Made it home from another great European Open! Filled with lots of adventure and of course many surprises along the way, it was a long journey that started with a 4 hour drive to Calgary then a 10 hour flight to Germany followed by a 14 hour trek across Europe in a station wagon stuffed with 3 people and 5 dogs :s Our car reservation was given away so we ended up with a standard and our 9 hour drive somehow turned into 14 through the night going 160 km/hr to barely make vet check Thursday morning. Thank goodness Jessica could drive a standard! It was a tight squeeze with a sheltie on my lap and a border collie at my feet, through the Austrian mountains, fog, rain, construction and a few wrong turns but we made it! The competition was everything I expected it to be, incredible courses that were among the hardest I have run in any competition. The atmosphere was exciting with so many talented teams to watch. IT WAS HOT!! AND HUMID!! I survived…barely… Team Canada held our own and spirits were high, there were some amazing moments and some close calls but we definitely looked like we belong on the international stage. My dogs were great, both making finals and getting on the podium. Preston winning bronze in medium was definitely exciting, even more so for us to stand in very good company on the podium with 2 handlers who I very much respect. He is not he fastest medium dog out there but we put in a very efficient and clean run with the tightest possible lines and this year it was enough ☺ Our trip home was another adventure which led us to Austria for some sight seeing which was abruptly interrupted by a wrong turn and a minor language barrier. We drove through a gate which must have read “do not enter” when a giant cement pole shot up from the ground and into the front of our car...trying to navigate a smoking car out of a one way do not enter road with everyone staring and the car not wanting to shift…5 dogs, 3 girls, a broke down car on the side of the highway…always an adventure. The car rental company can send a mechanic in a few hours and provide us with a smart car to try and get to Germany for our flight in the morning… oy… We try to get on the highway after the smoke has stopped to hear a bang and a hiss lol…we wern’t going anywhere anytime soon! The mechanic comes to take the car away but after we explain our rush to get to Frankfurt he attempts to temporarily fix the issue so that we can make our flight….says it should be ok as long as we don’t accelerate too hard lol …so…we get on the highway once again late at night with fingers crossed that the car will make it through the night...can you say LONG DRIVE?!?! Well we made it in one piece although the AC would not work the entire drive. All in all it was a fun trip, got to enjoy the things I love about Europe; good wine, good food, great coffee, time with friends and of course the amazing dog agility…5 weeks till Luxemburg for FCI worlds…Summit is working on his threadle bars, Preston on his “here here!!” and I am learning to drive stick! Now to catch up on online lessons…
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:22:00 +0000
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