Pug10_97

I don't know about you but a big part of going to the National is spending time with all your "puggy" friends and making some new ones. We had plenty of time to socialize and party. The Hospitality room was a popular destination with Donald being the perfect host and bartender.

One day we took Patt, Lorene, and Anna(Lorene's 85 year young mother-in-law) to Windsor Dam, about an hour from the show site. We drove up to the summit by the reservoir where there is a viewing tower. As we parked the car we noticed 4 Harleys in the lot. We walked up to the tower leaving Lorene and Anna in the car. On the way up we passed the 4 "bikers" coming down from the tower. The view from the tower was impressive. As we were going back down we passed another couple who said that we should get back down to the parking lot with the camera quick. Patt figured that Lorene was on one of the Harleys. When we got there, Lorene was talking to the bikers but 1 biker, 1 Harley and 1 85 year young lady were gone. Pretty soon there comes Anna on the back of a Harley, they had gone for a ride down the hill and back. Anna had a great time and said that it had been about 40 years since she had done that. The picture was taken as they drove up.

The Top Twenty Showcase was held one night after a buffet meal. Blanche did her usual excellent production and put on a great show. It is always fun to see some of the top Pugs both past and present.

Just before Breed started, several people put Beanie Baby Pugs on leads and had an impromptu BB Pug class. I guess the judge showed her prejudices because she put 2 blacks as 1st and 2nd and the 2 fawns as 3rd and 4th. Donald, the handler of the 1st place black, was ecstatic.

The host hotel was the Sturbridge Host hotel and the show was held in a large attached exhibit hall. Since we didn't have any dogs, we had an inside room with a patio out onto the enclosed pool area. One row of outside rooms opened out onto a large grass area that went down to a lake. Another row of outside room opened out onto the area where the miniature golf course was located and a 3rd row of rooms opened onto a grass area(no lake). There was a 4th bank of rooms off the back but I don't think they had any patio doors for outside access, at least I heard of a person passing pugs out through a window.

The show hall was pretty good size and had vendors down two of the walls(plus the hallway outside). The floor was carpeted, but had a couple of tape lines that bothered some of the dogs. Lighting in the room was not great, the intensity was low and the bulbs had a definite green cast.

One of the great things about the East coast(West coast and Gulf coast also) is the seafood! One night we went to the local supermarket, bought 8 lobsters and had the supermarket steam them. We bought some bread, potato salad then went back to the hotel and ate in the pool area.

I took more pictures than this but I gave some of them to Pug News. Hopefully, Mary will publish them there, check it out.

Some people refer to the bathroom as "the library," so I guess this is the ultimate.

This is a wonderful old pug named "Bonz" (a short version of his registered name) and his human.

As mentioned above here is Anna and her friend on his Harley.

A couple of "Midwesterners" waiting ringside.

Here and to the left are a couple pictures of the winners in 2 of the classes.

The Lobster Feast!

Lunch Break

This is a picture of one of the Sweepstakes classes.

The first night there everybody brought some food and had a picnic (to right also).

In case you have never been there, this is Plymouth Rock. They had to put it in a cage because it kept biting people and its hard to give a Rabies vaccination to a rock. Really, I guess, people kept breaking off pieces as souvenirs.