one of the ewes (White-tail) began calling frantically to her lamb, which was in the exhaust pen some distance beyond the handler’s post.  The lamb was bleating loudly in reply.  

Understanding what was happening, Dutch was covering her escape to the side and I was trying to block her path with my crook.  She wasn’t having any of it, though, and, leaving the other two sheep, bolted for the exhaust pen and her lamb.  Dutch did a masterful job of turning her back…several times, and was finally able to bring her back on course and round the post with all three sheep.  It certainly wasn’t pretty, and we lost a lot of points, but were able to complete the course.  

Bo gave me two very good runs, earning 6th place out of 21 dogs with a score of 66 (out of a possible 90 points) in his first run and 5th place with a 70 in his second.  I was especially proud of his outrun, lift and fetch on his first run.  He brought his sheep to the post with no points off!  We do have work to do on his drives, though.  

Here are some photos from the trial.  All-in-all, it was a great weekend.  Gary and Kathy Young put on a very nice trial (not to mention a scrumptious lunch on Saturday!), and Gary was an excellent judge.  I especially appreciated his constructive comments after our runs.  

Here are a few more photos from the trial.  (Thanks to photographer John Brasseaux for the last four photos below.  He always does an excellent job capturing our dogs.)

John Lewis and Cleo

Charly Kronberger and Cindy Lou Who

Dutch and me attempting a pen

Cody exhausting sheep

...and more sheep

Bo taking it easy after his run

 But that wasn't the end of our adventures.  Sunday afternoon we packed up, loaded up, and were preparing to hook up when the right front leveler on the Royals refused to budge.  We couldn't position the rig properly to hook up, so there we sat.  Of course, these things only seem to happen at the most inconvenient time...in this case on Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend!  There wasn't a repair facility open within hundreds of miles.  We worked on the Big Foot leveling system all afternoon, then gave up and declared Happy Hour.  We spent a somewhat uncomfortable night since the RV wasn't level, but at least we didn't roll out of bed.

On Monday morning, John thought he had traced the problem to a bad solenoid.  He prepared to wire around it, in theory bypassing the problem so the system would work.  NOT!  Nothing happened, and we were about to give up and wait another day until we could find an RV mechanic.  I decided to try one last time to free the leveler using the controller, and Thank You, God!  It worked. I don't know if it was divine intervention, but I'm happy to give Him the credit.  We hooked up and headed back home, vowing not to unhook until we were able to take to rig to Waco to our mechanic.  It was a great weekend...just a little longer than we had expected.

On the way home, the roadsides were a brilliant display of red, yellow and purple.  A fitting end to our trip.