(Apologies for the delay in continuing the series; I’ve been waylaid this past week with the flu.)

Our first event in Atlanta was lure coursing. We’d decided that one day of lure coursing was enough and our preference was definitely for ASFA. Apparently, there’d been an unforeseen road obstacle the day before delaying arrivals at the field. We got up early and, thanks to a generous offer from Donna Miner, were on the road with our own personal guide.

When we arrived at the site, we found that the original field was flooded due to some recent rain storms and so the lure coursing would be held on a different field. No matter…I would have made the alternate field my first choice. It was fantastic with some challenging terrain in the form of hills and swells.

Thanks to a rather nasty asthma attack two days before leaving home, I was not able to spend much time outside without hacking up a lung. (Or at least trying to hack one up…) So, I have to confess that most of my
time at the ASFA trial was spent inside Lynne’s motorhome, knitting.

I did attend the handlers meeting though and had my own little chuckle over Donna Richards’ heartfelt plea to keep the trial moving along lest she miss some of the NASCAR racing later that day. The response from the crowd was overwhelmingly positive…all of which I found very quaint. Quaint that is until I got home and started watching the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Then it all made sense to me…

While hiding out in the motorhome, I managed to knit at least five inches on my lace scarf and, even better, was able to visit (briefly, alas…) with old friends, Lindsay Lobree and David Howton. Of course, David was running around making sure everything was running smoothly and what a fabulous job he did at that! Kudos, David!

As I wrote to Lorna, his co-owner, Rogie’s first run at the trial was okay but “nothing to write home about”. The judges agreed and it was scored accordingly. His second run was better (he didn’t cheat! yippeee!) and that was also scored accordingly. At the end of the day, he ended up in third place in his flight (stake? I still don’t know the correct terminology!) and earned the points required to finish his field championship. Way to go, Roges!

I also ventured out of the motorhome to watch a couple of Avery’s run- off runs. He was in a tie with another dog for first place in his flight/stake/thingie and every one of their run-offs ended up in a tie as well. After 157 runs, the other dog finally got the extra point needed to win.

(Okay, maybe it was only 147 runs…either way, so much for NASCAR!)

Everytime I made my way outside, I was struck by the smell of garlic. It turns out that there is a wild onion that grows as a grass in that area of Georgia. I spent quite a bit of my time in the motorhome pondering how I might cook that grass. I came up with trenette tossed with sauteed onion grass and baby fava beans and then topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Just the idea of it makes me hungry….

No matter, at the end of the day, Avery got some big time points (LCM? someone help me out here) and Rogie finished his FCH…it was a good day.

Back at the Hilton, people began pouring in and gradually the number of jammie-clad people walking whippets at the back of the hotel increased. Rogie’s only concern was that the number of whippets around the hotel increased which meant that the number of GIRLS around the hotel increased.

On one of our trips outside, Rogie saw a group of girls that set his heart a-flutter. He stood up as tall as he could, put his tail and ears in the air, and strutted.

“Hey, I think it’s working! They’re looking at me!”

I mentioned to Rogie that he might like to show off his skill at navigating the hotel’s revolving door; it might impress the girls. Rogie had become quite adept at the revolving door, entering quickly and then waiting at the leading edge for an opening to appear.

He entered the doorway quickly but then realised that the girls weren’t with him. Suddenly, he didn’t care where or when the opening would appear! He stood stock still, staring backwards out the doorway towards the objects of his heart…those little whippet girls. The other side of the door opened up but Rogie was having none of it; he would not leave without those girls.

And so we went around again.

While we were heading back outside, Rogie’s new friends entered the doorway’s other compartment and, although we were now headed in the opposite direction, Rogie pressed his little face against the glass that separated him from his own true love(s).

Roges was happy to go through the revolving door again but, by the time we made it into the lower lobby, the girls were gone.

Rogie’s sigh was heard throughout the hotel.