Yo---Chip!

Al Hansen

Al Hansen

Well-known member
Bev started to laugh when she saw the title. First thing out of her mouth was, "Are you trying to sound like Jessie in Breaking Bad?"

This past Saturday I drove to within 34 miles of the Wyoming border to pick up Chip aka Enchanted Desert Chipotle. Since it had been a while in testing my driving skills in the Colorado Rockies, I decided to leave early and pulled out of the garage at 3:24AM. I knew I had about 650 miles to drive.

On the way up there I dropped a pup from Habi off in Alamosa, CO and then continued towards Vail. While enjoying the spectacular scenery on the way up Hwy. 17, I noticed that if I headed for Aspen and came in on the backside I could save a ton of miles so I did it. Never will I do that one again. I ended up going over Independence Pass (12,095 feet). There were times where I thought I would have to change my shorts more than once. No guard rails on this one----YIKES!

Here are two shots while going there and one when I got to the top.

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I found out that Aspen in the summertime is a zoo just like it is during ski season. I finally got to I-70 and Rifle, CO where I turned north.

Chip was worth the drive. After taking ownership I headed south for Grand Junction where I planned to stay over night. No room in the Inn! All the pet friendly motels were booked so I decided to drive on. The owners of the kennel had said, "Make sure you don't go through Silverton and up through that pass on your way to Durango. Well I missed that turnoff and at around 1:00AM was driving through that pass with hairpin curves with a max speed of 10mph. When I was on top of this range the night time temp was 36F and the fog had set in big time. The best news of all was that I had no close calls with elk and or mule deer. I did see them, however.
On early Sunday morning, as I approached Rio Rancho on Hwy 550 I saw this sunrise.

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I-25 was not too far away and before I knew it, I was home at 8:00AM on Sunday, having coffee with Bev. That 1,334 mile round trip was now behind me and Chip was making himself at home.

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I can tell you that it didn't take as long for him to recover as it did me from that trip. We are sure happy to have him with us. Chip comes from an impressive lineup of field trial dogs and we will look forward to the days when his pups will be running around in our kennel. However, right now his stuffed bunny means more to him than anything else.
Al

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Great stuff Al! As we all know anything worth having is worth a little stress and discomfort. That pup is too cute and definitely worth it.
 
Heh, heh. heh. we did the Durango to Silverton to Ouray drive last summer. sure made this MN flatlander pucker up a bit, and we did it in the day time where you could see all the way to the bottom. Sure is nice of those folks at the Highway Department to not spoil your view with those annoying guard rails!! We did see the Elk, a huge herd including bulls,cows and calves, and Deer. I was wondering on a few of the hairpins if the truck had a tight enough turning radius... Fun trip.

That is one fine looking stud you have there!

George
 
Great pictures Al and a great looking pup. Glad to hear you made it home safe and sound.
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Thanks, Paul. When I was much younger, I would have stayed longer, but now I know what it means to be "home".
Al
 
Great stuff Al! As we all know anything worth having is worth a little stress and discomfort. That pup is too cute and definitely worth it.
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Well, Dave, I am hoping that cuteness will get passed on to some of his youngsters in the future. We'll see. In the meantime, he will be my first attempt in training a male. I have always preferred having a female doing the retrieving in the past. This should be an interesting fall/winter and 2014.
Al
 
Heh, heh. heh. we did the Durango to Silverton to Ouray drive last summer. sure made this MN flatlander pucker up a bit, and we did it in the day time where you could see all the way to the bottom. Sure is nice of those folks at the Highway Department to not spoil your view with those annoying guard rails!! We did see the Elk, a huge herd including bulls,cows and calves, and Deer. I was wondering on a few of the hairpins if the truck had a tight enough turning radius... Fun trip.

That is one fine looking stud you have there!

George
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I sure got a kick out of what you had to say, George. You don't know how many times I thought about how lucky I was to be driving Bev's Toyota Camry when it came to the hairpin curves and no rails---also for the fuel mileage, by the way. Anyway, when I saw some of the animals between Ouray and Silverton, I did think about the comforts of the truck, however.
Al
 
Great looking pup Al. I will be looking forward to following his progress. The wife and I did the Needles Highway in the Black Hills this summer. Now I know what it would feel like to drive an SUV down a spiral staircase.
 
Great looking pup Al. I will be looking forward to following his progress. The wife and I did the Needles Highway in the Black Hills this summer. Now I know what it would feel like to drive an SUV down a spiral staircase.[/reply

Thanks so much, Dave. I have done that trip in the Black Hills. Enjoyed it immensely. Hope you two had a great trip because that is one magnificent area in North America.
Al
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