Wednesday, November 1, 2006

SEPRA’s PugFest

Last week we decided that it would be great if we could take a “mini vacation” and pull ourselves away from the daily grind for a weekend getaway.  Of course we wanted to take Benjamin, Henry & Luna, so we thought the SEPRA PugFest would be just what the doctor ordered.  PugFest is held the last Saturday of every October in the Atlanta, GA area and is SEPRA’s biggest fundraising event of the year.  Atlanta, GA is about 460 miles away.  It is about a 7 hour drive for us, but the road trip was going to be half the fun.  We are very lucky that all three of the pugs do very well in the car and that they really seem to enjoy car rides.

So we made the hotel reservations, printed our MapQuest directions, packed our bags and packed Benjamin, Henry & Luna’s bags.  We hit the road around 3pm on Friday hoping that we could get some miles under our belt before dark.  We crossed over the Florida / Georgia line right around dusk and we thought this would be a good time to let Benjamin, Henry & Luna to stretch their legs and go potty.  We also fed the pugs and picked up some dinner for ourselves.  With full bellies we were back out on the road.  It had started to rain while we were eating dinner.  This wasn’t ideal, but we just figured we would take it slow and we would be fine.  We drove for about 20 more miles and then traffic started to slow down.  Sure enough, we hit our first backup.  We were at a standstill for about 10 minutes and then we started to creep along.  After a good hour of barely moving we were finally able to see what was going on.  A tractor trailer had broken down in the right lane.  The highway was under construction and there was no shoulder so the broken down tractor trailer was completely blocking the right lane.  Since we were on a two lane highway this left us with only one open lane and it was very clear why we had been inching along for such a long time.

Once passed the tractor trailer, things returned to normal and we continued driving along.  After a long day at work and a long drive we finally arrived at our hotel around midnight.  We were exhausted, but as soon as we pulled into the parking let we were greeted by three other pugs that were also there for PugFest.  Just seeing the pugs in the parking lot made the long drive totally worth it.

While unloading the car, we must have met 5 other families that were all there for the PugFest.  This made us super excited and needless to say we couldn’t wait to get to the PugFest.  Meeting all the pugs and catching an 8 hour nap in the car also made Benjamin, Henry and Luna very excited.  They had no interest in sleeping and they spent Saturday night running around the hotel room, playing with other pugs and barking at the sound of all the jingling tags that passed by our door.  Needless to say, we got very little sleep on Saturday night.

Saturday was the big day and we got to the PugFest around noon.  When we arrived the place was already packed with pugs.  We spent the day talking to other pug owners, watching the boys and Luna meet all the other pugs, buying stuff from the vendors and bidding on silent auction items.  I find it nearly impossible to explain what it is like to be at an event with hundreds of pugs.  I don’t think there are words to describe it.  We did take plenty of pictures, so maybe that will help give you a sense of what it was like.

We left PugFest at about 4pm.  By that time, Benjamin, Henry & Luna were exhausted!  We went back to the hotel room and decided to catch a quick dinner.  We spent the rest of Saturday night hanging around the hotel getting better acquainted with some of the pugs staying at the hotel.  Early Sunday morning we packed up the truck and started our trek back to Florida.  The driver home went smoothly and it was much better than the drive there.

Since the pugs had about a 6 hour nap in the car we decided to stop off at the big dog park in Jacksonville on the way home.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather and Benjamin, Henry & Luna had a blast playing with the other dogs.  After about an hour and a half at the dog park, we hit the road again.  We were home in about an hour and we had three tired pugs on our hands.  This gave us time to get unpacked and to get ready for the upcoming work week.

The trip was short, but I wouldn’t change a thing.  We had so much fun at the PugFest that I’m pretty sure we will be there next year!