Kathy and Dixie's Last Minute Trip to Idaho

0800 - Cedarville California, August 2000 - Just your usual Friday morning at the Surprise Valley Medical Clinic. Being the LVN meant that I was already busy getting ready for a day of patients, prescription refills and instrument sterilization. The RN I worked with was visited by two of her lovely daughters that morning, just stopping in to say good bye to their mom as they headed south toward their new college semesters in Sacramento. They excitedly asked me if I would like to come see the cute puppies that they were transporting from Idaho to Sacramento for a friend of a friend. They had made a trip to Idaho to visit said friends before returning to school and the pups needed a lift to their new homes.
I peeked in the back seat and instantly fell in love with two beautiful Miniature Australian Shepherd puppies, looking over their cardboard box at me. I had to have one! The girls happen to have the breeder's phone number, so as quick as I could, I called her and inquired about purchasing a female puppy. I wanted a "blue merle" which is colored with swirls of white, gray and black. These are a miniature version of a sheep dog that was originally bred by Basque sheep herders early in the 20th century in the back country of Idaho. The dogs got the name "Australian Shepherd" because many of the sheep herders had immigrated from Australia as the sheep herding jobs were more plentiful in the U.S. at the time. These dogs often have blue eyes, or one blue eye and one brown eye or a combination of both colors in one or both eyes. They are highly intelligent and loving and I had enjoyed two standard size "Aussies" as a kid.
The breeder calmly told me that she had only one pup left. He was male and a "Black Tri", which is a black dog with white on their legs, chest, belly, face and often a white ring around their neck. Copper is mixed in as shepherd spots above their eyes, areas on their cheeks, legs and back side. If you have ever seen a black and white border collie, the coloring is similar but with the extra copper color added in. I hesitated for a moment and then agreed to purchase the puppy. I asked her if I could come the following weekend to pick him up. The county fair was going strong in Cedarville and with my husband away on a forest fire, I was planning on taking my 9 year old to the fair over the weekend. Once again, the breeder had other plans. She told me that she was growing attached to the puppy and that if I did not come and pick him up that weekend, she was going to keep him. Then, out of my mouth came the words "alright, see you tomorrow around 11:00am."
I had no idea where Bruneau, Idaho was, I had no one to go with me, I was hoping my daughter wanted to go, but missing the county fair was not looking like an option. I called my mom, she would be glad to watch my daughter Laine over the weekend. My best friend worked in the billing department at the health clinic and I simply walked into her office and asked her if she would like to go to Idaho. We would leave that night, right after work. She looked me in the eye, told me I was crazy and said, "I'll go with you, but you have to promise to get me back to town by 8 pm, because I have a date for the demolition derby." "It's a deal!" I blurted out.
Our hometown is nestled in the northeast corner of California. 30 miles from the Oregon border and 5 miles from the Nevada border. Heck, Idaho was just a quick jaunt across the Nevada and Oregon deserts. We had a map. Dix was the logical one, she could navigate and I would take my husband's brand new Chevy pickup as the driver. Hey, what my husband Jeff did not know, would not hurt him!
1730 (5:30 pm) - Cedarville, California - Throwing together a suit case and getting my cousin to feed and water the other animals accomplished, I filled the gas tank and went to pick up Dixie. We had a map of the desolate deserts that lie ahead of us and toward the Nevada border we headed. As soon as we hit the state line, the road turned to gravel and stayed that way for 75 miles. We enjoyed pavement for 30 miles before we hit the small town of Denio, Nevada at about 9:30 pm, topped off the gas tank and grabbed a snack. Out toward Oregon we headed, still on paved road. Our goal was to reach a small town called Jordon Valley, Oregon that night and reach Bruneau late the following morning. Paved road turn back to gravel and the fluffiest silt when we took a right toward a blip in the road called White Horse. This was the short cut to get to Jordon Valley. I was having problems with the left head light, as we had bumped, but did not hurt, a black steer a couple of nights prior to the trip and I had not realized that it had knocked the light out of alignment. My left beam was headed down, making the dusty, silty road almost impossible to see at certain washes and gullies that we went through. I got out once and tried using a pop can and a flat rock to push the light upward but to no avail. So, we blindly bounced our way across the high desert of eastern Oregon, listening to old time radio mysteries and chatting when Dixie wasn't napping. We finally hit pavement again approximately 50 miles from Jordon Valley. Now, mind you, Jordon Valley is known as a small ranching community and I had no idea what awaited us as far as overnight accommodations were concerned. Luckily, it turned out to be kind of a truck route and we were blessed with our choice of two different 24 hour truck stops/motels. We rolled in at 1:30 am. The room was like walking back into the 70's, but it was clean and comfortable. Awaking at 6:00 am, we once again topped off the gas tank, grabbed a snack and began our ongoing trek. The locals had told us to take the road that went around the mountain range, just east of town. My trusty navigator was looking at the map and showed me a road that actually went over the mountain. It appeared to cut our distance by a great deal! Dix was the smart one, so we headed east out of town, instead of staying on the pavement and heading north to drive around the mountain. At first, the road was not bad. The mountain was beautiful and there was absolutely no traffic. That should have been our first clue, but, it was such a short distance on the map! After a few miles, the road became very rocky and narrow. I wasn't too worried, as we had 4 wheel drive. The farther we went, the narrower the road became and the bigger the rocks in and around the path grew! As I crawled my way over rocks, we both decided that maybe we should have listened to the locals, but with at least an hour into our drive, we both hated to give up and turn around. The eeriness of not seeing any other cars was quickly becoming my main concern. We passed signs stating that we were trespassing on mining roads. We decided that the signs were old and outdated. I prayed we would not run into one of those big yellow mining dump trucks and luckily we did not. The map eventually said that we were nearing a town called Silver City. A dot on the top of the mountain. As we drove into town, we realized that it was merely a ghost town! This mountain village was something out of the old west. As I looked out at a meadow, framed by the pine tree line, I gazed at the most beautiful old church. Made from rock, it's steeple still towering toward heaven, it just gave one the sense of peace and community that this little town once must have enjoyed. There were no signs telling us which way to go, so we continued on the dirt road passing abandoned houses and store fronts. As we were leaving the city limits, I realized that the road once again became very narrow, more like a cow trail. Thank goodness we decided to turn around at that point and headed out of town the way we came in. We kept looking for signs and eventually came across some Forest Service signs that pointed the way to the eastern side of the mountain. The most exciting part of our journey was finally seeing humans again. A couple of miles down the road, we passed a pickup with a ATV in the back. Eventually we passed another and then another. Finally, civilization! We figured out where we were on the map and got back on paved road. We eventually got cell service and I had to call the nice gal in Bruneau and tell her that we were running about an hour behind, but that we were coming.
Eventually we found Bruneau, wandered around trying to find the breeder's house and finally arrived at our destination. My puppy's first home was a beautiful cutting horse ranch, the house perched on a rise above the rest of the property. A large covered arena and various out buildings proved that these folks were definitely into horses and the sport of cutting. Riding a cutting horse involves having cattle in a corral and having a horse smarter than you are. With just a little direction from the rider, these amazing horses will take a single cow, or a small group and "cut" them away from the others. It is quite a skill and very much a popular sport among the ranch and horse lover communities.
Knocking on the kitchen door, we were greeted with a friendly "come in!" Opening the door, I came face to face with three mini's. They were helping themselves to the kitchen garbage bin. The owner came around the corner, scolded her dogs for their bad habit and shook our hands with vigor. I was soon introduced to Boots, my puppy's daddy, Peanut, his mommy and "Scooter", the cutest black tri puppy I had ever seen. He was friendly and very much adapted to life on the ranch. With time ticking away, I paid for the pup, gathered up his health papers and we were headed back to California.
As we began our return journey, we decided to go around the mountain, and it truly was a beautiful drive. Paved roads all the way, farm after farm, with houses and little towns dotting the landscape. In reality, it was not much different than our rural home, just a little greener. We soon went back through Jordon Valley, topped off the tank, grabbed a bag of cashews and a diet soda for us and water and bland jerky for the puppy and got back to the problem at hand. Getting Dixie back to Cedarville for the demolition derby and her date on time was obviously causing a little tension in the cab of that truck. Dixie's face showed signs of worry and her chatter slowed to silence except for navigational input. I usually take it pretty slow on gravel roads. You can come across anything on these lonely paths, but today I had a very nervous friend in tow. Let's just say, in our small town, men are hard to come by and she was not willing to give up this feller for me or my puppy. Have you ever hit washboard on a dirt road? Just as the description suggests, there are washboard like raises in the road, and if going fast enough, they will cause your vehicle to basically become airborne, similar to hydroplaning on water. It really causes havoc if you are driving a truck with no weight in the back. The sensation of the back end of the truck fishtailing as it bumps across these ridges will certainly get your attention. I seat belted by guardian angel in and we hurried across the desert. The good part of the return trip was that it was in the daytime, so the headlamp did not slow us down. The trip took 6 hours. We did not stop except to take a potty break here and there and I pulled up to the Modoc County Fairgrounds at 7:00 pm on Saturday night. With friendship intact, I thanked my friend for going with me and then took my little man home to introduce him to the rest of the dogs and cats.
I named the little guy Kipper, in memory of my daughter's favorite bed time story. "Where Oh Where Is Kipper's Bear" written by Mick Inkpen. The puppy grew to be a beautiful and loving dog. I enjoyed him so much that I bought a female mini from a breeder in South Dakota a year later. Tess (our momma dog) and Kip have been inseparable ever since. We raised several incredible litters of Miniature Australian Shepherds and they have been the love of their new owner's lives. They have been trained to be stock dogs, therapy dogs and to compete in agility. Kipper has the personality and Tess has the bloodlines to make these puppies what they are!
So, all in all, my spontaneous decision that Friday morning has been blessed with years of dogs, puppies and tons of love and laughter!