The Lone Star State (in Finnish; Texas)!

After spending three nights in Memphis we left Andrea's for Texas. I didn't feel like driving the whole way on the boring interstate and so I ended up driving to Hot Springs in Arkansas! It was just gorgeous! In the center of the city there was a mountain and you could drive up to see the view. I took these cool pictures.

The city was just so beautiful, I fell completely in love with it! I spent a few hours just walking around but couldn't stay long because I wanted to drive a few more hours before it got dark! We took a smaller route and ended up sleeping in a motel in De Queen, Arkansas. I'm being a bit bad here in motels because I don't mention anything about a dog and just sneak her in so I don't have to pay extra! The motel was really nice for such a cheap place! I was just on my computer and suddenly it went blank! I couldn't get the screen to work anymore!

Next morning we took to the road again and as I was driving I noticed a sign to Paris! As it was pretty close, I just had to go and take a look! We found the town in Texas and spent a few hours just walking around. The stores were luckily dog friendly and I could take Dracu with me. I even found the Eiffel tower! It was styled a la Texas though :D Gotta love the Texas sense of humour!

Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas!

=D



Dracu under the Eiffel tower!



Next we drove down to Hico, Texas were Terry Martin from kennel Slash V lives! Terry is a very long time working aussie breeder and she has really worked hard to create the Slash V lines that are very distinguished! We talked dogs for a few hours and then went inside Terry's house. There we found an other common factor; the love of fantasy books! We are both huge fans of the Twilight saga and similar books. We also shared the same taste in movies, TV-series etc! I ended up spending two nights with Terry and we had the best time ever!! Just talked dogs, books and life in general! Terry is a really nice and interesting person and she also has strong political views that I found very interesting as I hope to maybe study world politics in the future. Terry took me to eat in this super good place called the Koffee Kup (KKK!) and we had the best pie ever! And the nights we spent up watching a very cool series called Moonlight.

Aussie boy Spinoff Slashen "Shen" owned by Terry Martin

Terry's pups, age 2 days, out of Wicked and Tide

Boys Shen and Tide playing

On Sunday I finally had to tear myself away from Hico and drove about 2,5 hours to Fredericksburg where Melinda May from kennel Hullabaloo lives. There is a very nice little female from this kennel living in Finland so I was real interested in Melinda's breeding! Melinda also had a few other guests; Jean Miller (who works at the ASCA office!) and two ladies from California. We talked dogs, I got to meet her dogs and then we worked goats a bit. I did a little with Dracu but she was way too excited after watching all the other dogs work!

aussie boy Cedar Glen I'm a Ben Two "Ben" owned by Jean Miller

aussie boy Cedar Glen I'm a Ben Two "Ben" owned by Jean Miller

aussie girl L Bar J Meant 2B 4 Hullabaloo "Shine" owned by Melinda May

aussie girl L Bar J Meant 2B 4 Hullabaloo "Shine" owned by Melinda May

I found a cheap motel for the night. I went to ask for the price and then told the guy that it was too expensive but thanks. He called me back and made a new deal and I ended up paying like 15 $ less! :D So now I know at smaller places you can try to get the price down! On Monday I drove to Georgetown to make a surprise visit to Linda Bell from kennel Winslide. I was supposed to give her a call but my computer was still broken and her number was saved in there so I couldn't call her! She wasn't home but after waiting for 15 minutes she luckily drove home! We spent a few hours chatting but she had a lot going on so we agreed to meet after Nationals and I drove to Georgetown, found a used bookstore and ended up with about 15 books! That is one other thing I love about the States, all the books! I need to buy enough to last me until my next visit!

Next I drove an hour to Waco, TX where the Nationals would start on Wednesday (it being Monday). I got a motel room and just hung out for two days. I bought a new computer after the repair guy told be my computer was toast. I had a pretty crappy day on Tuesday as my bank card was not working and my budget suffered badly because this computer fiasco! But life goes on and I had a very big last paycheck from work so I should be okay. Just gotta be careful with money and that has never been one of my strenghts! Next I'll write about the Nationals!