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Peer pressure is a powerful thing. Each September, The Midwest Doxie Fest takes place in Hooterville, uh, Danville, Ill. We attended a couple years ago and swore we would never go again. It was a three-hour trip each way and had many overall-clad participants—Not that there's anything wrong with that. This year, our Chicago Dachshund Group decided that we should not only go, but also rent rooms at the lovely Comfort Inn and make a party out of the trip. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like to leave my neighborhood, let alone the city limits, but since all the cool kids were going and Danica is the peer-pressure poster child, we decided to go. Being a neurotic weather watcher, I started looking each day to see if it was going to rain. Our hotel reservations could be cancelled up until the morning of the event and it being an outside event, I figured if it were going to rain, we would cancel. Kim, the leader of our group said 'No, don't worry about that. We have canopies and everything; rain will not be a problem for us!' A classic case of famous last words.

We took off on a beautiful Saturday morning, not a cloud in the sky. When we got about a half hour outside of our destination, the skies exploded with a wild thunderstorm and pounding rain that came sideways. I could hardly see the road. We called Kim and asked what it was doing over there. She replied that they were under the canopies near the creek. The creek? Oh good! We got to the park where the event was and it was a mess—puddles all over; short, wet, miserable dogs on picnic tables; and everyone huddled under the three canopies that Kim had bragged about. There was moving water all around our feet and we have very short dogs. Fun? Not so much. We kept thinking it would let up. It did not. I have to tell you that while canopies are nice and provide some shelter, we all got soaked anyhow. People all around us started packing up in the downpour and heading out of the park. We made the decision to do the same and head over to the hotel. After taking apart the canopies and packing, we traveled to the hotel. There is nothing quite like sitting in a car sopping wet with two drenched dogs. To make it even more fun, we were all foolishly following Lisa, who claimed she knew the way to the hotel. After a lengthly tour of Danville and a long wait for a train to pass, we made it to the hotel.

There was nothing to do but clean up and gather in Kim's suite ( yes, they really call it a suite ) and start drinking. Fifteen people and 11 dogs really do fit into a suite at a Comfort Inn! We then ordered from the only restaurant around, the Big Boy. In fact, it is the last Big Boy left in Illinois. Fifteen people can get stuffed for only $110, too.

So, while the fest was not exactly what we thought it would be, we did manage to have a great time with our group. We were on the road back to civilization Sunday morning by 7 a.m.

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