Montgomery Directions

We were worried about how RV friendly our directions to the Montgomery dog shows would be this year. Luckily the directions were great and should work for up to about 13′ 6″.

NH to Hatboro

91S to 95S in New Haven, CT (gas in Deerfield, MA)
Continue South on 95 across the GWB top level (make sure your propane is turned off)
NJ Turnpike South Truck Route to Exit #6
(Rest at the Molly Pitcher Rest Area and gas up at next Rest Area Walt Whitman since overnight parking is beyond pumps)
PA Turnpike West to Exit 351
Take Route 1 North (follow main route, not business route)
Exit Route 1 at exit for Route 413 North
Quick Right onto rural streets, then left
You will pass through Langhorne and Newtown
413 is a long twisty turny road, watch for turns at lights (a left, right, then left turn)
In Wrightstown, watch for “Friends Meeting House” on left
Take the next left onto Penn’s Park Road (right before little general store)
Show grounds are 1/4 mile on left

The Hatboro dog show site was very RV friendly. Request an electrical hookup since they are closest although some seemed packed tightly which might be difficult for leaving. We left NH at 10pm Tuesday which was perfect timing for no traffic in the city or at GWB. EZ Pass is great.

To Devon from Hatboro

Right out of show site and Right onto 413 (right, left, right on 413 at lights)
Look for the signs for Route 1 South and follow to PA Turnpike West
Take PA Turnpike exit 312
Take Route 100 North (N Pottstown Rd)
Cross 401 and continue on Route 100
Show grounds will be 1/2 mile further on the left

The Devon show officials will not allow anyone on the property any time prior to the stated opening. This causes a huge traffic jam. There is 1 poll for electric at this site in the middle of the main RV lot and they all get packed in like sardines. We parked on the left of the entrance road which was perfect for leaving although the grade was too much to be completely level.

To Montgomery

PA Turnpike East
Take Germantown Pike to Rt 202 Dekalb Pike in Plymouth Meeting

The RV parking at Montgomery is very very far away, furthest from the Airedale ring possible.

Puppy Evaluations

We took a drive up to the western side of Quebec, Canada to visit Ginette Miron and the Princedale pack last week. The reason for the visit was 8 week puppy evaluations on the Max x Rosie litter.

Rosie is Canadian and American Champion Penaire Yellow Rose of Texas. Rosie was Winner’s Bitch at the 2007 Montgomery Country Kennel Club, also the Airedale Terrier National Specialty. She was also Winner’s Bitch as Best of Opposite at Hatboro the same year, all handled by Doug Carlson. Needless to say, she’s a show stopper.

Rosie came down to us earlier in the year for the breeding to Max at our local reproductive vet who was responsible for Tory’s twelve, also sired by Max. She slept on the bed and we bonded. You might remember her in a photo daily.

Well, the breeding took and produced 7 lovely puppies, 4 girls and 3 boys. (also featured in our photo daily)

So the puppies turned 8 weeks and up we went to see what they looked like. You’ll notice some lovely candids of the puppies this week, all taken while we were visiting. Ginette’s set up made it easy to take pictures of the litter in generous outdoor space.

So just how pretty were these pups? Take this into consideration, the following puppy wasn’t the pick, but look at her!  All the puppies had the beautiful layback also seen in the other Max litters we have evaluated and every one of those puppies had amazing tail sets.  Coat was great and you couldn’t beat the temperaments on every single puppy.

I just love puppy evaluations. Everyone has their own way of evaluating, different testing techniques, and their own preferences on what is best.

You know it’s a nice litter when this many breeders are in on the action. Joan Clarke and Bill Clarke, Anna Brinker, Ginette Miron (of course it was her litter), Louise Lambert, and us at Woodcrest, Jay Atwood, Colleen Atwood, and Rose Atwood.

We do look forward to seeing how these puppies turn out, it should be exciting.

Congratulations Ginette on breeding such a lovely litter! Thank you for letting us come up to see them.

Quebec

From one French speaking world to another. As soon as I was back from France we were off again to Montreal, this time on business. If you are sick on landscape shots, I do hope that you can indulge me one last time.

This post is for Anna who flew in from Texas to be crammed into an already overstuffed SUV with four other people and forced to listen to our utter nonsense for two hours as I professed my undying love of the round bale and high tension power lines and Ari fed her pre-chewed donut. As pay back she nearly broke my foot…inadvertently really…no Anna don’t hurt me again! Just kidding, the x-rays prove she didn’t actually break it. No really, I tripped in a doorway, Anna was in an entirely different room. I do hope that by blaming my pain on her that she will try to make up for my total absence of posting last week by writing something up for us about her involvement with opposing some legislation down in Texas.

So, this is for Anna, with love from my 18-200mm zoom.

The cloudy day left many of the pictures with a stormy feel even though the day turned out nice.

As the sunflower fields in southern France, the silver toped steeples of Quebec left me questioning why? It certainly made spotting them easy.

There is a lot of agriculture in Quebec.

Many farms = many round bales!

Round bales and high tension power lines in one shot = heaven!

This is a giant pile of rocks.

Montreal is a huge city with an elaborate underground metro system with lots of shopping that is not stroller friendly.

Lots of high tension power lines…

And lots more farms…

Just be happy there weren’t any windmills.

The reason for this trip was in fact dog related, photos of that tomorrow.

Toulouse

It’s been a very busy month for us here. We travel quite a bit, mostly dog related, but occasionally are able to get away on special trips. Since this is a personal site and we make up the rules as we go along, how about some photos from two weeks in Toulouse, France? We hope you don’t mind.

We started out our journey with a hopeful image. Yes, this picture was taken in MA, USA, but it’s the first rainbow I’ve caught on camera.

On to Toulouse…

The Capitole square during the weekly flea market.

I expected fields and fields of grapes, it was France after all. What I got was fields and fields of sunflowers. I’d be greatfull to anyone who could explain that to me…in English.

There was the occasional field of something else, thickly lined with sunflowers.

Not that I’m complaining, sunflower fields make for great pictures.

Okay, so there was the occasional field of grapes too.

Then there was the occasional medieval city.

Carcassonne was really something to see.

The views from the walls were pretty spectacular.

What is a medeival city without a good joust?

And a bald eagle too…

There were plenty of churches and stained glass all around.

There was not much in the way of forest or trees.

Everything was pretty flat in this region.

With lots of little castles here and there.

It was a great trip. Unfortunately we never made it down to the Pyrenees. Toulouse was a nice city, small enough to walk everywhere. And for those who are wondering, between Boston – Paris – Toulouse, the best airport lounge is the Air France lounge at Charles Degalle terminal 2E in Paris.