39 Days, 10 States, 2 Kids – Where’s My Tooth?
Leaving Telluride, we took gravel through the mountains, along an awesome plateau meadow, having lunch near another creek before dropping down into relatively flat, plain landscape.
We dipped through a canyon and found our way to our destination, a single wide trailer on an 800 acre cattle ranch in Dove Creek, CO, along the Colorado Utah border.
This was another place I was apprehensive about. It could be really cool, or really scary depending on our hosts, that lived right next to our trailer. We found our way up the driveway and were greeted by an old dog named Tough Guy. He didn’t tell us his name, because if he did, we probably would have left immediately. We found that out later, from the owner. Alli settled in along the fence to the horse corral petting a horse while we inspected the trailer to make sure it wasn’t too horrible. Fortunately it wasn’t, because one of the things that made me apprehensive was that there wasn’t another suitable place to stay within an hour of the ranch.
After we settled in and I found a spot in the shade to sit (we were at lower elevation and it was hot out) the owner came out and talked to us for a while before being joined by her husband. They were nice people and told us stories, then offered to take us on the side by sides to see a baby calf that the kids could pet.
We headed back, then hopped in Jethro to go explore. On our way back to the trailer to get ready to head out for dinner, Alli told us her tooth was coming out, but she had to fight with it, and eventually pull it out. Kari put Alli’s tooth on the counter and we headed out to the State Line Bar and Grill.
When we finished eating, we took the advice of our hosts, and headed out to see Dolores Canyon. It took about a half hour on gravel to get to the overlook, and we did not see a sole the entire time. The canyon was pretty neat, and we were definitely glad that we went to check it out, and watch the sunset next to the La Sal Mountains in Utah that we would be driving into tomorrow.
When we got back to the trailer the kids put on their pajamas, had their snacks and brushed their teeth. While I was checking out the full moon rising, Jake came out to ask me if I did something with Alli’s tooth.
I went in to investigate, and the family was looking all over the kitchen for the missing tooth, Kari checking the trash, Alli scanning the counters, and Jake looking all over the floor. “Maybe the owners accidentally threw it away” I suggested. I had noticed when we got home that one of the bedroom windows that was open when we left, was closed when we got back home. They were nice folks, so I wasn’t worried about it, or them stealing our stuff.
“You have to call them and ask them if they have Alli’s tooth.” Jake declared.
“We don’t have any cell service here buddy” I told him, “Even sissy’s phone doesn’t have service”. Sometimes when our Sprint phones did not have service, Alli’s AT&T phone might still have a bar.
“Well, then you need to go over there and ask them where Alli’s tooth is” Jake insisted.
“Jake, it is after nine o’clock and we are in the middle of nowhere on these people’s ranch. I’m not going to go ask them if they took Alli’s tooth. Too weird.” I explained, while keeping to myself the thought, what if I did go over there and ask, and they were like “yea, we took her tooth, would you like to see our shrine?”
Having a positive outlook, at least if they did take her tooth, and assuming for a moment that that is just what they do, it is a good thing that it wasn’t still in anyone’s head.
We promised them that the tooth ferry would know that Alli lost her tooth and they need to go to bed so they can get up early and do ranch stuff in the morning.
While I was laying in bed, Kari was standing in the bedroom doorway staring off into space, pondering something, probably luggage or maybe the missing tooth when she saw something run down the hallway. “I think I just saw a mouse run down the hallway” Kari breaks the silence. “Well, we are on a ranch. Maybe the mouse took the tooth?” I tell her.
Surprisingly, Kari got into bed and went to sleep. With the faint smell of something dying, probably under the trailer, I checked to make sure the pistol still had a round in the chamber and tried to sleep, but it did not come easy.
In the morning, happy to all be alive, we ate breakfast and got things ready to go. Yesterday the ranch owners said that the kids could help them do work, and Alli was pretty excited about it. Jake was luke warm, but didn’t want to be left out.
Alli waited around outside and petted horses, and Jake and I ventured out just before the owner came around and started telling the kids what all they were going to be doing. While listening as patiently as he could, Jake had a question on his mind that he just had to get out.
“We were going to ask you last night, but daddy didn’t want to, Did you take Alli’s tooth?”
She answered, slowly and inquisitively, with a drawn out “nooooo?”
“Well” Jake pressed “It was on the counter when we left, and when we came back it was gone. We looked everywhere, so we thought maybe you took it.”
With awkward confusion, we all tried to move past it, as Jake eyed her up like a criminal.
They began doing clean up in the corral, and the owner came and said they had to go and move cattle, and it would take an hour or two. I explained that we would probably be heading out sometime during the next couple of hours, and asked where we could find them, so we could pick the kids up on our way out. She started giving me directions, but they were literally -turn at the white barn, go past the old fence, etc, so I had her just show me on the map on my tablet.
They all gathered up in side by sides and headed off in a trail of dust. That’s ok right? Kari and I both thought.
While the kids were out running cattle, we loaded up Jethro and went to town and re-iced the cooler, before venturing down gravel roads and through fields to find the children.
They were just finishing up moving the cattle from one field to another when we arrived, and the kids were pretty proud of being a real cowboy and cowgirl.
The kids said their goodbye’s, hopped in Jethro and we got back on our journey. On our way out of town they told us about the struggles of moving cattle, and Jake reasserted his suspicion that they still may have taken Alli’s tooth.
Next, Utah.
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