Reno!

It was such an amazing weekend! It's hard to sum up how much fun I had in one blog post. I taught classes all week, worked and managed to pack everything successfully. If you have ever traveled with April or myself, you know we pack for worst case scenarios! So between her and I, we certainly maxed out our baggage weight capacities! Kitty thought he should go too...

 Thursday we flew out from Louisville Intl airport. It was a relatively decent flight, almost 4 hours to Arizona Intl. April gets extreme motion sickness, but luckily she only threw twice :)  Both dogs were very good for the entire flight. We landed in Phoenix, and it was literally a sprint to find a place to take the dogs out to pee. A sprint across the entire airport. Then back THROUGH security with both dogs... Then I couldn't find April.. I was panicked. Wandered through security, walked a bit and saw her sitting with all our carry on baggage. We then had to rush to find out Gate. Found it, got some random food and never heard the gate guy announce early boarding. So we were stuck between 2 strangers on the 2 hour flight to Reno. Landed fine, got our rental car and went to check out the Livestock center. It was awesome.

We checked in, got our awesome goody bag with our numbers and other assorted cool stuff (and got our cupcakes!) Shopped a little, set up our crates, and went to check in to our hotel.  We stayed at the Nugget Courtyard. It has a casino and other really cool places to eat, gamble, and drink of course.

 Our first stop was the Tiki bar at Trader Dicks... For the record, it was 8pm our time and we hadn't eaten all day. We went to the buffet but it didn't open for another 30 minutes, so we decided on these to hold us over...



 

Bendy man was modeling our drinks for us... So about this time we realize 3 drinks each is too many with no food, so we needed to eat PRONTO.  We went to the Rotisserie Buffet. It was amazing...

I scared the crap out of the guy behind the dessert counter with my camera!

Who doesn't love a peperoni flower?

Was a little shocked by the pig!

We tried one of every dessert!

Went to find a security guard to microwave a baked potato for Moxie, drink in hand. He was a trooper! We slept great :)

Friday was warm up day. We ran the optional standard run. Moxie was a tad hot under the collar after the plane ride and sleeping all day in the hotel. She hit all her contacts, but didn't attempt to stop :) It put me a little behind and I didn't stick to my plan, pulling her off the chute. It was an otherwise nice run.

 Time 2 Beat she went clean. She had a really nice run and I got to work the contacts a little more!

We watched the rest of the dogs run and ended up at the buffet again! Seafood night so I was in heaven! We ended up in the casino with the Cranks. Had a fantastic night. Got to watch a guy yell at an empty chair and almost get thrown out by the geriatric security guards. Talked to a nice manager about Whale watching. Whales are apparently big spenders at casinos. The things you learn from the Cranks. We learned other things too, but probably not appropriate for the blogger! Needless to say, they are plenty of fun on a trip!

Saturday- Up early, got to obsess walk jumpers. Morning announcements were neat. I have to say, the energy at this event was awesome. You could really "feel" it there. Maybe my energy was higher, not sure. But it definitely felt electric, that morning walk through. So many people had such high hopes. Hell, I just didn't want to look like an idiot. Moxie was up fairly early in the order. I was nervous, which was nice. I don't get nervous much anymore. I was very worried about the opening sequence, because my handling choice wasn't very popular. But we made it work, and went clean. She had a nice run and I was pretty proud of her time and overall finish in the round. Took her to Marie Duthie for a massage. I was a little taken back by how awful she was in her shoulders. I knew she was having some trouble jumping, but I tend to tunnel vision my own dogs. I was so focused on her hips I never gave much attention to her shoulders. Marie said she was the worst dog she had touched all day! She worked on her for 30 minutes and wanted to see her again. We ran standard, and I was incredibly pleased with her run. She knocked the last bar, because I got behind (my knee literally locked in place, I felt like I would fall, got behind..) She turned to find me and hit the last jump. But I will say the run felt great. Ended up 88th overall for the day in 20 inches. Spent the evening at The Great Basin Brewery with the Cranks. Awesome food, great company. Probably ended up at the casino too :)

Sunday was quick. Moxie got worked on for another 30 minutes, still tight in her shoulders but better. Ran hybrid. We actually had a fantastic run except for a little wide turn in the opening. Moxie knocked 2 bars in extension coming towards me. She never knocks bars so I know it was her shoulders. I didn't have the heart to ask her to stop on the aframe

Haze

Mmmmm Breakfast. Apple fritter and hazelnut hot chocolate.

She thinks she might die if she doesn't get some apple fritter. She's in a casino, you would think she would be grateful to be a dog in a casino! :)

Haze, silently hating us right now for making him give Bendy Man a ride.

View from our hotel.

Oh yeah, on our way back from Reno, we almost missed our flight out to Vegas. I was reloading the bags so we wouldn't have to pay, and April was haggling with the rental car guy. We literally SPRINTED through security. They barely checked us, we ran to the gate and made it with very little time to spare. Then we barely made our flight out of Vegas! Didn't eat a thing, landed at Louisville Intl ok and I swear next time we are making layovers LONGER!!! 8 hours on a plane, starving and cold = Misty was sick as a dog! But I lived to tell the tale, so to speak. Trooper that I am, I even taught my monday night class at 6pm :)  My killer students covered for me at 715 so I could go in to a coma until tuesday morning. Flying is stressful!