Extra-terrestrial Sheep

Last week I found myself driving down a lonely Nevada highway listening to a boring audio book (by Sigmund Freud) when my eye wandered to a bright white mineral heap by the side of the road.  As I looked closer I discovered that there were over a dozen bighorn sheep resting on top of it idly chewing their respective cuds.

I came to a belated stop, turned the truck around and pulled off the road to have a closer look. Surprisingly they didn't seem to be all that troubled by my presence. I wondered if perhaps they had been accustomed to stop at this place for water or some other human hand-out.

As I got closer still, they did become a little agitated and I heard a few half grunts and half bleats from the ewes and watched as adolescent rams came into line. They were all quite beautiful with their brown and white contrasting colors and a couple of the rams were old enough to have sizeable horns.

When I got back in my truck I realized that I was at the western end of the somewhat famous Extra-terrestrial Highway (ending at the Warm Springs crossroads) where the sheep were resting. Who knows, maybe they were quite used to the scenery and were just waiting for the show to start.