Pirate has had a pretty brief show career. He will be two years old on 8 June 2009. He has accrued enough points in the United Kennel Club show ring to merit him being placed in the Top Ten White Shepherds in the Nation for the year 2008. He finished out in 4th position and I am very proud of him.
Pirate received a special invitation and I decided that it would be fun to travel to Michigan, to attend Premier. Since we live in the Pacific Northwest, we had quite a journey ahead of us. I had the RV serviced and arranged for someone to care for the animals and the property.
Four of us would be going on the trip. I would drive our 23' C type motor home. The rest of the travelers are White Shepherds: Spirit, 12-1/2 years old; Quest, 6 years old and Pirate not quite 2 years old. .
Ready to hit the road.
It took a lot of planning and lists. Even our lists had a list. Food was important because I did not want to change the dogs diet and I did not know if I would be able to find their usual food while we were traveling. We needed to arrive in Kalamazoo, Michigan by June 10, 2009. I planned to leave Washington around the 31st of May.
Quest, Spirit & Pirate
Traveling with dogs, if you want happy, healthy dogs, involves stopping every few hours for walks, play, snacks and relaxation. You cannot really put a designation of time on it, you just know when they need that special time. My dogs keep track of when the stop is for them, or for me. If I had the last stop, and then see something interesting and stop again, they give me very accusing looks. I promise them the next stop is theirs and that they will get extra time. They are very patient with me.
I prefer not to drive over seven hours in a day. It always seems that we could get an earlier start, but by the time the dogs are walked; breakfast is served; kitchen gear stowed; and I am showered and dressed - it is usually near 10:00 AM no matter how early I wake up. I prefer to find a campground before dark. Sometimes parking the RV between trees when you can't see what you are doing, is not easy. I like to be able to take the dogs for a nice walk before dark. I consider 300 miles a day, a good drive. I often do more when I cannot find a nice place to stop. Sometimes we do less if I find a fantastic place a little earlier than usual. Sometimes I do not find a campground at all and we just spend the night in a rest stop. There are worse things ... but they are not known to be the safest of places to camp. With the dogs, I do not worry much and I don't spend much time out of the RV. We usually just move on after waking up and I find a better place to walk the dogs and fix breakfast.
Our departure date was on Sunday the 31st of May 2009.