19/12/2023
Long story -
Since the 7th of December I have been away from home leaving TESS and DARE under the care of two wonderful pet sitters. I want to thank my friend Pam Ellenburg Turner for her kindness to me and for her loving care of my two girls.
Now I want to thank Melissa Dennis, pet sitter extraordinary! Melissa was recommended to me almost at the last minute and she came on board without hesitation. When it appeared that I may not make it home on the agreed date Melissa was still on board. My girls loved her!
I cannot thank either of these women enough. You both were pretty much the only part of this trip that was stable!
Now onto the long story - while driving to Ocala Florida for a G2 BarnHunt the high pressure transmission line and pump destructed. This was after being in JIM HUDSON FORD of LEXINGTON for weeks, having its engine pulled to reseal everything, put in a new oil pump, etc...all at the cost of $10,875.00 + or -. When I called them, of course upset, the response was AND I QUOTE "well it's an old truck". Am I angry? You bet. Will anything be done about it? Probably not. Would this have been said to a MAN???? I can fuc+ing tell you that it would not have been.
Here comes more praise and thank-you's.
Brandy Steele Oates you ride me like a jug headed, half broke range horse and you p**s me off a lot but you do it to bring me back to sense - kind of like hitting me in the head with a 2 X 4 - and even if I don't seem to understand I really do, it just takes a moment. Without your vast army of friends - Sharon Beamish Webb, G2 BarnHunt, Daniel Cook and Holly, Daniel's parents - I would still be stuck in the sand with a broke truck having major panic attacks.
Best part of the first few days of the trip, outside of all the wonderful supportive people, was that I finally began to understand how DEKE hunted. The last day after 5 spectacular failures I trusted him and got a Q !!!!!
The truck was towed to Gary Yeoman Ford in Ocala Florida where the EXCEPTIONAL staff jumped right in to help me get the truck back on the road rapidly and waaaaay under $10K. I will post another PRAISE to them in a separate post. JIM HUDSON could take lessons from them.
Brandy's wonderful friend Daniel Cook drove up to the BarnHunt and got my camper to his parent's home so it was safe, the truck was being worked on, me and the dogs piled into Brandy's van and headed to Orlando. I was delivered to Daniel's parents' home for the night. Daniel then drove me, dogs and camper to the Orlando show site and I semi settled in. For some reason I had no tv reception, thank goodness I brought along music.
The parking folks decided the best place to plant my rig was right smack dab amongst gazillion dollar RV's occupied by gazillion dollar handlers. I was the odd girl out but I kept my smile on and complemented all the dogs I saw and people smiled back - I needed smiles
Last year at the AKC FAST CAT INVITATIONAL DEKE took home the gold. Sooooo I was pretty cocky that he could do it again....that was before the truck broke, I earned 5 BH zeros and before TIG came into flaming heat. Oh ya. Not only did DEKE have to deal with my stress he had to deal with raging hormones. I am sorry buddy but I was the weak link in the team, you ran as hard as you could but did not break into the 29 mph level for finals. You were in the top 5 to be invited and you came in 3rd - that's a bronze right? I love this big brute.
But the great part is that my wonderful service representative, ARIEL from Gary Yeoman Ford called and my truck was fixed and the bill was under $1000.00 - way under. Brandy drove me all the way back up to Ocala (3 houre round trip)to pick it up and stress was falling off of me like dandruff.
But then the weather took a nose dive - I was ready to leave Florida but Florida was not ready to loosen it's grasp on me. High winds (to me) and torrential rain set in and I sat for days waiting for the million dollar rigs to move away so I could pull out. The break from all the waiting was when Shelly Spotswood and Debbie Fontenot came past for a visit on Saturday the 16th. Thanks ladies!
Sunday the 17th, more rain and wind. Monday morning the big rigs are moving out and so was I. Plan was to make it to a rest area in Georgia but I could not stop driving home. Made it back to The Estate by 4:30 and slept like a dead person.
If I missed thanking anyone forgive me - oh! Bailey McNeir, your dad and brother and most of all APOLLO you ROCK!!!!!
