Our trip this past week to San Jose was busy and went by fast. We got to see some folks we haven’t seen in a while and didn’t get a chance to see some others. But, the adventure happened on the way home….
We left San Jose Saturday at 5:00pm, hoping to get past Reno. We had virtually no traffic problems and made it to Sacramento in a record-breaking 2 hours (a personal best for me). We had time to stop in Auburn for Chinese food, my new addiction (that’s your fault Mare!).
The adventure started after we left Reno when we were only 10 miles away from Winnemucca, our planned stop for the night. Steve was driving the truck and I was driving his Acura, rescued from abandonment in front of our friend Bo’s house. At 12:04 am, the left rear tire on the Acura blew, a victim of UV rot. I pulled over and called a 911 to Steve on the walkie-talkie, but he was too far ahead and moving fast, and he didn’t hear me. Don’t believe the advertised range of 2 miles on those things….it’s more like 1/4 mile! I sat by the side of the road cursing, then decided to take a few deep breaths and send Steve an ESP. It worked, because he sensed I wasn’t behind him anymore and turned around to look for me. We got the spare out and it was flat. Rode into town, filled it up and got it on the car, then went in search of a motel.
We stopped at the first mom-and-pop place we saw, paid for the room and were unloading the cars when….we heard the Rolling Stones. Okay, it was some cheesy casino act doing a bad version of “Satisfaction” and the casino thought it would be a good idea to broadcast it outside the building at 1:00 am so the whole town could enjoy it. We got our money back and high-tailed it to the other end of town some 5 miles away, to the Bullhead Motel, where we could still faintly hear the mangled chorus of “Beast of Burden” as it echoed down the main strip. As usual, I was a bit stressed about sneaking Charlie into the room, but after one look at the blue-green shag carpet with big brown spots, I wasn’t worried about anything. Charlie could only make it look better!
Next morning, we got up early and headed to the Home Cookin’ Griddle for breakfast, then off to Wal-Mart for new tires. They replaced all the tires on the Acura because Steve didn’t want to worry about me blowing another tire and we still had a long day of driving ahead of us. We finally got on the road and moseyed down to Elko, and I got on the walkie-talkie and called for a mocha frappucino stop at a little espresso shop we have been known to frequent. Armed with caffeine, we headed for Wells, and our favorite left-hand turn that takes us home.
Just short of Wells, Steve suddenly decided 
to pull off the freeway to the bottom of an offramp and check the lug nuts on the newly installed tires. We had just heard from a patient of his a story about going in for an oil change and the mechanic neglected to replace the oil in the engine, so we thought we should check it out. The lug nuts were fine, and we turned to pack everything up, and I suddenly realized that there was an extra dog in the truck. We walked over there, and here’s this little black and white puppy in the front seat, sitting there like he owns it. We coaxed him out and gave him some water and kibble. He was skin and bones and smelled like a cow pattie. It was blazing hot and we didn’t feel like we should leave him out there, so we drove off looking for someone who might claim him. We found an elderly couple who said they didn’t recognize him and somebody probably dumped him off at the offramp. We were out in the boonies.
So, we hosed him off in their backyard and scrubbed him up a bit with Ivory soap, named him Cowboy Joe and brought him home. He and Charlie are getting along fine, and Joe is nursing a raw foot pad that probably got burned walking around on the hot ground. He looks to be about 6 or 7 months old and he’s really a sweetie. He rode with me in the Acura and spent much of the time flipped on his back with his legs in the air and his head by the gearshift. Of course, he knew I didn’t have anything better to do for the next 10 hours than pet him. Towards the end of the trip he climbed in the backseat and slept with his head hanging down into a box of vitamins. We’ve been talking about rescuing a dog from the pound ever since we moved here, but I guess we weren’t moving fast enough. Funny how events transpired to put us at that offramp so he could jump in the truck…
The rest of the trip was a blur, and we arrived home at 2:00 am this morning. Cowboy Joe is settling into dog heaven, and Charlie is being a good big brother and showing him around the property. He really wants to play with his new pal, but Joe isn’t up to it yet. I think he’s still stunned by the fact that he has food to eat. He needs to put on some weight and get some sleep. Boots, on the other hand, is amazed at our audacity, bringing yet another hairy beast into the household, as if the Big Dumb Dog wasn’t bad enough!
Just another exciting day on the ranch…
