Homeward Bound

The last two weeks of this year’s RV adventures flew by, filled by friends, fellowship, good dog fun and lots and lots of RVs and HDTs (heavy duty trucks).  

After a flying trip east and south to escape an early-winter storm bearing down on Wyoming and Nebraska, we arrived in Hutchinson, KS, on Wednesday, October 9.  We were greeted by a number of our friends who, like us, arrived early for the 2019 National HDT Rally.  We have a lot in common, but the thing that brings us together in Hutch is that we pull our fifth wheel RVs with big trucks…like you see pulling 18-wheelers down the highway.  We had a couple of days to visit, then on Saturday and Sunday more rigs rolled in and the rally began.

Gail and Steve Dixon did a great job coordinating all the activities and events.

Seminars, happy hours, arts and crafts projects and tours of each others’ homes let us spend time with new friends and old.  

The Bagley Pack had dog fun with Phil Carpenter’s girls, Dred and Daisy.

Daisy and Rue invented a new game:  I threw the ball; Rue raced after it, with Daisy following as fast as her short legs could go.  Rue brought the ball half-way back and dropped it in front of Daisy, who returned it to Phil, who gave it to me.  Then the whole thing started over again. 

Cody wasn’t sure how it all worked, but he did his best to snatch the ball from either Rue or Daisy, 

and celebrated by rolling around with it in his mouth.

Jack and Danielle Mayer’s border collie, Keyah, who Rue and Kota met last year, was also an active participant in fairground walks and Ball.  

She, Rue and Cody flew back and forth to see who could get to the ball first, but shared nicely no matter who came up with it.  

This year’s HDT Dog group photo wasn’t as well attended as last year’s, but several dogs and their owners braved the chilly morning.

And a good time was had by all.

After the rally and the post-rally recovery, we were preparing to leave for Texas on Monday morning.  Sunset brought beautiful skies and flags snapping in the wind.

However….we woke to the sound of howling winds, with every piece of trash that had accumulated over several weeks plastered against the chain-link fences.  The RV was rocking, and we decided the smarter thing to do was to wait another day.  On Tuesday, several of us pulled out, bound for different destinations, but glad to have calmer winds.  John and I traveled south to the Comanche County Fairgrounds in Lawton, OK, 

where we were joined for the evening by our good friends Bill and Cec Burton and their four-legged companions, Raven and Gypsy.  

We have camped with the Burtons several times before, and always have a great time.  When we're together, Bill and John spend a lot of time together working on various electrical (Bill's specialty) and mechanical issues that come up with our trucks and fivers.  (Cec and I keep up with the dogs and generally try to stay out of their way.)

We enjoyed a quiet evening around Bill and Cec's fire pit and the next morning headed south into Texas.  After crossing the Red River, 

we rendezvoused again with the Burtons for lunch at Hard 8 Barbecue in Stephenville.  

As we passed by the big pits and selected our cuts of meat, we remembered why we like to stop here.  The barbecue is tender and succulent, the beer is cold and the beans are free!  Stuffed and satisfied, we said our goodbyes and traveled on, us to Hamilton and the farm, and they bound for Fredericksburg.  It has been a great trip!

Leaving Laramie

We are in Laramie, WY right now, but it’s time to leave.  We have had overnight temperatures in the  20s several times since we arrived, in spite of the weather guessers’ predicting something warmer.  That is too cold (at least for this Texas girl).  By the end of the week, daytime temperatures aren’t expected to rise above freezing and I’m afraid my blood will start to coagulate.  

We have had another great visit here.  John was out of town several days at Gilbert's funeral, so the dogs and I just took long walks and chased a few bunnies.  What has really been special, though, is our time working with Roy Kern, range master of the Albany County Fairgrounds Shooting Range.  We can't thank him enough for his patience and skill in explaining what we are doing right...and wrong.  

Roy is a former Olympic shooting instructor, and currently coaches the students participating in the Albany County 4-H Shooting Sports Program.  You can see how successful the program is; these first-place team awards (and there are many more you can't see) go back to 1996, most of them earned by teams he has coached.  

Both John’s and my marksmanship has improved dramatically thanks to our sessions here this week and when we came through Laramie earlier in the year.  When I shoot well, I can now recognize the "feel" of doing things right.  And if I'm off the mark, thanks to Roy I know what I need to change.  Whether it's adjusting my stance, grip, sight alignment or trigger pull, I can now recognize what I need to do to improve.  You can bet, we’ll be back, and we encourage anyone traveling this way with a desire to sharpen their skills to stop by and shoot a few rounds in this excellent facility.

Since we lost Colt in June, there has been a void in the Bagley Pack and in our family.  As you know, that void has been filled.  Not that any dog can be “replaced” any more than any person can, but we are so pleased to welcome Cody.  He is a six-year-old border collie who has trialed at the Open Ranch level and who will be excited to get to Texas and begin to work sheep again.   Cody (whose original name was Cal) is out of Juan Reyes' (Wheatland, WY) J.R. Red and Anna Guthrie's (Harrisburg, NE) Raskle, but he has Texas roots.  His grandfather was W.D. Red Oliver's (Caldwell, TX) Luke, bred by Jimmie Walker of Hillsboro, TX, and his line also includes Jimmie Walker's Sam and Abby and E.B. Raley's (Crawford, TX) Imp. Glen, among others.  He has a lot to live up to, but hopefully the credentials to do it.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to both Jo Woodbury, who trained Cody and has entrusted him to me, and to Wendy Auzqui, who knew I was looking for a dog and contacted Jo on my behalf.  I am so grateful to both of you.  (And thanks to Wendy and DH John for taking some of these photos.)

I worked with Cody at Wendy’s for a week to begin building our sheep herding partnership.  I am thankful for her insight and suggestions, and so pleased at Cody's responsiveness and his sheep sense.  I feel very blessed to have him and hope we can be ready for a trial before the end of the year.  

When we get back to Texas, we will be contacting Michele McGuire, Sheryl McDonald and other friends in the herding community to help us get there.  In the meantime, Cody is learning   important things he needs to know about living in an RV and commands that have nothing to do with herding sheep.  He is also learning the difference between Cody and Kota.  That's been a diction challenge for all of us.  He is stepping up nicely, though, and following Kota and Rue's lead.  We'll keep you posted on his progress and on our adventures as we travel east and south.  

Moving South

Before leaving Buffalo, we spent a fun evening with our RV park neighbors, Guy and Marie. 

We left the Bagley Pack and their two schnauzers at home and attended a fund-raiser for a local family with some overwhelming medical bills.  There was a silent auction, and a live auction that went on for a couple of hours.  We managed to keep our hands in our pockets when they auctioned off the larger items, but we couldn't resist the pies that had been lovingly baked and donated by members of the community.  Auction proceeds went directly to the family, and the dozens of pies sold for anywhere from $40 to over $200.  John and I took home this beauty...an apple-cranberry delight that we snacked on for a couple of days to make it last as long as possible.

And to make the evening even more special, our ticket was drawn for the door prize...this lovely "honey basket" donated by Stingers of Buffalo.  Thanks to them for this contribution, and to whoever baked our beautiful pie.  

It was a rewarding evening, and the community really turned out to support one of their own.

On Saturday, we had our first-of-this-trip rainy day.  Then, with a monster early-fall storm sweeping south from Montana, on Sunday we took the dogs for one last walk around our lovely Deer Park RV Campground…

and headed south.  Cody is enjoying his two new girlfriends, but I'm looking forward to working him when we get back to Texas.  There are even a couple of fall trials we may try to enter if all goes well and we get home in time.

We took one last look at our Beautiful Bighorns...

And the numerous bands of pronghorns gathered on the range.  This is breeding season for the pronghorns, and each buck does his best to round up a harem of females, or does.  It's a struggle, because other bucks are always lurking nearby in hopes of stealing some of the does for himself. 

And speaking of roundups, as we drove south we spied a man on a four-wheeler moving his small herd of bison.  I guess you can't use a dog like we do to move cattle and sheep.

The trip from Buffalo to Laramie gave us some anxious moments.  There were wind warnings, with gusts of up to 60 mph expected.  Fortunately, we were ahead of the worst of it and only have winds in the 40s.  That’s above what we prefer for pulling our rig, but the truck and trailer handled it well and we are now parked in our favorite spot at the Albany County Fairgrounds.  The scenery isn’t great, but we do have acres and acres for dog-walking (complete with bunnies).  

The dogs are having a fine time.  Cody has graduated to being off-leash with the girls while we are in the fairgrounds.  It's not as much fun as working sheep, but that will come soon.

We’ll be here until Saturday or Sunday.  John flew to East Texas this morning to attend the funeral of his cousin and dear friend, Gilbert Kalinec, of Union Grove, near Gladewater.  Gilbert was a respected teacher, football and baseball coach, and high school principal.  He was also a beloved husband, father, grandfather, cousin and friend, and a pillar of strength in the family and the community.  He will be sorely missed.