S-curving through the intermountain west alone with a puppy – Post 4 of the Boise Roommate Saga

Why didn’t I just fly to Boise? I needed to be in Boise asap. But what about my poor cone-headed, recently-spayed puppy? John was headed to Albuquerque and offered to take Biska with him. But when John works in Albuquerque, he’s onsite at work for 10-12 hours each day. Biska wasn’t even house trained yet. She was right in the middle of all of her crucial puppy training and socialization. She would be alone all day every day for weeks, raising herself. She’d end up a wild dog. No, she was coming with me.

We could have caught a flight; she was still small enough to fly in a carry-on crate. But I wanted to bring all of Biska’s bulky puppy training stuff like the bells I attach to the door that she was learning to ring when she needed to go outside. I also wanted my camper van because I wasn’t sure what I was going to encounter in Boise. The plan was to stay at Callan’s house. But we had increasingly aggressive roommates also living at the house. I thought of my van as my safe space I could retreat to if needed.

How was I going to manage a 3-day van trip alone with a 12-week old puppy, still in her cone from her spay surgery, and not yet fully potty trained?

The first decision I made was to take the slow route. I could have driven due north through Nevada but the 2-lane road is dangerous with frequent passing vehicles and there are few services on the way. It’s bleak and remote and didn’t feel safe. And it would only save an hour out of what for me was a 3-day drive. So instead, I decided to stay on major interstates. Northwest to Las Vegas, northeast to Salt Lake, then northwest to Boise.

How was I going to drive for 3 days alone with a puppy? I imagined the 3 P’s of puppyhood: pee, puke & poo everywhere. I put down a blue tarp across the entire floor of the van and started loading our luggage.

What to bring? For myself I packed everything from a swimsuit to a business suit. Exercise clothes. Sweaters, coats, hats and boots. I had a surprising amount of winter gear in Tucson, luckily.

I packed 4 days of food. Because how was I supposed to even eat? I didn’t want to try to manuever our 9-foot tall van through a drive-through. I didn’t know how Biska would do alone in a van if I tried to eat in a restaurant. And I had reserved low-end hotels with hard floors because Biska was still potty training, and none of those hotels offered room service. Plus I don’t like fast-food chains, so it just seemed easier to bring my own food than try to figure out restaurants in unfamiliar towns.

I loaded up on a Tuesday morning and started driving. Turns out Biska does well in the van, but was a challenge on potty stops. She had somehow managed to get it into her head that the only proper place to pee was nice green grass! Uhhh – we live in a desert. The only reason we had grass in Tucson was due to insane record-breaking monsoon rains. The grass unexpectedly volunteered, but I don’t intend to keep it alive otherwise. I was not going to be able to guarantee Biska green-grass stops as we wound northward through Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. “Desert dogs pee on gravel!”, I told her. She just looked at me. Huh?

We struggled the first day, from Tucson to Las Vegas. Not only did Biska require green grass, she was also afraid of traffic and wouldn’t go pee if she could hear cars nearby. That was a problem on interstate rest stops with trucks whooshing by on the freeway. Other dogs were also a problem – they were far too distracting! That made hotel pet areas useless for us. Let’s just say that first night, it was a good thing I had reserved a hotel with hard-surface flooring. And yes, I was traveling with a full roll of paper towels and a large bottle of Nature’s Miracle.

On the morning of the second day we passed through St. George, Utah. I totally fell in love with that cute little town. Or maybe it was just because I took the time to get off the interstate and stop at a little neighborhood park. Grass, blessed grass.

It was a tidy park with a paved bike trail winding by. It was much nicer than freeway rest stop! I wished I had time to walk the trail, but we had miles to go.

The route northeast out of St. George through the Utah mountains is stunningly beautiful. Sculpted red rock everywhere. I really enjoyed it. Sorry, no pictures of that – I was driving.

Next stop, mid-Utah somewhere. Snow. Ugh.

Here’s the dog area! Snow covered. Biska was like, “I’m not peeing in that. Are you nuts? I don’t see you peeing in that. It’s cold! That is not grass. That is really not grass. Not even close, uh-uh, no way.”

At this point I was really very overwhelmed. I was driving north alone with a puppy. We had an attorney retained for the battery charge, but what about the fact that the roommates were still living in Callan’s house? My friend Alan stepped in to help, long-distance from Albuquerque. He did some background research on evictions and found an eviction attorney. He also found some information about Heidi and Kylie that was unsettling. I pressed onward.

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