Once upon a time in Idaho we came across a traffic jam. Unlike in southern California, this did not involve a bunch of people in Prius’s beeping at one in another to drive faster so they could get to Whole Foods right now. A traffic jam in Idaho involves 500 sheep clogging a mountain freeway. So what do you do when in Idaho? You just drive right through the sheep in your 32 foot RV and if they don’t move? Wel, then it looks like we will be having mutton curry for dinner.
Last summer, we took a side trip to Lava Hot Springs Idaho to meet up with the Idaho side of my family and one amazing St Bernard. Of course being that we were in the mountains of Idaho we had to have a truly unique Idaho experience involving livestock. And by that I mean Idahos version of a traffic jam; 500 sheep set loose on the narrow mountain highway. As we sat in the RV gawking at the sheep absolutely as far as the eye can see the shepherds told us to just drive right through them,
“They will move” Do you have any idea how odd it is to drive through a flock of sheep? It was truly amazing to watch the shepherds and border collie sheepdogs corralling the herd through the mountains of Idaho. This was state ten of our ten state voyage and also around the time of the trip we were on our way back home (Yea!) and we were all feeling the homesickness.
A few months back we were on a similar trip through a land not familiar to me at all but instead of driving through herds of sheep our taxis, Ubers and rickshaws were gently nudging cows out of the way. And sometimes a donkey or two. We were in India and it was a different world to this southern California girl. While traveling the streets of India, as soon as you meet someone they will ask you in Karnataka or Tamil or Hindi,
“Ute”
“Have you eaten? Have you had food”
As we traveled through southern India last year, I knew there was a reason I liked this food centered nation. But back to our west coast road trip through the United States; Last summer as we finally escaped from the highways of Idaho clogged with sheep and were on the way back to southern California at last, we found ourselves in Utah. Yes, boring, boring dusty dirt fille Utah. We were driving down the 15 freeway at 60 miles an hour in our Fleetwood Storm and my boyfriend’s mom from India kept asking us about all the signs for “Ute” Why were there so many signs about eating?
Yes, in Karnataka “Utah and “Ute” sound extremely similar.
Now here are more photos of sheep looking confused.
