Red Rock Canyon

Yesterday, we took a drive into Las Vegas, which is about an hour east of Pahrump. Our route took us through the beautiful Red Rock Canyon. Here is a slide show of some of the 60+ pictures we took along the way.

In Pahrump, NV

We are now in Pahrump, NV which is a town of about 40,000 an hour west of Las Vegas. We're staying at a park that is part of our campground network so it's only costing us $14 for two weeks. We like those kind of prices!

This is a very nice RV park attached to what I think is Nevada's only winery. While the wines are made here in Nevada, they get the majority of their grapes from California. We visited the winery yesterday and tasted about a dozen wines. One was a delicious sherry that we had to taste twice, just to be sure we liked it. It was great to just be able to walk home afterward.

Today we went golfing at an eighteen hole par 60 course. Most holes were par 3, with six par 4's which made it easy enough to be fun but hard enough to still be a challenge. We had a great time. This was the first time I golfed since we left Deer Park and I was thrilled that I wasn't awful. In fact it was one of my best rounds ever.

Another Dog Show

We are now in Vallejo, CA to visit friends in the area and for the Sir Francis Drake dog show in San Rafael, CA. We were able to visit Gracie's breeders, Rich and Dana, before the show for some last minute grooming tips and after I incorporated their suggestions, Gracie looked fabulous.

There was a match (which is basically a practice show) on Friday before the real show and given Gracie's wild ways in the ring, we thought it would be a good idea to enter her in the match. We hoped it would help her to be more settled on Saturday for the real show. Bill McFadden (a rather famous professional handler) was the terrier judge. Gracie was the only Norwich and she behaved beautifully. I figured when we went back in for group with all the other dogs, she'd be her usual crazy self. But she completely surprised me and trotted around like a seasoned show dog. I was so pleased that she was behaving, and then I was thrilled when Bill gave Gracie first place in the terrier group!

That meant Gracie would compete for Best in Match with the other group winners. The judge was Mike Stone (another well known professional handler.) Again, Gracie surprised me by acting like a champion and went around the ring in a lovely trot, posed like a star and behaved beautifully. I didn't even care what the outcome was at that point, I was just happy that Gracie was showing so well. So I was ecstatic when Mike gave her Best in Match!

And yes, that is a ribbon made out of one dollar bills. A nice little bonus. I don't know if it will ever get spent though. Right now it's hanging on a wall in the motorhome.

Saturday was the real show. There was a large Norwich entry, a total of 21 Norwich with 8 of them in Gracie's class alone! I guess a light bulb has gone off in her little head because she again showed wonderfully. Unfortunately there were several other very nice girls in her class and Gracie took 3rd. But I don't even care that she didn't win. We are just too happy to see her finally behaving like a proper show dog. Hopefully this wasn't just some fluke and she'll do as well at her next shows.

Balloon Races

On Sunday, we went to the Great Reno Balloon Races. Wow! What an experience. We got there around 5:00 in the morning so we could see the Dawn Patrol, a group of 5 balloon pilots who are qualified to fly in the dark. They take off just before dawn and it is an amazing sight. Here's a short video of them "glowing" when they fire off their propane torches to heat the air in the balloons before taking off.

After the sun comes up is the mass ascension. It is such an awesome sight to see the 100+ balloons inflating and rising up all around you from what seemed moments before like a flat field. We took a zillion pictures. It will probably take a while for us to sort through them and get them posted online.

Ostrich and Camel Races

Tom and I took a drive up to Virginia City today to watch the first day of the annual camel and ostrich races. It was hilarious. The camels, and especially the ostriches, did not always want to run in the right direction. The ostrich races are complete chaos.

This video shows the first race where one bird gets loose from his chariot harness almost immediately, one runs the first half of the course quickly but doesn't want to make the turn, and the other requires a great deal of coaxing just to get going.



This video is of one of the camel races.

15 Year Anniversary

Today was our 15 year wedding anniversary. We have been so blessed to have had fifteen wonderful years together. We thank God every day for each other.

As many of you readers know, I lived in Reno for about 10 years before moving to Alaska. It has changed a lot in the years that I've been gone and there are several new big casinos that were not here when I lived here.

We visited one of those new casinos, the Atlantis, this afternoon. We signed up for their rewards program and got $8 in free play which took us an hour or so on the penny slots to use up. We also donated an additional $10 before heading home again.

This evening we celebrated with what has become our traditional anniversary dinner of Lobster Thermador that we cook in the RV. YUM!

Tomorrow is the start of the Reno Hot Air Balloon Races. We are only a little over a mile away from the field where the balloons take off so we'll be able to watch them from our RV each morning. We do plan to go down to the staging area on Sunday though to be in the thick of things as the over 100 participating balloons make their mass ascension.

Tomorrow is also the first day of the Camel Races (yes, with real camels) in nearby Virginia City and we're going to drive up there to see what that's all about. So come back in a few days and we should have some fun pictures to share.

More on the Dog Show

We have friends who live in Southern CA and we generally only see them at dog shows. Tish and I had recently been exchanging emails about which dog shows we were going to be going to when we got further south, trying to figure out where we might meet up with them next. But somehow the Grass Valley shows never came up.

Friday night we had the dogs out for their last walk before bed when a large Tiffin Phaeton motorhome passed us on it's way to the check in area. We both remarked how it reminded us of Tish and Orville's motorhome. Then I got a look at the personalized license plate and realized it was Tish and Orville!

We love these little surprise meetings we keep having with friends all over in our travels.

Now on to the dog show results. The first day Gracie - who has a tendency to be a bit of a wild indian in the ring - behaved quite well by her standards and I thought that she was competitive with the other girls there. But still we only took 3rd in our class. On the second day, Gracie again behaved herself in the class competition and moved up a spot to take second place in her class. Which meant she was then eligible for the "Reserve Winners" award - sort of like runner up in Miss America. But when I took her back in for the reserve competition, she was back to her wild indian ways. She went in trying to run way ahead of me and put her head down at the same time - she probably looked like a bucking bronco or something. I think the judge wanted to give her reserve, because he let us go a long way around the ring before he finally gave it to another girl. I think he was waiting for Gracie to move correctly but gave up. Wouldn't you know it was just about then I got her into a good gait and she trotted out of the ring pretty as you please.

Oh well, there's always another dog show around the corner.

After we were done showing on Sunday, we left for Reno. It took us just under two hours of easy driving to get here. We're at an RV park on a hill at the north end of town and we have a view of the valley below. It will be a nice place to spend the next week.