What a great time we had at the Great Lakes French Bulldog Club's first sanctioned specialty dog show. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was honored to be selected to judge Sweepstakes at the inaugural specialty show. Last Friday I packed the PT Cruiser full and headed East. It was an uneventful drive and the TJ Maxx in Eau Claire, WI was a letdown. That is usually a great TJ, I was while not devastated, disappointed.
I rolled into the Holiday Inn Express around 6:30 pm, grabbed my hotel key from the front desk and tore upstairs to my room I was sharing with Kelly Achenbach. Drat, key card did not work. Tore back down, got a new key and...2nd key card did not work. OK, back down for the 3rd key to be told I was obviously not doing it right and let's say I assured the desk clerk I was quite capable of using a key card. Yep, you guessed it after the 4th key, she begrudgingly went with me and proclaimed the door was broken! So, we moved everything to a new room. Oh well, first world problems, all was good.
The welcome party was a blast! It was great to see so many familiar faces and connect with them. That Wisconsin group is going to make 100% sure NO ONE goes hungry! They had home-made brownies and dessert bars on every table and a spread of brats and such (classic Wisconsin fare) available for weary travelers. Plus, the WELCOME BAGS were packed full of all sorts of fun, usable and edible items for people and Frenchies. - that's the contents on the left above...
Kelley, Shirley Knack and Martha Dobbins of ENCORE FRENCH BULLDOGS decided we were not ready to call it a night and found a fun Mexican Restaurant, El Patron, open in Ft. Atkinson, WI. Of course, there was a table full of Frenchie Revelers doing shots of tequila when we walked in the door. Since I had to be sharp for the judging the next morning, I regretfully passed on shots of tequila. SIGH...
Top shelf margaritas were on our list of acceptable beverages and we enjoyed catching up, margaritas and snacks until we realized we were the last ones in there. The staff was gazing mournful at us. You know the look...please pay your $#%^ tab and leave! We threw money at them and headed back to the room!
JUDGING FRENCH BULLDOGS - TOMORROW!