BevLive: on the road again

Well, my morning draw wasn't what I had hoped for. Coupled with Bill's having a sore foot and being nine years old, I'm afraid the wild ewes were just a bit too much for us. The first bunch just outran Bill, and we missed the fetch by a mile; the second fetch went much better. We had a very good drive and shed, but a ewe broke at the pen and Bill was just too tired to catch her. That resulted in the group rejoining, and we lost the shed never to regain it again.  So we had what we professionals call a "crappy run."

After saying my goodbyes, I got the old camper hooked up and hit the road headed north. Herbert and Alison Holmes and I were fortunate enough to have been invited to stop at Jo and Leo Woodbury's beautiful ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming on our way to Sturgis.  I was eager to get to Buffalo and visit old friends.

It's about an eight hour drive from Meeker to the Woodbury's, and very uncharacteristically it rained for about half the trip. So by the time we pulled off the highway and started driving on the dirt road into the ranch, it was pretty slick. I did the last six or seven miles in four wheel drive. My camper is completely covered in mud.

View from the Woodbury's.

Any difficulties of the trip quickly fade in the face of Jo and Leo's hospitality. Don and Jeannie Helsley are here as well. We all sat long after dinner trading stories, many of them featuring Ralph Pulfer who had such an enormous impact on dog trialing in North America. Any time a group of handlers begin telling stories it's only a matter of time before most of the best stories begin to feature Ralph. I think it's time for someone to publish a collection of Ralph Pulfer stories.

And another.

I'm sure sorry we didn't do better in our finals run at Meeker. But there's nothing like spending an evening with dog trialing friends to remind me of what is really worthwhile about our sport.

All curled up now for a long winters sleep. It's in the 40s here, and after the warm Meeker weather it feels really cold. Tomorrow Jo and Leo have some ewes sorted off for us and we'll all work sheep before heading on to the Finals.