A typical travel day – Quincy to Bainbrige Island

We got up at 5:30 am. Craig fixed his typical breakfast of oatmeal with raisins, yogurt and a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and banana on top. I had my standard dog food for breakfast. After breakfast we moved the semi over closer to the goats and started the setup for getting them loaded.

The first thing is the ramp and hard pen.  The ramp has three parts, the bottom being the heaviest. This is Craig’s morning workout. This takes about an hour.

 

 

 

 

The next step is to set up a small pen to put the goats in while Craig takes down the larger pen. That way the goats do not have to wait in the trailer while the large pen is taken down. Once the small pen is up and the connection between the large pen and small pen is made, it is time for Craig to make sure all the goats are up and awake (that way no one is left behind napping). Sometimes I get to help out with the roundup but other times Craig just opens up the small pen and they all run in. This can take only 5-10 minutes.
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All the goats are in the small pen patiently waiting while Craig takes down the big pen (maybe not so patiently as they can get quite loud sometimes). This can take 1-2 hours.

 

 

 

Now it is my turn to work as I  push the goats up to get everybody loaded. Most of the goats load easily but there are always a few that need extra encouragement. The top floor is loaded first. Then Craig lowers the ramp to load the rest. I patiently wait until he is ready for the next group (at least most of the time – I have ran the goats up when Craig was busy lowering the ramp, which creates some chaos). The loading part is quite quick, usually 30 minutes. It goes so quick because I am so good and quick.

 

 

 

Once the goats are all loaded my job is done and Craig has to load all the equipment.

 

Then we are all ready to hit the road. We left Quincy at 10:30 am.

 

 

One stop at Thorp to get fuel and some healthy fruit, and Craig could not pass up the caramel corn.

We made it through the Seattle traffic just in time to make  the 2:06 pm ferry. We drove right onto the ferry without any wait.  Craig praised  the Lord, since the next ferry was not until 3 pm.

 

 

Nice clear day for a picture of the Space Needle. A number of people took photos of the goats while on the ferry.

 

 

 

Once on Bainbridge it took Craig about 2 hours to put up the fence. The goats were hungry when they were turned into the pen at about 5 pm.

 

Then the work is all done for the day and it is time to relax and have dinner.