Well, the day started off like this - a very nice lady picks me up and says "I don't want you to get scared that we're leaving town and heading out to the middle of no where...I really am bringing you to the trial site..." My response was "Yeah, I saw the movie Fargo!" Luckily, no creepy adventures to report, no wood chippers in sight and everyone was friendly and nobody said said "egh?" (only those from WI & MN will probably understand that joke).
I do miss the Midwest! Not the cold mind you. Heck, the snot froze in my nose when I breathed in and I heard they did a test to see how long a cracked egg would take to freeze outdoors in a pan (BTW, it was 3 minutes). But the people really are the salt of the earth! It was so nice to hear people cheering for each other, sighing when a dog took an unexpected wrong course and just laughing when the handlers were lost on course. There was no talk of "How fast..." or who could beat who and the phrase "World Team" is never uttered. Heck, people didn't brag about "last week..." or say "I need..." instead they chatted about community things (did you know the local Farm & Fleet is having a big sale right now?), ate lunch together (someone brought homemade cookies) and everyone jumped in to help when needed. Just as I'd think I could use another bar setter, one would appear as if by magic.
There were no clicks of groups and nobody cared about who trained with who. As a matter of a fact, one of the BEST trainers I know of is here and she was the first person to step up to help, consistently sets a wonderful example as a person and choses not to travel because her family is her first priority. Anyone want to try to guess who that is?
Any way, coming back home to the Midwest has been wonderful and is something I hadn't realized how much I missed.
You know, the trials out here used to be a lot like what you described... I miss those...
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