A Horse of a Different....Stripe?

Got a question for you! Do you remember this guy? Malcolm's new gelding? He has a name now. Ringo is a 3 year old bay roan we got from a neighbor and friend. 

When I first posted about Ringo coming home, Lisa in Maine asked me about the stripes on his side that you can clearly see in the picture above.

I had noticed those stripes, and also the ones on his other side...

...the ones on the lower part of his barrel? See them?

Now, meet Breggo...

Wouldn't you love to have been on his back when that picture was taken! He's gorgeous!

Breggo is Lisa's horse! And the reason Lisa was asking me about Ringo's stripes is because Breggo has them too!

Here is what Lisa had to say about Breggo's stripes:

"They are very strange in that they are evenly spaced and vertical! I've gone round and round with the vet and trainer as to what may have caused them. The vet thinks he may have been born with them; but I think they are too straight and evenly spaced for that. My horse has them on both sides-does Malcolm's horse also have them on both sides? The lines are only visible with his summer coat. He is starting to shed his summer coat right now and the lines will disappear as he goes back to his darker color."

We havn't had Ringo long enough to know if they are hidden with a winter coat, but they are clearly visable now! And I lean toward agreeing with Lisa's vet in thinking they are a natural marking. I think this because they are on both sides, and because I know the previous owner and she would have told us if Ringo had had any injuries or abuse in his past. I did ask her about the markings, and her only thought was that roans have some interesting markings sometimes. But though Ringo is a roan, Breggo is not! SO...

Lisa and I are curious if anyone else has seen this type of marking on horses before, what they might be caused by if they are not naturally occuring, and if they have a name.

I can tell you this much, based on what I know of Ringo:

1. though they could appear to be just the look of a ribby underfed horse, these are not a result of his ribs sticking out and causing the coat to catch the light. The stripes are a coat pattern. There is no noticeable scar tissue or ridging of the skin. Just smooth even skin with a stiped pattern.

2. Ringo lived the last 3 years (his only 3 years) in a pasture running free and happy with a herd of geldings and young studs. At least that's where he's been since he was weaned.

If you can provide any information about these unusual markings, please let us know what you know! We're curious!

Another Week, This One Better

Let me start by saying I do not like the new version of blogger! I rarely like the new version of anything! When will I learn not to click on the buttons that say "update available?"

This week I had wanted to post on several occasions, but my blogging moods always landed on days when our internet signal was too weak. The other days I was too tired. This is why...

Can you see the green lines? Those represent our routes for the week. We started in Valier, MT and will end tomorrow in Williston, ND, for a grand total of (drum roll) 5,042 miles! MUCH better than last week!

I'm also tired because we did several nights of all night driving and I just don't sleep well when the trucks moving. But I'm trying to catch up this weekend.

Photography has been a bit of a challenge this week as well.

As of a few days ago, Montana has the most fires burning in the country, and Oregon was a close second. The air quality out here leaves a lot to be desired. The mountains are hidden in smoky haze, and add the bug splatters on the windshield, and well...after a few attempts, I called it quits. No point, because the shots weren't very good.

passing through the western edge of Yellowstone National Park in Montana on Wednesday

There were a few things to share and I also got some practice taking night pictures. I was surprised at how well my little Cannon Elph did!

Monday, after loading near Chester, MT, we headed for Spokane, by way of Helena. On the short cut from Helena to the interstate, I drove through a whole valley filled with these awesome hay stacks.

Malcolm explained the process to me, but I'd love to see it in action one day! They were quite impressive!

We delivered in Spokane on Tuesday morning and headed south through eastern Washington. Its harvest time in this part of the country, and they are busy getting at it!

Some of Washington's hillsides are impressively steep. They have some brave farmers over in that country. I don't think you'd catch me up there on those slopes in a tractor!

Many of the fields have already been harvested and the grain is being loaded and transported to its various locations. Some of it is being stored in private bins,

while some of it is being transported to large grain elevators, where despite their huge facilities, there always seems to be a surplus this time of year.

compare the size of the pile to the truck in front for scale

And on the other side of the Snake River from the elevator above, they had another pile of grain behind the bins and were loading a barge down with more grain to move downriver.

We loaded organic spring wheat near Milton Freewater, OR, which is just across the state line from Walla Walla, WA. The wheat we hauled was taken across the Oregon mountains...

...to LaGrange, where we hopped on I-84 and trucked on into Idaho. It was late evening as we were finishing up our Idaho stretch and the lightning was flickering on the horizon. I like to watch the lightning as I drive, but this time of year, as dry as it is, lightning is not really what you want to see. And sure enough, a few miles down the road, we drove past some of its handy work just getting started.

These grass and brush fires take off so quickly. It had already spread to cover a few acres. Highway Patrol had just passed us and was parked on the shoulder of the interstate to monitor the fires progress. I never heard any more about it so I'm assuming (and hoping) that nothing more came of it. There are already enough burning without more being added!

The next morning we delivered the wheat in Collinston, UT and then headed north towards Pocatello, ID to pick up a load of fertilizer, stopping south of town to grab a bite to eat.

Idaho is also where we saw one of the more amusing sights of the week. Creative camping...

that is not 1, but 2 vans altered to ride atop the bus!

The fertilizer went to Miles City, MT where we delivered first thing Thursday morning. And then we went straight north, almost to the Canadian line, to Opheim, MT to load lentils.

I love driving through northeast Montana. Its one of my favorite areas of the state.

And I know its only the beginning of September, but its definitely starting to look a little and feel like fall out here! And I'm excited about that! I love fall and I'm even anticipating winter's arrival!

We drove all night with the lentils over to eastern North Dakota, south of Grand Forks. Malcolm pulled into the parking lot at 3:00am to discover another truck had arrived just before us, and had gotten himself into a sticky situation.

He had somehow made a huge mistake and in trying to back out onto the road, he instead backed into the ditch! Not a good situation for any truck, but especially a hopper, as our hopper doors hang down beneath the trailer and are vulnerable in this type of situation.

It just so happened that one of the company employees had come in early and so they hooked the truck to the mills front end loader, and pulled him out of the ditch. And sure enough, the back hopper got drug, forcing the hopper door open and spilling lentils.

all that light colored stuff on the ground is lentils, there was much more than what's in the picture!

They had to use a sledge hammer to pound the door back shut and then Malcolm used his tools to repair the door so it could be used again. And then he and the driver shoveled up all the spilled lentils. All this, even though he was tired and could have just layed down and gotten some rest while the driver figured out his own problems. Most guys these days would have done exactly that! But not my husband! He's always the first one to jump in and help, and always has the answers to save the day too!

After that, we drove over to the southeast side of Minneapolis and loaded sand. That was on Friday morning. We're on our second load of sand now. We're going to go get another one just as soon as we drop this one off in the morning in Williston, ND.

the sand pit and mill where we load near Minneapolis

 This is drilling sand that's being used in the oil field up there around Williston. I've heard that region of North Dakota referred to as a modern day gold rush. All I know is these loads pay well enough to drive back EMPTY to Minneapolis, 650 miles, and that Williston and the little towns up there have become crazy boom towns where there is no where to park, no where to live, and it takes 3 times as long to get places as it used to.

This morning we got in to load early, and now we're headed back west. We have plans to stop in Bismarck this afternoon and have dinner with Malcolm's other sister and her fiance. And then we'll finish off the trip to Williston, and then turn around in the morning and head back to MN! Tomorrow starts another week. It will be interesting to see where it takes us!

First Week Back on the Road

Just a little over 3600 miles this week. Not really very good, when you consider that we aim for a 4000m/week average, and usually get more than that! Yes, our first week back on the road was a bit of a disappointment, but maybe that was for the best. I guess maybe it was better than leaping back in on the run and wearing ourselves down when we've gotten out of practice.

Monday morning, we left the house around 10:00, and made a short run, hauling a load of canola seed from Regent, ND to Velva, ND. Upon arrival at Velva, we found ourselves in line behind about 30 other trucks, all waiting their turn to deliver. It was several hours before we were out of there.

Unloaded, we headed to Devil's Lake, ND and arrived around midnight. We were out of there by 2:00am with a load of pea starch, an ingredient that they needed at a mill in California where they were making horse feed. I drove out of Devil's Lake and through the early morning hours, which meant I got to enjoy the sunrise, something I often miss, due to the way our favorite driving shifts fall. Tuesday morning dawned chilly and foggy in central North Dakota. It felt and looked like fall.

 We drove through the day, all night, and arrived at our destination south of Sacramento on Wednesday morning around 10:00, where we were told our load wasn't scheduled for delivery till Friday and they

couldn't unload us. It was discouraging to say the least. So we sat there, all day Wednesday, and all night, and Thursday morning we woke up to find another truck had arrived, and wouldn't you know it? They were going to unload him first, because of the appointment schedule. Malcolm called our broker, who is marvelous at his job, and within a short time, we were pulling into the unloading area while the other truck waited. 

A short 30 mile hop down to Stockton, CA to reload fertilizer, and we were headed back out of California, slipping through Sacramento before afternoon traffic really picked up.

this is about as empty as I've ever seen this stretch of I-80

We had an 850 mile run to northeastern ID, with plenty of time to get it done. We stopped in NV to eat and shower and still got to ID a couple hours before they opened Friday morning in Sugar City.

Seemed like the week had salvaged itself a bit after our 24 hour layover in CA, but then it turned out that CA had messed up our chances for a decent weekend load. After a couple hours, the broker called with the best they could come up with from our position, a 450 mile load from Pocatello, ID to Valier, MT. Not good news going into the weekend. That was way too much time for that short of a trip.

But that's the way the cards were dealt this week. So we heaved a few sighs of frustration, loaded our fertilizer in Pocatello, and headed north.

approaching the ID/MT border on I-15

 It was still in the high 90's in Idaho so I just kept going till it had cooled off some.

Just across the border into Montana, we ran through a  little rain storm, which worked like a charm. Got the bugs off the windshield and cooled things off considerably. At one point it dropped down to 61 degrees! There's hardly anything between Idaho Falls and Butte, MT in the way of food with truck parking. So I drove all the way into Butte, finishing off nearly half our trip before the weekend had even gotten here!

The scenery along that empty stretch of I-15 is lovely. Like an introduction to Montana's mountains, the interstate meanders along between the smaller ranges, through ranching valleys, and as you near Butte, the terrain becomes more and more hilly, working you into the larger mountain peaks.

 We spent the night in Butte, and slept in Saturday morning. No point in rushing things. We only had about 250 miles left and two days to get it done. So we settled in for a relaxing weekend.

We headed north towards Helena, about a 70 mile trip from Butte. Once you leave Butte, the mountains close in a bit more. Normally, the mountains are really crisp, but as usual in the summer time, there are a number of fires going on in our state, and things were pretty hazy this weekend with the smoke that's in the air.

 Montana has not been spared the damages caused by pine beetles and other blights. Once the awe of the scenery wears off and you start looking at details, its almost depressing. Most of the hillsides between Butte and Helena look like they are just waiting for the perfect lightning strike. It's no wonder we have fires every summer!

 We stopped in Helena for breakfast at a truck stop we'd not been to before. I'd looked them up in our truck stop book, and glad I did. The cafe there served up a really good meal! We lingered over coffee, killing more time, and then headed north to Great Falls.

 Western Montana is considerably dryer than our eastern region! They obviously haven't had the rains we've been blessed with this summer!

 Just north of Helena, the mountains close in again and become quite rocky. I love all the formations, and patterns, and layers found in the rocks.

 Here, the interstate runs alongside the Missouri River, through the mountain passes...

Closer in towards Great Falls, the mountains start backing off a little....

 ...and pretty soon, they are opening up and your looking at a great expanse of grassland, interrupted only by the occasional butte or stray peak.

 The haziness made it difficult to capture what its like up here, but its really pretty!

We hit the mall in Great Falls, did a little window shopping and actually found a couple things we treated ourselves to. Then we killed some time browsing at the farm supply store, which is always fun and interesting.

And it just so happens that Malcolm's sister and her husband recently moved to Great Falls, so Saturday night we were able to meet up with them for dinner and a visit.

This morning we were pretty much slept out, so we got up and went and had breakfast, and sat around reading magazines over coffee as long as we dared without frustrating the waitress. Then we killed a little more time, went to Walmart for some groceries, had pizza for dinner, and then left Great Falls to finish off the last 80 miles to Valier.

North of Great Falls its a gently rolling terrain, nearly every inch of every acre planted to one kind of grain or another.

I like the mountains, but there is just something about grassland that appeals to me. It's pretty up here, though there is a difference between these grasslands and those at home. I'll always love eastern Montana's prairies most of all!

The mountains are still hovering on the horizon to the southwest of us, and we'll be back in them tomorrow, as we reload and head for Spokane, WA for a Tuesday morning delivery. This was an easy week. Too easy. I guess it was a good way to break us back into trucking, but we're sure hoping we get to run our wheels off in the days to come!

Bulls, Broncs and the County Fair

Sad to say, even though I've lived in Montana for almost five years, until this year I had never attended the Fallon County Fair. We just never seemed to manage to be home when it was going on. That is, until this year!

The Fallon County Fair was last week, and though we didn't go every day, we did make sure we had time to go on Sunday, our last day at home before hitting the road again!

Its a small town and so its a small fair, but it was fun just the same. There is just something about fair time! Our first mission upon arrival was to get some food. Indian Tacos is this family's traditional fair food, and so Peggy and I claimed a table...

...while the guys stood in line and waited for the food.

Once we'd filled our empty tummies, we headed over to the displays to see what there was to see, and then over to the barn to check out the animals. There were the usual barn yard friends, waiting patiently for their rides to come take them home, as it was the last day of the fair. There were a number of dairy goats...

...quite a selection of sheep,...

...several hefty hogs...

...and two batches of wee ones. They sure are a lot cuter when they are this size!

Sight seeing completed it was time to head to Sunday's main attraction....the PRCA rodeo!

I love a good rodeo, especially the ones that are outside like this. There is just something special about it in this setting. I had fun with my camera, trying to capture the action. I know I should limit the number of pictures I put up on here, but there were just too many fun ones. So forgive me for getting carried away! I'm going to put you through rodeo overload.
Here's a fun filled run through of our afternoon at the rodeo:

First was some bronc riding -

Then they had the calf roping -

The steer wrestling didn't go so well, so I didn't get any pictures during that event. But then they went back to some more bronc riding and I got carried away.

The next one is my favorite of all my pictures from the day.

 Part of our big reason for coming to the rodeo was to watch family friend, Jesse Bail, ride. Jesse is currently #7 in the saddle bronc riding. I've gotten to watch him ride once before, several years ago at another rodeo.

As Malcolm said when Jesse's ride was over, "he makes it look so easy." And seriously, he does. Its like he's just sittin' on the horse waiting for it to finish doing its thing so he can get off. Since he's in the top 15, he'll be going to National Finals Rodeo in Vegas again this year. I've heard its quite a show. Maybe one day we'll get to go watch him ride there.

And of course he won the day's event!

After the bronc riding, there was a round of barrel racing. This event used to not interest me, but now I think it looks fun. Wish I'd been more aware of things when I was of the age to pursue this type of stuff. I think it would have been fun to compete.

 Besides, you get to wear really cute clothes and one girl had a hat on that I absolutely need for my own head!

And as usual, they saved the bull rides for last. Lots of action and entertainment there!

this is another favorite from the day's events

After the rodeo, we enjoyed ice cream with some friends, then said our goodbyes as we won't be seeing them till we get home for our next break. Then we did another pass through the animal barn, where most of them had managed to hitch a ride home.
By that time it was time to get home ourselves and finish packing the truck for work. But before we left town, we swung into the airport to take some pictures for Malcolm's dad.

After years of talking about flying, he started taking the steps towards making that dream come true. Several months ago he bought himself this amazingly beautiful aircraft. I'm looking forward to a ride in it one day in the near future!

Maybe I'll even learn to fly it myself! Why not?

If I can learn to be comfortable driving this rig, surely I can learn to fly a plane!


We left Monday morning on a short trip in North Dakota. Then we reloaded Monday night in Devil's Lake, ND and drove straight through to Elk Grove, CA, arriving yesterday morning. Unfortunately there were some complications with our load, but 24 hours later, we are finally unloaded and reloaded and on our way to Idaho for a morning delivery. And so, we're back on the road. Let the adventures begin! (as long as they are the good, fun type of adventures!)