Kathie's Web Log

Received 09/13/2009 12:13

Sunday, Sep 13 - First Full Day

My day started off with the screech of the alarm clock. When I turned out the lights at 11:00 last night, I knew I didn't have to get up until 7:30 and so thought that 8 1/2 hours would be plenty and I'd wake up easily. Wrong! My eyes absolutely didn't want to open. I slapped the alarm off and turned over. 10 minutes later, the persisant little thing went off again and I gave up and got up. Of course, having told a friend I would meet them for breakfast at 8:00 was also an impetus to get out of bed. Plus, by staying in bed much later, it would make getting over jet lag even harder.

I met my friends and went down to breakfast. In Europe, breakfast is usually included with the cost of the hotel and here, its a very nice breakfast buffet with a really nice range of options: anything from scrambled eggs, meats, a wide range of excellent bread, fruit, cheese, cereal and juices. It was a great start to the day. Following breakfast, I joined a couple of the small dog team members for a walk along the Rhein, just getting out and stretching our legs before heading out for our first practice.

The first challenge of practice was getting there. We had printed directions from the hall we were going to,but no specific address. All the rental vans driver had our GPS units; Nancy Gyes (coach), Andy Hartman (Captain) and I were drivers and we each brought our personal units along. So we loaded in coordinates we found on the agility hall's website and were comparing these with the printed directions; they were close, but at one point, the GPS wanted to take us a totally different way. But my argument was that there was probably a reason for the directions they published, so we went that way. I ended up leading the pack, despite my past record of losing my followers. So, off we went. The first part of the trip was simple: get on the highway (we had to cross back into Switzerland) and go for 33 miles. Once we got off the highway, we were still doing good: we made the final turn onto a very narrow, 2 lane farm road. This road seemed to lead into nowhere. We were driving through cornfields, with no likely looking places for agility in site. We kept going, and going (sort of like vehicular engergizer bunnies) and going. Finally, I pulled off to the side and the other two vans pulled up beside me. We talked about it and decided to just keep going. There was an intersection coming up and, as we approached it, we saw the very small sign for the Agilityhalle to the right. Whew! We were running out of road, heading right into the Rhein! But we found the Halle and it was a very nice practice site.

The reason we were practicing at site so far out, seemingly in the middle of nowhere was because the flooring from this particular hall is the exact surface the dogs will be running on during the event. They will be taking up this carpet and moving it over to the Messestadium on Moday afternoon, immediately following our practice.

The team worked for about 3 hours, running a number of standard courses, working to get the kinks from travel out. Some of the teammembrs had just arrived this morning, so were practicing on very little rest. They all did an awesome job! The dogs took just a very little time to adust to the surface. Contacts were absolutely solid, jumping was great and all around, everyoe looked totally ready and confident. Camaderie and morale seemed high as we finished up and headed back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, my jinx took over again as I lost my followers at the very first turn. George, my GPS, showed me a different way home than the way we came. So I followed his directions, and, as we made that first fateful turn, I noticed that Nancy, who was in the van right behind us, hadn't pulled out on the road to follow me, so I (wrongly) assumed her GPS was giving her different directions or that she decided to return the same was we came. Nor did I see Andy follow either, so I also assumed he followed Nancy. It wasn't until we had returned to the motel, gone up to our rooms, changed, and were on our way out to dinner that Nancy's van showed back up to the motel. Apparently, her GPS took them some very strange way home--one that involved a lot of extra distance and many wrong turns. We can't quite figure that one out since we have the same system. All I can figure is that I purchased the 2010 European Map updates and she didn't, so maybe there was a difference there. Well, we'll get to try it again tomorrow. Maybe this time, I'll get it right.

We finished out the day going to a little Italian restaurant for dinner. Now its time to try to get to sleep cause we have an 8:15 am departure back to the practice site.

Received 09/13/2009 00:53

Fri/Sat, Sep 11/12 - Getting There is Half the Battle

Friday, Sep 11 – Today started with a REALLY early wake up – about 3 am. It was one of those nights where I try to get to sleep early (didn’t happen) since I had to getup so early. Finally managed to get to sleep somewhere around 11ish. Then about 3 am, I woke up and spent the next 45 minutes snoozing in that state where you are afraid to really go back to sleep for fear of oversleeping the alarm. It was so early that when I got up to take my shower, not even the puppy woke up.

This trip feels very strange in that this is the first time in all the years I’ve travelled to this event, that I am travelling totally alone then entire way. In the early years under Sharon Anderson’s leadership, it was mandated that no Team Member travelled alone. In fact for the first 3 years, the entire team traveled on the same aircraft. But that was 98,99, and 2000, before 9/11 and the world changed. Then we went through a number of years where we had a couple of east coast departure choices, but those of us from the West Coast still had to fly east to meet up with the Team. Eventually, as flights got harder to find and the airlines set greater restrictions on the number of dogs in cargo, we were given more options about our routes of travel. Many times it depended on where we were going. But since 2003, West Coast team members travelled from the West Coast without having to transit an east coast gateway. Since 2006, I’ve accompanied the team as Assistant Coach and, in 06, 07, and 08, I was assigned escort duty” for teammembers from the East Coast, so I still ended up flying east. Up until this year, I flew out a day early and spent the night on the East Coast so I didn’t have to worry about missing my flight, but this year, with money so tight (I financed my own way this year), I opted to be brave and hope the airlines and weather all cooperated. So far so good. The flight out of Sacramento departed right on time and I have 2.5 hours in Atlanta to make my connection. So, I should have plenty of time to exchange some money and easily make it to my gate.

One of the toughest parts of this trip is leaving my dogs, especially my baby dog. I know Jake will take great care of her and all the rest, but since the day she came home, we’ve never been apart for a night. I doubt she’ll care all that much. We’ve hopefully taught her that its OK to be alone. And, I want her to be OK with me not being there. But its still hard. Will have to kidnap some of the Team Shelties at times to get my Sheltie Fix! Unfortunately, I don’t think there are any goldens in the competition (last year Canada had one), so I’ll just have to grin and bear it.

The connection in Atlanta went smoothly and the very long flight to Zurich departed right on time. It was 9 hours and 45 minutes. Arrival in Zurich was quick. In just about 30 minutes after landing I had cleared passport control; collected my bags and cleared customs. Now I just had to wait for the two team members I was meeting: Ashley Deacon with his pyreanean shepherd, Luka from San Jose; and Paulete Swarchzendruber with her sheltie, Rush, from Massachusetts. I had about an hour to kill until Ashley arrived, so I picked up the rental van (fortunately both the rental car counter and the garage were on site at the airport) and loaded my bags into it so I didn’t have t haul them around with me. By the time that was all done, Ashle’s flight had arrived. Luka was very glad to get out of her crate. It had been about a 17 hour trip for her from the time she was loaded in her crate iin San Jose until she got out here in Zurich. Once we met up with up Paulette and her party, we had a 90 km drive to our hotel in Dornbirn, Austria, just over the Swiss/Austrian border. It should have taken about 70 minutes but we hit major traffic to the point of our 70 minute drive taking 2.5 hours! We were all really glad to find our hotel and get settled.