Running with the Bullies - Part 2

Don't forget to read Part 1!


Posing with the South Fork Holston River

When last we blogged, we traveled to Kingsport, TN, for our very first dog show (as spectators) - the Bull Terrier Club of America's annual Silverwood celebration!  We'd checked into Flanagan Brothers Bierworks, our Harvest Host for the weekend and attended the dog show's costume contest and parade, which was just as entertaining as you might imagine.

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, Kingsport is only about 20-30 minutes from Johnson City, where Uncle Bill, Aunt Mary Alice, and Kathryn live, and we were lucky enough to spend a good amount of time with them while we visited the area.  We met them on Friday night for dinner at Riverfront Seafood Company, a local spot with all sorts of great options.  Since we were early, we wandered the river trail for a little bit, taking pictures and trying to avoid getting hit by an errant bat (the kind with wings, not the baseball kind).


This looks like a great running/walking trail


Riverfront Seafood lives up to its name


They had some (small) rapids in there!



Our dinner at Riverfront was great - I had the lemon herb grilled tilapia with a salad and baked potato, and everything was delicious (the spice rub was a bit salty, but many things are to me now).  Everyone else enjoyed their picks as well, and we had a great time catching up and sharing stories (do I have any pictures of everyone all together?  Of course I don't - sigh).  Filled to the brim with food and drink, we hugged everyone goodnight and headed back to the rig; Chris picked up another stout from the brewery for a nightcap, and before too long, it was lights out in the camper.

The next morning, we woke up and got going on the earlier side of things, since we wanted to arrive at the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center before too much of the judging had been completed.  We did a quick run through Starbucks, located just on the other side of the parking lot from Flanagan Bros (convenient, that), picking up some basic b*tch pumpkin spice options, and then we headed to Evelyn's Kitchen Table for breakfast.  


Early morning selfie in front of Flanagan Bros


Zelda's all tucked in!

In reading the Evelyn's menu, it was hard to decide what to get, but I went with the Honey Bear biscuit, which came complete with a piece of fried chicken and egg, all drizzled with honey.  I knew the biscuit would likely be large (this is not a part of the country where you're allowed to leave a restaurant hungry), but I still wasn't prepared for the feast that was placed in front of me:


Does it look big here?  How about one with a person for scale?


That's HALF of it!  This was seriously so good.

For his part, Chris picked the chicken and waffle, and we both agreed that the chicken was absolutely fried to perfection - even though our pieces were plump, they were cooked all the way through while still being tender inside and out.  Honestly, go spend money at Evelyn's - you won't regret it.

I'd done some research prior (some! ha!), and while MeadowView had a restaurant on site, I thought it might be crowded with everyone staying there. Since we were carrying a cooler with us, we made a stop at Wheeler's Bagels on the way into the show, grabbing some bagel sammies to go.  I had a smoked turkey on a plain bagel while Chris went with their lox option, and both were excellent, even after sitting in a cooler for a few hours.  Another recommendation!

Finally, we arrived at the show and headed inside the main ballroom to watch the judging.  When we told people we were taking this trip, we were often asked why we were attending the dog show - were we showing our dogs? (ha, no, but thanks for the vote of confidence), had we come to these before? (also no, but when I emailed the head lady a few weeks back, she was like, heck yeah, come on over! we love visitors!), and so on.  Although we watch the National Dog Show every Thanksgiving, as well as Westminster when it's on tv, and love them to probably an obsessive degree, we didn't really know what to expect in person.  The show would just be Bull Terriers, so while we knew there would likely be bully-related chaos, other than that, we didn't really have any expectations.


I found another friend to cuddle!
I promise he hopped up like this - I didn't pick him up.

Honestly, the main impression we came away with from the Silverwood show was how relaxing it was.  I know that seems counterintuitive, particularly with what I mentioned two sentences prior, but calm was the prevailing feeling.  There were two large squares fenced off on the convention center floor; full sized bullies showed in one "ring," while minis showed in the other, and spectators sat in chairs around each ring.  Each size group was further divided into bullies with white coats versus those who had coats of many colors (obligatory Joseph YouTube clip, including Donny Osmond, no less!), and from there, males were separated from females.  The specific group would parade out from backstage, get in two lines, and one of the two judges would call each dog forward independently for examination (the biggies would stay on the ground, but the minis got picked up and plopped onto a tall table).  The lines would then switch, so each judge saw each dog.  Finally, the dogs would get in one line and singly promenade up and down the ring, so the judges could see their gait.  The judges would deliberate, and several dogs would get called into the middle of the ring for either advancement to the next round (the morning sessions) or prizes/places (which occurred in the afternoon).


Aunt Mary Alice loving on a sweet four year old girl

The minis started a bit later than the standards, and we were able to get front row seats for the entertainment.  These were extremely well trained doggos, so although you'd hear a few barks every now and then, they were generally pretty quiet and attentive.  They still wanted to play with their handlers, so several humans brought toys with them into the ring, to keep their charges entertained until it was time for that specific dog's judging.  You'd also see a few sploots or yawns from time to time, and some jumping on handlers was also to be expected.



Watching some of the handlers hoist these monkeys onto the tables was pretty funny -
Bea weighs 38 pounds and is a smaller mini, so it's not like these chunkers were light.
We call our girl our 38 pound bowling ball.


Scritches!
A cool thing we noticed was the diversity of handlers - many genders were represented,
folks were all ages, and there was also some difference in racial/ethnic background.


We enjoyed watching the non-white bullies more, since it was easier to tell them apart,
but white is still the more popular - there were so many white puppers.



A whole row of mini bully girls, ready for chaos

Coming up in Part 3 - more bullies!  More dog show!  More eating and drinking!

Later!

Amy

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