Another Open Range Tale

I have another open range tale. About 3 years ago we were driving 300+ head of cows to our high-country winter pasture. The last 5 miles is on a paved road. Now that is the only stretch of paved road for 100 miles and people seem to try and make up for all the dirt roads by driving like racecar drivers on the one paved road. 300 cows do tend to fill up a two lane road, so we decided to have truck’s front and rear as cow escorts – slow drivers down and warn them of 4-legged obstacles in the road. So we had a friend from France driving behind the cattle and our partner Clarice Holder driving in front. Whenever a car would come, the ladies would flag it down and explain the situation. Most people pulled over and got their video recorders or cameras out. They enjoyed the show. Clarice had trouble with one lady. She didn’t want to hear Clarice’s explanation. She was important and in a big hurry. So Clarice politely informed her that Arizona is an open range state. If she drove her fancy car into a cow, well, too bad for her. She would owe us for the cow, and we would not be obligated to fix her car. The lady was obviously not impressed with Arizona law and still in a hurry. Clarice said “Hey, just step on the gas – we need to sell some cows anyway.” The lady slowed down when she came face to face with the herd!