Harrisburg shows / flood

April 16, 2011.  This was supposed to be a full weekend of dog showing.  Karey came over with Ruby to go on her first dog show weekend road trip.  What a fun weekend it was going to be. 

Karey and Ruby arrived Friday night and went to my agility class with Sawyer.  We would leave in the morning for Harrisburg since we had a late judging time. 

Sawyer is learning the teeter.

When we left NJ on Saturday morning it was not raining.  As we got closer to Harrisburg the weather got worse.  It was a pretty wet and miserable day.  We made our way to the building through lots of puddles and the dogs were soaking wet.  Sawyer went Best of Opposite Sex, then I ran over to help Bobbie with her dogs in another ring.  Airy did go Winners Bitch so I took her in for Best of Winners while Bobbie had Maestro in Best of Breed.  Airy went Best of Winners for another point!  Then I ran over to Obedience hoping to catch my friend Steve's Beginner Novice run.  Luckily I made it in time to see a beautiful run and 2nd place finish for Steve and Jazz. 

There was a match show planned in the evening after Best in Show so we were going to enter Ruby to get her more ring experience.  It was raining pretty heavily as we drove up to the building around 5:15pm.  We were inside for about 20 minutes when the announcements started to move vehicles because the river behind the complex was overflowing.  I went out to move my car and the water was at least mid way up the tires!  There were just some puddles when I parked, how could this happen so quickly??  So as I stood on the stairs looking out into the river I had no choice but to take off my slip on rain shoes (not really helpful in 3 feet of water), take off my knees highs, roll up my pants (yes I was still in my show clothes), put my shoes back on and waded out to my car.  I moved it to another location and went back inside tell everyone else.  As the river continued to rise I had to move my car again.  The water was even higher and I had to walk out into the road to see just how high it was so I could determine if the car would make it.  The water was freezing!  It was high but it was now or never.  Thank goodness I was able to maneuver the car through the water and make it back to the motor homes.  Then it was back to the building to tell everyone to forget the match, we had to evacuate. 

This is the parking lot behind the building.

The river just rose so fast.

What a great experience.

A few hours later the water rose past the loading dock and into the building.  The shows were canceled for the rest of the weekend.

 What a great first time dog show trip for Karey...not!  I hope this didn't scare her off.



We had already settled into the hotel room when we heard the shows were canceled.  So we'd get a good night's rest and head home in the morning.

Ruby and Daisy made themselves comfortable on the bed.

Daisy stretched out on the bed.  Good thing she's still little.

Ruby and Sawyer take over Karey's bed.

It was a long day for everyone.

Daisy got plenty of rest so she was up watching a little TV before bed.

My tired man.

 Good night Sawyer.

And after all this craziness I did not come home and rest on Sunday.  I found there was an obedience match show being held locally so Sawyer and I ran over there in the afternoon to do a few Novice run-thrus.  After all, we need to get ready for Nationals :)