Click here to go to Carhenge.
| May 12, 2007 - After a whole day of packing (why start before the day you leave?) I
made it to Paul & Karen Sanders/Allagante Silkens in Oregon at 10:30pm Saturday night. Sunday morning, we are off!
Hopefully, before noon we will perfect the art of packing for a 10 day trip with 5 dogs and be on our way.
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| May 13, 2007 After picking up the rental car at 9, loading, reloading, unpacking, loading then reloading
we finally perfected the layout of the van and were ready to go! This is a picture as we were leaving (the first time). About 5 miles down the road,
one of the dogs had been carsick three times and made a mess out of everything. BACK to home base, where we unpacked dog beds & blankets, put down
fresh bedding, then headed out again. We hit the road at 2pm, Silkenfest here we come! Oh, have we mentioned the name of our Tour that
we decided on?...We are: BOW WOW Tour....which stands for Bitches On Wheels, Windhounds On the Way!
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| The first rest area we stopped at was "Starvation Creek", just off of Highway 84 along the Columbia Gorge. We would have liked to spent some time here
along the trails walking the dogs, but stopped only long enough to drop off (another) bag of doggie carsickness. Ick.
* Click on the image
at left for a larger size photo of the creek at the rest stop. Beautiful!
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| The second rest area Karen stopped at was "Dead Man's Pass" rest area. Starvation creek, now dead man's pass???? I am starting
to wonder what omen this means! * Click at right for a photo of a cool tree at this rest area.
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Sometime between Dead Man's Pass and Boise, we started noticing other funny signs. In the middle of no where, (literally) was a sign
on the Interstate announcing 'Cement Plant Road'. Guess what was the only man-made thing in sight?? A cement plant! No kidding! Very imaginative
street name we thought.
| About 9 pm we rolled into Boise. Tomorrow, we get up and do it all over again!
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May 14, 2007 It was a good start this morning since we had ZERO car sickness. Yay!
And, since Jewel seemed to be a little energetic we found an abandoned tennis court in a city park in a small Idaho town where the dogs got to
run. For the rest of the day Jewel assumed the role of reigning queen of the van with all the males (and us) in attendance. Tocho was concerned
with keeping his new pack together and wanted us all in his sight at all times. Apache watered everything in sight...OUTSIDE of the van, and we managed
to miss a few rest areas without him noticing. Honcho was just happy as long as he was with Mom -- walks, car rides, soft beds, treats -
his favorite things. And, Rio is becoming quite the traveling man. All in all it was a good day! On to Nebraska tomorrow.
Just as yesterday's leg of the journey had a theme with Starvation Creek
and Dead Man's Pass, today's theme sure seemed to be......"Searching For Nirvana". Shortly after leaving Boise, we achieved:
| Bliss! (..at first we thought it was just all Bull, but Bliss was right before the Buhl.)
| But, Bliss was not Nirvana. So we kept searching....and then we found Eden! But it was Kimberly's Eden,
not Karen and Lisa's Eden.
| Then, the Garden appeared, but we missed the offramp! Will we never find nirvana??
| At long last, we received divine confirmation that we truly were on the Road to Zion.
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click to read
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| Here's some photos of the rest area, views and critters just before we passed the border into Wyoming:
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We made it to Wyoming!
And the earth IS really flat:
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| Late in the afternoon, we stopped at Bear Creek State Park. Where, we took pictures of buffalo and elk. Bears? None to be
seen.
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All in all, Wyoming was a very interesting state and we found people there to be very descriptive folk. My favorite was the "Loaf & Jug"
grocery/liquor store. Karen's favorite was the Gas & Go Cafe, that didn't sell gas, and was located in a double wide trailer. Makes one wonder....what's on the menu there?
As we crossed the Great Desert Basin, another sign appeared in the middle of nowhere: 'Red Hill Road'. Guess what was there? A red hill! Go figure!
May 15, 2007 Today we drove almost all the way across the great state of Nebraska. And,
although there isn't much here to see, the theme of today's journey is Lessons Learned in Nebraska:
(Click on for larger picture)
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| Ummmm......
| Yes, you wouldn't want
to impale yourself
by accident.
| No comment!
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| In Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, a huge monument loomed above the Interstate......
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| WHAT the......
is THAT up there??
| Oh, the sign makes
it perfectly clear! Of course, DUH!!
(Click on for larger picture)
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All the Silkens are doing great, but are ready to get to Purina Farms where they can really stretch their legs. Tomorrow we
are going to take the pups to an off-leash enclosed dog park in Lincoln before hitting the road. One more day of driving to go.
We did receive the following hate mail that we wanted to share. The sender will remain anonymous:
I HATE HATE HATE HAAAAAATE! That I couldn’t be driving with you. It sounds like ya’ll are having too much fun!!
AND!... MY FEELINGS ARE HURT that the entries for day one are SO FREAKING SHORT! I WANNA BE ON THE BOW WOW TOUR!!
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| May 16, 2007 - The final day of driving on our trip! We left Lincoln, Nebraska and stopped for an hour or so
at a fabulous off leash dog park at Holmes Lake in Lincoln. All the Silkens had a great time stretching their legs, and we had a nice break from driving
as well. After the run, we drove pretty much straight through to Purina Farms.
Missouri is a beautiful state, very green with lovely farmland and fabulous older homes. Almost all the houses are painted white, not much
color on houses here. It also appears to be the state of billboards,
adult stores and fireworks. We missed the photo of the one and only billboard promoting the Testicle Festival in Olean.
Click on images for larger picture:
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| Click on for larger picture
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| Another Lesson Learned.
| What, no fireworks?
| Well, it's not the Loaf & Jug, but still descriptive!
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Could someone PLEASE tell us why it's necessary to
have signs like the above every two-tenths of a mile
across the WHOLE state of Missouri???
| And, while we're discussing signs, just what are those black and white letters for on every exit sign in Missouri??
It's like a secret code. Maybe it's directions to where the mothership will return one day.
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- Our first day at Purina Farms and the unofficial start of Silkenfest. We spent some time this afternoon
at Purina farms in an off-leash area with the hounds. They sure needed to stretch their legs and roll in the grass. Several other Silkens and
their humans stopped by to play also Click on photos for larger image:
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Vicki, Bridget and
Anthony with their
Borzoi and Silkens
| Lucille and three of her Silkens
| Twyla
| Honcho and Austin
| Tocho
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| Apache
| Apache in the grass
| Rio
| "I think it's dead.
Can I play with it?"
| Tocho and Apache
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After playing with the pups off leash and going out for a fabulous Italian dinner; many of us got together for a wine tasting
and Silken costume contest in the field outside our hotel. All were invited to bring a bottle of wine from their home state or country to share
Click on photos for larger image:
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| Dog House Merlot
| Behind The Shed Red
| Fat Bastard Merlot
| Silkenfest Reserve
| Donette
| The Fat Bastard and Royal Bitch.
That's Paul & Karen Sanders holding the wine!
(check out the labels).
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| Gracie
| Harli
| Casanova
| Jewel
| Bill, Tasha and
Skipper
| Honcho
| Jean, Donette and Glen
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| Bill, Echo and Barb
| Echo
| Keenu and Yasu
| Tiki and Company
| Susan and Wendy model
their new tattoos
| Jewel, Rio and Tocho - like three peas in a pod
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May 18, 2007, Friday Unfortunately my camera battery died this morning and I have
not taken as many photos as I'd hoped. Many others are taking and posting photos on various sites, so I'll put Friday's and Saturday's (all that we took) a little
further down. Highlights of the day: Jewel was AWESOME on the lure at lure coursing practice - her first try. Honcho did what I expected, which was run about 200'
then turn right around and come right back to Mom. Rich flew in to St. Louis late afternoon and with traffic accidents from Purina Farms to the
airport, the drive to pick him up (round trip) was 4 hours, and we totally missed Francie and Chuck's shrimp boil. Dang it! We were then up until after midnight bathing dogs
for the show tomorrow. There are fireflies here and Jewel wants to chase; we don't have fireflies in the Northwest. Rio is doing just great with his new Mom, Lydia. Tomorrow is show day! Here's a couple of
photos taken at the coursing field before my camera battery gave out - click on for larger image:
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| Waiting to Run
| Kim and Bella
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May 19, 2007, SaturdayThere are SOOOO many lovely Silkens here, something like almost 100
were entered into the conformation shows. Wonder how many we could fit in that van back to the Northwest? It's very tempting to load it up with
Silkens! (Surely we could fit AT LEAST eight in there, right Rae, Michelle & Bobbie?)
Jewel is not feeling well at all - upset tummy last night, the runs this morning, nausea this afternoon, and she went into season (her first) right before bedtime. So, she did not show well, but we are proud of her for doing her best under the circumstances and completing
her first show without a total meltdown. Practice, practice, practice......Honcho placed Best Companion and he loved showing!
Tocho and Hillevi (Reserve Winners Bitch) did
very well also for Karen and Paul. Click on photo for larger image:
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| Honcho showing where he won Best Companion
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We attended the catered welcome dinner Saturday evening. Thank You awards were presented to Lucille Meale for her many year service as our first
Registar, to Francie for her many years and dedication as Founder and the first President, and to R Lynn for her service on the board. Thank you
again, all, for everything.
After returning to the Diamond Inn, many of us met again on the lawn for Wine-Tasting-To-Be-Continued since there were so many bottles left from Thursday.
It was a late night for some and we were entertained by a bark-bark-barking and destructive Blue Heeler (see photos below) adjacent to our party area when his
owners left him alone in their room. Don't know what it was, but something in that room got shredded big time, you could barely see it when he would
part the curtains to peer out and bark-bark-bark some more.
We managed to empty most of the bottles before midnight as many stopped by to socialize.
Tomorrow is race day! Roll call 8:00am. Click on photo for larger image:
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| Blue Heeler
| Cork collection
| Saturday on the Green
| Chuck (he had a little help with all those bottles)
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May 20, 2007, Sunday It was a beautiful day for racing - clear and 80 degrees. Apache and Tocho had a great time
and the Silkens are breathtaking to watch run. Karen and I headed out for the airport late afternoon thanks to a ride from Lydia, Lacy and Rio. Rio
is doing fabulous with his new Mom who loves him very much, it was great to see him happy and get to say goodbye on along the ride. We said goodbye
to Rich, Paul and our Silkens since they start the long drive back to the Northwest while Karen and I get to fly home. Goodbye Silkenfest
2007, it
has been a trip to remember! We made many new friends and enjoyed seeing old ones as well. Thanks so very much to ISWS and everyone involved for
their hard work putting on this annual event. We can't wait for 2008, and the return of the BOW WOW tour!
Our Friend Jack
Paul bought a GPS for us to use on our cross country trek, and I have to admit I didn't think much of it in the beginning, but it won me over!
We could choose a voice (male/female, accent, etc.), so we chose "British Lee", but we renamed him "Aussie Jack".
As we travelled across the country and things got sillier and sillier, "Jack" started to have a real persona, believe it or not.
He would interrupt our conversations to tell us "Turn left in .6 miles", then "Turn left in .2 miles" then "Turn left in 100 ft".
So, we would have to (more often than not) say, 'Shut up Jack!!' He was so nice and polite however, that he wouldn't ever talk back to us.
Too nice in fact, it became a little irritating.
We imagined that it would be more fun to have a Politically Incorrect Jack that would (for example) tell us how beautiful we were in the morning...
"Good morning Luv, you're looking marvelous today". And, when we said WHAT?? He could say, "I told you once and you weren't listening so I'm
not telling you again", or "Bloody Hell!!!" when we made a wrong turn. Then when you smacked the box or dropped it, he would say "ouch" and stuff
like that. Also, when we needed him and he wasn't there when we would call, "Jaaaaack, where are you darling!" and we imagined we were
knocking on the bathroom door (by knocking on the dashboard) and had to yell over the bathroom fan. Okay, you probably had to be there but
we had way too much fun with it.
The funniest part was when we went through the St. Louis airport Sunday night coming home, and the man attending the TSA check station had a
perfect British accent and sounded just like Jack! We soooooo wanted to ask him to just say "recalculate" to see how he said it.
Our GPS Jack would freak out whenever we didn't turn where he told us to do so and when he told us, and he would sputter out
"RECCCCAAAACCCACCCACCULATING" like he had something stuck in his throat when he had to figure out how to get us back on track.
We veered off course a lot so we got really tired of hearing that from Jack.
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May 21, 2007, Monday Arrived in Seattle shortly after midnight, 43 degrees and raining. Big change from 80 something
and sunshine in Missouri. How wonderful it was to wake up in my own bed (albeit without dogs) in Washington and for the first time in over a week have REAL COFFEE...
the kind you can't see through. Not that watered-down-see-through stuff they call coffee that you find almost everywhere but Seattle. Rich and Paul
left Silkenfest Sunday at 6:30pm and are 900+ miles back home in the first 14 hours. So far they've encountered strong wind, lots of thunderstorms
and rain, then snow in west Wyoming and Utah.
We're anxious to have everyone back home.
Thank you for reading our story, we hope you found it entertaining!
- The Bow Wow Girls
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