Goulburn Breakfast Run, 16th July, 1995

Hello, my name is Becky. I'm an 18 month old four-legged waggy tailed person who belongs to Eriks Skinkis.

I've been taking Eriks to dog obedience for the last year, and I must say he is coming along quite nicely. He moves off with me when I walk forward and obediently comes to a halt when I sit or drop. More recently I've been working on advanced obedience training where I get him to drive me to interesting places in "my" Midget.

What most of you probably don't know is that I was the real brains behind choosing the route for the recent Robertson observation drive. Oh, sorry about the confusion through Picton, but it’s awfully hard for a dog to concentrate on the road when there's a cat crossing it!

When I read in Sprite Torque that there was a drive to Goulburn coming up, I gave Eriks the order to take me along.

The other Sprites left for Goulburn a lot earlier in the morning than we did. Eriks said that with my table manners I wouldn't be allowed in the cafe. Also he didn't trust leaving me in the car while everyone was eating because I had chewed through the hood on Cait Greenup's Bugeye not so long ago. Well, her Bugeye had been sitting in my backyard for a couple of weeks and hadn't been driven. I had been observing how Cait and Eriks drive their cars, and it looked easy. So I thought I could handle this myself. My first problem was I couldn't find the door handles, there just didn't seem to be any. Never mind, perhaps I could get the roof off and get in that way. I had never paid attention to how they remove the hood, so I needed to test various parts of it with my teeth to find a spot that might come free. I eventually found that the middle of the roof would come away a bit at a time. After a lot of hard work I had managed to create a hole almost big enough to fit through. Just a little bit more and I'd be in. Then it started raining. The Bugeye would have to wait for another day, as I had a more important job to do now - run around the backyard trying to bite the rain. It's a busy life being a dog!

Anyway, back to the Goulburn drive. Gosh, it was a cold drive down! I even tried to bury my nose into Eriks side at one stage, it was so cold. When we arrived in Goulburn we found all the other Sprites lined up by the park in the centre of town. What a sight, so many Sprites. But no other four legged people??!! Perhaps their obedience training wasn't as advanced as mine?

As Eriks got out of the car a loud and horrible man came rushing up towards me. Well, did I have a thing or two to tell him, and I sent him retreating very quickly! Eriks wasn't too impressed with the language I had just used and made me apologise to the man. I learned he was called Mike Robson. But I still didn't like him.

After a quick sniff around the park we all got back in our cars and went for a scenic drive around Goulburn. We drove a little way out of town and then stopped next to a paddock with two horses in it. I saw a real country dog there as well. This was great! We then turned around and drove back into town, this time stopping at a warehouse site. I wasn't sure why we stopped there, some people were muttering a word that sounded something like motakahnah?? Then someone said they saw a rabbit. Now that made more sense.

We then drove across to the other side of Goulburn, where we all stopped and got out of our cars. Someone said this was where the accommodation for the National Challenge would be. I wonder if that is anything like a dog obedience trial? Personally, I thought the paddock where the horses and the country dog were looked like a better place to stay!

After checking out all the trees and fence posts and making friends with some of the Spriters (except for that Mike person) we all got back in our cars. I was elected to lead the next part of the drive. Originally we were going to go up to the lookout at the Goulburn War Memorial, but because it was getting late I was asked to skip it.

We headed out of Goulburn on the road to Bungonia. As we came around a corner there were cows all over the road. You beauty! We followed this road and then took a turn-off back to Marulan. We passed many fields full of cows and horses. Do I know how to pick the scenic roads, or what!

After Marulan, I passed the lead onto one of the other Spriters. I could stop reading the map now and enjoy the scenery and wind in my hair a bit more. This part of the drive had lots of interesting things to look at as well.

We decided to stop for lunch in a nice park in Moss Vale. There I was minding my own business, chewing on my doggie snacks, when that Mike person opened up his esky. Hmmmmm ..... Well .... Perhaps I had been very wrong about Mike. Perhaps I could let Mike be my very good friend after all, and perhaps he might share his lunch with me as well. I liked this. I decided to be very good friends with several of the other Spriters as well. These were all really very nice people!

After lunch we all said our farewells and headed off home. I was one very tired doggie by the time I got home. I had a really good time and made lots of new friends that day.

It's back to reading the social calendar in Sprite Torque for the next Sprite drive. Maybe there will be a drive to somewhere really interesting like a sheep station?

Narrated by: Becky
Scribed by: Eriks Skinkis

Reprinted from Sprite Torque - August 1995
Magazine of the Sprite Car Club of Australia