Leesburg Bike Fest - the early bird day

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Today was an early bird day for Leesburg Bike Fest at Gator Harley-Davidson. We planned to head out late morning and spend a couple of hours checking out the vendors, knowing we didn't need to go back later.

We headed out around 11 am after Stu spent 10 minutes or so walking Sadie with the new Gentle Leader we had bought the other day. Her pulling, lunging and tugging had gotten progressively worse and as her strength continues to grow, we knew we needed to do something. Stu came back amazed at how well it worked.

We headed out on the bikes, perfect weather and a nice back road ride to the Harley dealer. Parking was interesting...for me, never an issue for Stu on the trike. I almost lost it in some heavy sand, then had to deal with really hilly/bumpy grass. But I survived...LOL!


We got Sadie off the bike and put the Gentle Leader back on....oh my, you would have thought we had sand burrs inside it. She twisted, she jumped, she whirled...for a good 10 minutes before she settled down a bit. We got some REALLY strange looks from folks.


It wasn't crowded which we loved. We wandered the vendors, priced the artwork Stu wants on his bike at a booth showing some amazing work, found a nice double flag mount from Rivco that will work on my bike (perfect for both our America's 9/11 Memorial Ride and the Red Helmet ride), talked to folks and just generally enjoyed ourselves.


The biggest thing we did all day was explain that Sadie's Gentle Leader was not in any way a muzzle. Any time I heard someone say that it was, or that she must nip/bite, etc. I went out of my way to explain the Gentle Leader and how it works. She got a lot of loving before the day was out.


On our way out, Stu stopped and talked to the Mustang Seat folks about what he would need to replace his current seat. Well, he ended up getting the seat (driver and passenger) as well as the backrest. Mustang even ships all your old seat/accessories home for you! Nice....




Needless to say, the custom paint is now on hold... We headed back to the park around 2:30, definitely getting hot and Sadie was done in. We took her back to the nice, cool, air-conditioned rig and we headed out for a late lunch/early dinner at Denny's.

Bee's has been almost half empty but by the time we came home at 5:30, there weren't many empty sites left. Toy haulers, motorhomes with trailers, trucks with campers, tents and motorcycles....LOTS of motorcycles. Glad to see them fill up, even if for only a couple of days.

Tomorrow we'll drop Sadie off at Preppy Pet for her doggie day care and we'll head to downtown Leesburg for the main event. It's three days long but with the temps going to be in the upper 80's to low 90's, we may only do the one day. Time will tell...

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu

7 comments:

  1. It's so hard to be tough with our pets. Even though we know it is what's best for them. I can just see Sadie dragging Stu all over trying to get out of the lead. I personally don't even think it looks like a muzzle.

    Have a good time at the show.

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  2. I'm glad the new gentle leader is working out. Sadie will just have to get used to it! I remember trying to walk our Lab. He was a BAD dog and never really got any better. I wish I had known about these leaders back then. Have fun today!

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  3. Yeah, people don't get the "gentle leader"...I didn't either till someone explained it to me and then I tried it out on our last terrier...worked wonders. I'm afraid we are looking into soft muzzles for our two furballs. They have a tendency to get overexcited around folks...they don't bite people, but they have got "into it" with each other. One gets jealous if it thinks the other is getting more attention...then the nipping starts...and next thing it is all out war. Gotta love terriers...I'm mean really...gotta love em.

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  4. Rusty pulls on my arms so hard that I worry about a shouler being pulled out. I think I will look in to one of these collars. Thanks for sharing this info.

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  5. Have a great time..and always remember...pitboxers are ridiculous

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  6. We've used the Gentle Leader with Sage. She always had the same reaction when we put it on her. Fortunately, as she's gotten to be 13 years old she no longer pulls my arm out of the socket as we go for a walk!

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