MAINE AT LAST

We arrived at our work location in Maine safely under cloudy skies. In fact, I don't think Paul wore sun glasses more than two days during the trip because of all the clouds and rain we encountered during the drive. 

Wassamki Springs is a beautiful campground about 8 miles from Portland. We have a nice level campsite with pine trees, a picnic table and a fire ring--luxuries we didn't have each summer in Wyoming. It appears we made a great choice in destinations.

The focal point of the campground is a 30 acre lake formed while I-95 was being built in the late 1960's. Fill dirt/sand was needed for the road construction, so the contractor began digging on unused land behind the Hillock house on Saco Street.  After many truckloads of fill were removed, the springs broke through the soil, and the lake was formed. Mr. Hillock decided to open a campground around the western shore of the lake in 1970; thus Wassamki Springs Campground became a reality. 

Wassamki Springs CG is still owned by the Hillock family. The campground has over 500 sites with 155 available for rent on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis during the summer. The remainder are rented on a seasonal basis, with many local families vacationing here on weekends and a few weeks during the summer. 

Once the weather gets nice enough for swimming, there will sometimes be up to 1000 non-campers who will pay a daily fee to use the beach, which goes about a mile around the lake. You can see some of the premium beach-side campsites in the photo below.

We are obviously in the heart of Red Sox Country, as seen by this gnome in a nearby campsite.Can you identify what the gnome is holding in his right hand?

We worked two days learning our jobs and doing general campground work.

Then came our first big event of the year; the Southern Maine Coastal Classic Dog Show, sponsored by the York County Kennel Club of Maine. Yes, our campground hosted over 3000 dogs for four days in May with as many as 900 dogs on one day.  Some of the owners, handlers, and groomers who show their dogs camped here, while others streamed into the campground starting at dawn.  Owners competed for prizes in the form of ribbons and points to qualify for future events, such as the Westminster Dog Show held in Madison Square Garden. Can you imagine what 900 barking dogs might sound like? How about LOUD, beginning at daylight, which is about 5:00 am?

There were two large tents, each nearly 150 feet long, erected on the campground's ball field. Our workday began at 6:30 a.m. Paul worked the general parking lot, where over 400 cars were parked each day of the show. Ann worked the front gate and had this view each day.  The pup below is Loki, one of the show dogs, who obviously loves to ride in the car with his owner.  Many of these show dogs are so pampered that they think they are people!

Next to the large tents were the eight show rings, which were actually squares with a one foot high picket fence around each perimeter. Both the men and women who were showing the dogs dressed up to show in the ring.  The handler below was in a suit - to run a dog through his paces!  Just part of the culture of the dog show. There was also a vendors' area, similar to a local fair, with every imaginable accessory for dogs being sold.

The grooming tent was full of tables, each with a collar for holding the dog in place attached to a 2 ft. high post fastened to the table. Grooming some breeds with long coats often took hours.  Sometimes the dog was sprayed with water or even a chemical from a spray bottle and then blown dry with a hair dryer while the dog is being brushed. Where did the electricity come from to use a hair dryer? The participants carried small portable generators with them along with many other grooming accessories.  

The judges inspected each dog's body for imperfections.

The winners of each breed's competition were awarded their ribbons on the awards stand.

And then there was the Best In Show, the culmination of each day's competition.  The dog judged the best in each breed competed for a "best in group" award, with each breed belonging to one of seven groups (sporting, working, hound, etc.).  The hound group is shown in the pictures below. It is hard to believe that all these dogs of various sizes belong to the same group.

 

 The winner of each group then competed in the Best of Show, the culmination of each day's competition.  The winner of this day's Best of Show was a Portuguese water dog, we think. During the competition, the judge merely pointed at the dogs in the ring to show ranking, and there were no formal announcements.  We who do not understand the details of dog shows and the various breeds could only guess on the final outcome.  But it was certainly interesting to watch the formality of each competition.  One owner told Ann that showing dogs was like a gambling addiction.  Having a dog that wins a competition makes the owner pursue more wins, almost at any cost.

It will definitely be nice to get back to regular campground work duties after the dog show people and their dogs leave.