Over the Mountains in a 34-Year Old Pickup in Search of New Blood for Our Herd

Our 1979 Dodge—looks good for it’s age, doesn’t it?

On Sunday, March 3rd, 2013, Gerald and I decided to take an exciting trip in his 1979 Dodge pickup power wagon, departing from our ranch in Palisade and hopeful that we would arrive at the EIEI Owe goat farm in Keenesburg, near Denver.

Yes, I said 1979 truck, over the Colorado mountains. Some may have called our idea “ill-advised,” but the vehicle was the perfect size for the job, and it was in good running condition, so we figured we were daring enough to risk it! We filled the back with fresh straw, because we were off to pick up an important package—a new 100% South African Boer buck.

Now, I said we were daring, but we aren’t stupid. Beside me on the seat was a folder with my Triple A information—card, maps, names, numbers and several addresses of Triple A garages in case we needed them. We had faith in “Old Blue,” as we call the pickup, but still, we knew that caution was warranted with a vehicle over 30 years old.

I also made lunches for both of us and took a cooler full of water, as well as umbrellas, jackets, boots and extra clothing that would sustain us in case we ended up spending more time in the mountains than we hoped. The weather forecast was not the best, reporting snow in the mountains and rain everywhere else. Still, we were too excited to wait any longer, so we started up the truck and set out on our journey.

It was a Sunday, which we thought would be a good travel day, but we found ourselves crawling up the mountains behind all the skiing traffic making their way back to Denver after a weekend of fun on the slopes. Silly us—we didn’t think that other people actually enjoyed spending their weekends sliding down mountains. Why do that, when you can adventure over the road in search of a goat? We were lucky though, and had left home at 9:00 a.m., so we didn’t hit the worst of the traffic that would happen later that afternoon—when, God willing, we would be going the opposite direction.

Turns out that we had the luck of the Irish with us. Old Blue got us to Keenesburg without a hitch. We arrived there at 2:00 p.m. in time to go goat shopping—one of our favorite pastimes. We were met by Scott Pruett, owner of the EIEI Owe farm. He was a very accommodating gentleman and treated us like his most important customers. While we got our feet underneath us after the long drive, he led us to his barn to see the bucks that he had for sale.

Turns out that our shopping would be short-lived, because the first one was by far the best. Scott brought out EIEI Balance of Power, a yearling buck out of Capriole’s Esquire. Our mouths dropped open when we saw this boy in person. He is an absolute beauty. We both knew we just had to make him our own—no question in our minds. See our picture of him on our buck page and you’ll see what we mean.

That decision made, we went out and looked at some of Scott’s young does and found a couple there that we wanted to bring home with us as well. Their story is on our up-and-coming doe page. By the time we were finished, we had pretty much filled the back of Old Blue with goats for the long trek home!

Traffic over Eisenhower pass backed up on the way to Denver—fortunately, by that time we were headed home.

We left Keenesburg at about 3:30 p.m., excited about our new purchases, but a little concerned over the next 250 miles we would be putting on our over 30-year-old vehicle. Wanting to take advantage of the daylight hours we had left, we started over the mountains without delay. Everything went well until we got to Vail Pass. As is often the case with that area of the Colorado mountains, it was snowing profusely all the way up one side and down the other. I think we held our breath the whole way! But after reaching Avon, the snow changed to rain and continued the rest of the way home. It’s still tiring driving in the rain, but at least we felt a little safer, knowing we wouldn’t be sliding off the side of the road with our precious load in the back.

When we finally drove up the driveway to our ranch in Palisade, we were thrilled. It was such a successful trip and we are so very happy with the new members of our Boer Goat Herd. They have adapted quickly to their new home and are settling in to do great things for our line. We were also so thankful that Old Blue did such a fine job. Turns out we didn’t have to use the Triple A folder after all, which means the oldies really are the goodies, aren’t they?

We send out a big thank you to Scott Pruett for his time and expertise in raising such quality animals, and invite our friends and fellow Boer enthusiasts to come and see them in person. We’re happy to show them off. And if you like, you can see Old Blue as well. He’s parked back in his normal spot, and ready for the next trip over the mountains.

With the Triple A folder in the glove box, of course.