The good news is the fact that I am done with all the Barber Motorcycle Museum pictures! I hope that you have a high speed connection. They are now posted on my SmugMug Gallery, they will open in a new window. On the top "right" of the page, under the "style" option, you can view them as a "slide show", even view them with the extra option of a full page photo. You can set the time viewed, fade… whichever way you like. Let me know what you think… it is quite a collection!

We had a great time the last day in Birmingham. Jennifer, a reader and member of a Pit Bull forum had been in touch with us and we had decided with her own Pit "Blue" to spend some time together including visiting her daughter’s school, Deer Valley Elementary, actually in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham. A sweet female with beautiful colors and markings, Blue as it looks like end up being a long lost cousin of Spirit. They just could not stop the hugging!

We had to advance our meeting time, the weather had turned real cold and the class was going to be busy till 12:30pm anyhow. We met around 11am and those two were instantly the definition of "love at first site"! I had brought some "Spirited Doggie Treats"… love to test those any chance I get… you can guess what these two are waiting for.

Of course "Treats"… I think one day Spirit’s tongue is going to fall off… Jennifer wrote to me yesterday with a funny story related to her husband Bobby and the Treats… Better than explaining I will just post the e mail here.

"I’ll probably get into trouble for sharing this, but it’s worth the risk!!!  Bobby came home early from his trip because he has a terrible cold.  When I got home from work, Blue and I laid down on the couch before our evening walk.  From the kitchen Bobby yells that the cookies I bought are not very good and not to get that kind again.  Cookies?  What cookies?  Did I loose my mind and buy cookies from Wal-Mart yesterday and I don’t remember it?  Well after walking Blue and after cooking dinner I noticed that I had left the dog treats you brought open on the kitchen island…..  I guess the little dog bones on the bag and the dog bone shape weren’t enough of a clue that they are for the dog. heehee

Blue LOVES them!  I am using them to teach her to close the door.  But maybe not the best cookies.

Have A Great Day!

Jennifer"

The Dogs were just a blur after that, and I think they could have rambled and play for hours, maybe days! I also read that once we were gone "Blue" wanted out quite a few times, probably looking for Spirit. Kind hearted Spirit… we are so fortunate to have each other on this Journey, the days and the times would have never been the same without each other… as much as he lives his own Life and often myself go about my business when spending time as I am now on the Internet. Never a complain, never a demand, he has never even ever asked to be taken for a walk! I just cannot understand why he was so abused before him and I got together.

And then it was time for lunch… Thank you Jennifer… what else but BBQ!… the hour to go and entertain the second graders of the "Deer Valley Elementary" School had arrived. Jennifer and Bobby’s daughter "Jade" is of course in the class and their teacher "Mrs Lindsey Calton" do you believe is the 8th teacher that has shown and read this Blog to their students! If nothing else that fact alone to me is worth all of this! Bundled up we rode the short couple miles, signed in and even met the principal "Dr Wayne Richardson" who was aware of our visit and all excited himself!

With all the bad rap Pits get in the press, with all the legislation laws passed to ban them from so many cities, those officials sitting behind the desks taking those decisions never thinking to ban the owners of ill repute instead of the dog, this above should be made into a poster and mailed to them… We will never win this battle as even trying to unite Pit owners I have found out that there are over 500 from large to small groups on the Internet, they are all talk and no action! Truly a sad situation… so, Spirit and I go on our merry way doing our good deed as I consider him a great Ambassador for the breed. We do what we can with what we have and enjoy it as did those children a couple days ago.

The children had a blast, the teacher had a blast… we did… Jennifer took the pictures and this high energy lasted for about an hour. I forgot how much energy these children have!… our last visit to a school was in Valentine, Texas… So what you might ask did we do for an hour? Amazingly these children knew our Life story!… and the questions were coming in non-stop. How many States had we traveled through? How old was Spirit? Where was I from? Why… and that was the big question… why are we doing this? Did I build the sidecar myself? Why does he wear his goggles and helmet?

We had quite an International audience… Children from all over the World! From India, China, Africa and I am sure that I am forgetting some. I have to tell you, it was great! I felt real old again… and my own energy just could not keep up with them! Second graders, I cannot even remember that far back. Questions were answered in orderly manner… there was much petting going on, Spirit probably wondering if we could do this every day… more pictures… below is Jennifer and Bobby’s daughter Jade with Spirit…

I am writing this from Memphis, were yesterday we visited Graceland… hummm… will write about it next time. Elvis is definitely alive… We are packing up for another leg of the Journey, the next big stop is Lubbock, Texas, where we will finalize the picture for the upcoming T Shirt and Mouse Pad we are designing. I know that you will like it… We get to cross the Mississippi in a little while, I was always told that it was a big step when going West!

Thanks for coming along with us…

Till next time…

"Spirited Doggie Treats" and "Art Cards"…. Dogs cannot live of Love and food alone… they need treats, they like treats… we know! Put Spirit to work!

We are always under deep appreciation toward the readers that have send in a contribution helping this website’s expenditures. For those who have not, continue enjoying the site, pictures, recipes, and if you feel it’s worth $1 a month, the contribution button is above, snail mail is below…

Ara Gureghian   853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd #245   Naples, Fl 34108

You be well and stay well…. Ara & Spirit

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 5:26 am and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.