The 2011 Borzoi Club of America National Specialty was held last week in Lawrence, Kansas.  To spare as much of my lovely bride’s vacation time as possible, on Tuesday I drove Dutch and Ilya up there, a 13 hour drive through north Texas (including Dallas, which, judging by the billboards, must be the strip club capital of America), Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas.  My lovely bride flew up to nearby Kansas City on Wednesday and I flew home that afternoon.

Entering Kansas on I-35, I was greeted not by the usual state welcome center, where I could stretch my legs, go to the bathroom and get the boys exercised, but instead by a toll booth for the Kansas Turnpike.  Not that the toll for the 200 miles I traveled on it was excessive, but still…

I passed through the Flint Hills of southeastern Kansas, an interesting transit.  Not only did I not see any towns, there was no sign of anything anywhere.  No houses, no roads, no trees, not even cattle grazing, just grasslands (occasionally burnt) and the odd nodding donkey of an oil well head.

Ilya thoroughly misbehaved (in a playful way) in Novice class and placed fourth out of four.  He and Dutch redeemed themselves in Brace class by really putting on a show for the judge and audience, moving and standing as one and being named Best Brace in Show.  Not the kind of performance that I would have expected from their practice sessions!

In Best of Breed competition, Dutch, despite being one of the youngest specials in the lineup, surprised the dickens out of us by garnering an Award of Merit.  My lovely bride said he performed wonderfully and got rave reviews from the peanut gallery.  The Beeg Boy is still a year or so from real maturity; right now he’s a little underweight and out of coat and condition.  I think next year he’ll be a real brick if we can develop a real show personality for him.