Business Trip in Wildcat Country

I recently had the opportunity to go to a conference held at the Univ. of Arizona in Tuscon. The conference was the Food Allergy Research and Education's College Summit and it brought together ~80 people from colleges and universities all over the country to discuss and develop best practices for working with students with food allergies.

 

Because of my work schedule, I had to take a later flight than most of the other attendees. They had all walked from the hotel to the university together for the evening session but I knew I would have to find the way on my own. It wasn't too far and I had a map so I wasn't worried about it. However, U. of A. happened to be hosting a "Spring Fling" carnival that had closed the route I was supposed to take to get to the conference location. I tried to take a detour but finally ended up asking several students for directions. After an unanticipated tour of the campus, we finally arrived at our location.

Most of the route had been downhill, which worked well for me, but Morey had gotten quite a brisk walk. I had mistakenly left his bowl back at the hotel and realized I was going to have to find a way to give him water because he was panting pretty hard. We were having dinner as part of the evening session and I asked one of the wait staff if they had a bowl they could use to bring Morey some water.

 

They were quite accommodating and promptly served Morey a fresh bowl of water. It was probably one of the most fancy bowls Morey has ever had! Unfortunately they put it down right as they were trying to quiet everyone down to start the presentation and in a quiet room Morey's drinking has never sounded so loud! Because I had arrived late a lot of people hadn't seen me enter with Morey and several heads turned to see who was making such loud drinking noises. The man sitting next to me smiled and said "Just don't pick up your water glass now or they will think that is you!" Good advice! After what seemed like a very long time, Morey finally finished his drink. I promised myself I would be more diligent about having a water bowl with me at all times.

 

We spent a lot of time at the conference sitting at large round tables that had tablecloths on them. Several times people on the other side of the table hadn't even noticed Morey and got a bit of a surprise when his tail (or occasionally tongue) brushed up against them. It was dark under the table and must have made a good nap location because several times Morey started barking and whining in his sleep during the presentations. I felt bad about disturbing his dreams but he didn't seem to have any problem going right back to sleep again!

 

The hotel was .8 miles from the location of the conference. They had a shuttle running back and forth in the morning and evenings but it wasn't accessible. The conference organizer had asked if I wanted transportation but I told her I would be fine. After long days of sitting it was nice to get some exercise and the weather was perfect. There were other people who also wanted to walk back and so I had a chance to get to know some of the other attendees during our travels. Because of the slope and quality of the sidewalks I appreciated having both my FreeWheel and Morey to assist me.

 

Because the conference schedule was so packed we didn't have a chance to fit in much fun or exploring the area, although we did make use of several nice grassy areas for ball playing purposes. Morey was a little concerned because there were a lot of signs around referring to "Wildcats" but I assured him that we weren't likely to meet any of the feline type of cats while we were there!