Colorado Puppy trip, February 23-28, 2011

Click to enlarge any photo.


While Holly was slowly dying of leukemia we had a few months to think about our next dog. We decided (with some trepidation) to get a puppy. It has been more than 20 years since we last went through puppyhood, but we figure this is going to be the last time.

Holly died on January 19th, and in a couple of weeks we located a litter we liked in Windsor, Colorado that was born on New Years Day. We put a deposit down for fourth-pick female (out of 6 females in the litter) and picked from pictures and description when they were six weeks old.
Traveling in the winter is not something we do, normally. We needed to do a 2700-mile round trip during a period with significant storms. We decided to do it as quickly as possible, which we figured was 7 days (we actually did it in six).

There was no thought of taking the bus - the 4-wheel drive Jeep with all-terrain tires was the only thing practical.

The photo at right was on Highway 44 headed up towards Lassen from Redding. The snow was even deeper on the way back.
The three photos at left and below were taken at various places on I-80 in Wyoming. We did not run into any closures, although there were closures in places we weren't crossing during our trip.

Out of the 2700 miles I estimate that there were about 400 (200 each way) that did not have snow on the side of the road. At times the road was fully covered with packed snow like the left lane in the photo below right, but most of the time there were just light drifts.
The four photos below illustrate the conditions the Jeep saw. The first one was in bright sun near Mount Lassen. The second was outside our motel room in Rock Springs, Wyoming on the morning of the third day. The third one is a surprisingly open Rest Area near Elk Mountain, Wyoming, and the final one is after our arrival in Fort Collins, Colorado. If you look at the large photo you can see the sand/salt/icicles in the wheel well.
Finally, here is Nikki, the reason for the trip! These are at 3 different rest stops. She has spent her first two months in snow, so it it something she likes, and rolling in it is a lot of fun!
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