DockDogs Weekend

I'm sitting here trying not to stress about money and debt - things would just be so much easier if Hubby could find steady work. It's so hard to make future plans when you don't know if you're going to be able to afford your mortgage in 7 months....sigh...

So to distract myself I am going to post some pictures from this weekend. The DockDogs event was fun as usually Roper won the novice division on Friday and Saturday and took home 2 blue ribbons, which is cool. Winning the Junior or Senior division would've been cooler but Roper doesn't know that. He thinks he's the big champ so that's the way it will stay. 

 

The crowd on a Friday even!

 

At a rest stop on the way over I noticed the was flowers - this irritated me as I wish it was warm enough in my area for flowers, or leaves on the trees or for anything to grow...

The best traveling partner ever! He doesn't bark, whine, chew or jump around. He is just quiet, well behaved and sweet. He takes the opportunity and catches up on his beauty sleep.

The Wind Turbines that line the top of Vantage in Washington State they are an impressive and encouraging sight when you are driving across the state - very pretty at night as they all have a blinking light on them for airplanes - and you can see hundreds of blinking lights decorating the skyline for miles.

Big Air begins

I tried out Speed Retrieve with him and he seemed to like it a little better than Big Air. I spent all winter teaching him how to "mark" the "retrieve object" (to mark: to see the float hanging out there at the end of the pool, even though I didn't throw it, and know he is supposed to retrieve it). It's a good thing I did because he performed flawlessly - swimming right to the end of the dock and grabbing the toy. The only problem was that he was short coming off the dock - and in order to be competitive at Speed Retrieve you have to have a good jump - because the bigger jumpers have the faster times as they don't have to swim as far, they just fly there....so his time was slow (but shhhhhhh! He doesn't know that).

 

Here is the DockDogs staff working with the dogs to show them the float at the end of the pool during Speed Retrieve - if you have a dog that's new to the event they will bend over backwards to help out.

I don't know if we'll do anymore of these events with him, I would like to see him enjoy the competition more - right now he likes it cause it's one on one time with mom without the stupid German Shepherds. But I think that's about as far as it goes. He's doing this for me. I don't see the excitement and "meth-lab" look in his eyes at DockDogs like I do when we are going for a hike or playing on the beach and I don't think its fair to him. 

There is one other event, (Extreme Vertical) I want to try him in that and if it doesn't light the "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN MOM!" fire for him then I will be done, I think. I might give it a shot with Diesel if Hubby will agree - but I am not going to make my dogs do something they don't just totally enjoy. It's alot of stress for a dog if they aren't having a blast.

 

Roper looking at the Columbia River Gorge

On the way back home I stopped at Vantage and hiked up to the top of the Wild Horse Monument. It was fun and it's been years since I have done that so I snapped some pictures and let Roper sniff around then headed back to my car. 

The 200-foot line of life-size charging horses, the creation of David Govedare of Chewelah, Washington, captures a mystical spirit from a time when real wild horses roamed the steppes.  Titled "Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies," the scene symbolically re-creates the Great Spirit turning loose a herd of wild horses above the Columbia River's Wanapum Lake.

This is what you see when you are headed East on I-90 and have just come down the Vantage hill and crossed the bridge. It's our own way of saying "Welcome to Eastern Washington - the other two-thirds of the state!" This monument is beautiful - it captivates me every time I visit it. It's perched on this good sized butte - and yep I hiked up there...

(little known secrete I met the artist that created these, twice actually, once in high school our art class worked with him to create some metal work for the newly built high school, and then I chatted with David Govedare in person and bought a signed original from him at a local artist fair. You see he lives in the town just North of us. All of his stuff as you might imagine was out-pricing the cliental who frequented the fair - but I really wanted one and found a small one - a teeny tiny one, and came back to see it like 5 times finally he told me to just name a price I could afford and I could have it. So I happily took it home and made it the center piece of my living room.)

I have digitally removed the graffiti that coated the poor horses. I usually don't do that but I didn't want to give the little city punks the recognition of having their initials, tags and signs on the internet. But if you guys would've seen it you would've teared up like me. It's sooo sad what they've done.

 Sometimes standing there you can almost feel the thunder of hooves on rock...

 I just loved this one. I am a big fan of lens flares.

The drive went quickly from there. There is a point of time when you travel and are returning that you enter "familiar" territory what you would consider "home." You relax, are at ease, and time goes by more quickly. I have found the more I travel the more this "territory" I consider "home" grows. Now as soon as I'm past Moses Lake - I consider myself "in home territory." I sit back think to myself "Ahhhhh almost there..." Even though I am still 2.5 hours out. Another small adventure in the bag!