November 4 & 5, 2006 - Sandy Creek Beagle Club, Sandy Creek, NY
We didn’t get quite the same pleasant weather for the Nationals that we got last year. This year we got that wonderful lake-effect snow that always dumps on the elevated Tug Hill region of Upstate New York. When Dan and I left Lansdowne, Ontario, it was in the forties and clear, as it was when we passed through Watertown, NY (about 27 miles north of Sandy Creek). When we got within five miles of Sandy Creek, the temperatures had dropped substantially, and we drove into a wall of falling snow. Arriving at the clubhouse, we found 6 – 8 inches of the white stuff that had been there since the Thursday before. This would be the first snow of the season for most of the dogs competing. I was fully expecting nose adjustments to affect the running to some extent.
It’s always good to meet up with the regulars, but I was particularly delighted to see some of the Canadians come down to compete. I’d just seen them the week before in New Brunswick, and here they are in New York. I didn’t know they were coming. Jim and Dale Bungay from Nova Scotia, who won the Canadian Nationals with their 13-inch bitch FTCH Eastcreek’s Kristy’s Angel the week before, traveled 19 hours to get there. They overnighted in Woodstock, NY before coming in to Sandy Creek. (I told them they should have been in Woodstock in 1969!) The Steeves from New Brunswick attended, Andrew “the Giggler” Shearer from Ontario, and Clair Murphy from Prince Edward Island sent a hound with the Steeves. I made a bet with Andrew before the trial started that he would place his hound FTCH Awful Bawlin Mobile Checker (half-brother to Art Beamer’s Viagra hound). Checker’s been on a streak, as has Viagra (aka Viggie). I also saw Massachusetts beagler, Joe Gamache, whom I’d met for the first time the week before in Canada. This sport really transcends all geographical borders – state, province, or country!
