Happy 11th Birthday Ch. Acadia's Bright Idea, RA,NA,NAJ and Ch. Acadia Rock Solid, HT

Today is Payson and Rocky's 11th birthday. These two boys are the BEST! Payson (Ch. Acadia's Bright Idea, RA, NA,NAJ) was my first homebred Champion. I showed him to all of his points, including a 5 point major awarded by Mrs. Patti Long Smith on the VERY competitive Wine Country Circuit. Payson began his show career the year we moved to PA. I had never been to ANY of the shows (meaning location) we attended and we had quite an adventure. He minored out quickly and then I had the headache of looking for majors. Everyone said, "there will be majors at Wine Country."- so I entered.

The Wine Country circuit is 4 days- Thursday - Monday. I packed my van on Tuesday night and on Wednesday I got in to leave, but the van wouldn't start. Battery problem? No. I called AAA. While I waited for them to arrive, I unpacked my van. They took it to a repair shop and I waited..... and waited..... and waited...... finally they called and said, "we need parts- you won't get it back this weekend."

I called a rent-a-car company and they told me they only had one passenger van and it was out, but due back that day, but then they would have to clean it. The earliest I could have it would be Thursday (first day of shows). Well, what are you going to do- Ok.


Thursday late morning I got the van, took out the passenger seats, packed it up, and headed out on our 4 1/2 hour drive. Friday I groomed Payson up and headed to the ring. It seemed that every "big" handler on the east coast was there! and me and my one dog! Payson WON that day! It was a 4 pt. major- 1 dog short of 5 points.

Saturday I groomed at the van. I had the slide door open the whole time I was grooming. We headed to the ring to find there were a few more dogs that day and it was a solid 5 points. Again, Payson WON! OH MY GOSH! I thought- then I thought- Hey- I can leave today and save a whole day of rental on this van!!
We got our pictures taken, repacked the van, got in to leave- the battery was dead! The whole time the slide door was open, the dome light was on and it drained the battery.

Luckily there was a tow truck on the show grounds, so it didn't take long for them to come jump the van (it seems that no one else had jumper cables) then I floated home. We went, showed 2 days, won both- went home. All of these years later (that was in 2001) I still remember that weekend clearly.