How to get out of a sand trap.

And other helpful roadblocks

How can I move 13 Lucky Dogs to the United States without a car? Out of a remote dust bowl unserviced town? (The Sandtrap)

I dunno yet. But I’m going.

For three + years I’ve been looking for a place to bring us. All of us. I have found a place in the midwest back in the USA. It is a great fit for me beyond just a place for the dogs, as it’s a former creamery with a retail component that matches with my lifelong journey in local foods, cheffery, liaison work with farmers, rotational grazing , permaculture and all the things. It has 5 acres attached of pasture and has no neighbors to burn plastic trash, test muffler exhausts or paint vehicles, which is my current trifecta of aromatherapy. A Migraine Maven’s dream. Add the sand, the dust, the fracking, the lithium mining and I’d walk to the border at this point.

I feel like one of those moms who finally is an empty nester and can go back to her talent pool and be who she was before she had a litter of puppies. I won’t be an empty nester as I’m bringing these hounds with me, but I won’t just be composting dog poo and looking for a kid with a moto to bring me a sack of kibble if and when it comes in stock and I’d like to cut down on my days of belly crab crawling under barbed wire to pull potato sized puppies out of mud holes. And if I do all of that, I will have support in a community.

An actual town is 3 miles away.

There are transporters and pet movers and I have several contacts who drive dogs and people over the border all day every day but my roadblock has been of course, Where To? Can’t get the logistics rolling if there’s not destination.

I sold everything before I went on this journey in 2019. Would I have rented my farm and hacienda out before selling everything and driving to Mexico alone? Ya if there’s a next time, I’ll keep some property in the US. Bygones. It happened how it happened. I drove a $5000 minivan and someone flipped us over on the highway so I got $5000 from insurance. HOWEVER a $50,000 van cash out would have been better. But I weighed getting murdered for my vehicle by the cartels against no one bothering me in a Toyota Sienna 2004. It’s a gamble.

Sounds obvious but finding some place to live has been the biggest (literal) headache. Can it really be 6 years of cross country driving? Vanlife? Renting in Tulsa? Camping? Airbnbing? Hoteling? I have been in this sand trap since 2021. I probably needed the break.

A more serviceable town in Mexico has been a slog of bilingual dead ends. My rule has always been, If it FLOWS you go. I’ve heard NO or just been ignored on all my searches. It’s hard to house hunt without a vehicle and this is not the kind of place you can go and come back to in a day and the cartel is carteling too hard and honestly, I’ve had enough. it is time.

Step One. Find Place. Check.

Step Two, Dog Bus.

Stay tuned…

Interesting in contributing? We’re gonna need it! linktr.ee/lolasdogrescue