As Clean As It Will Ever Be

 The John Deere gator was delivered yesterday afternoon.  The day was overcast, raining, and cold.  Decided to just store it away in Mjolnir.  This morning the rain had turned into snow but I was feeling anxious to give the gator a try.  I'd thought through where to take it.  Still deep snow on the path from the field to Gorgeous Gorge and in places along the way but thought I would take it as far as I could.  Let Whip outside.  I loaded up my gear in the back of the gator and took off - very slowly.  The ground is soft and I didn't want to rut up my trails.  I wasn't too far away from the house and I still hadn't seen Whip running along side.  I stopped.  Looked around the field and meadow.  No Whip.  I called for her.  Nothing.  I turned the gator around and went back to the house.  There she was waiting by the front door.  I jumped out of the gator and she came to me.  She clearly didn't think running alongside this machine was her thing.  I put down the back of the gator and told her to jump in like she does in the car.  Nope - not interested.  I took down the mesh door on the passenger side of the gator and pushed her in.  She turned around and came right out again.  This was not going as planned.  I didn't want her to have a bad first experience w/ my new toy.  I put the leash on her, brought her in through the driver's side and sat down before she could turn around and get out.  She started shaking.  Whether out of fright or cold I didn't know.  I gave her head a pat and started up the gator.  She rested her muzzle on my leg.  We drove out to the end of the field, turned around, and came back.  Top speed on this trip was 6 m/p/h  I parked the gator back in Mjolnir.  For all of that prep, all I got was a very short excursion and a wet spot on my jeans where Whip drooled.  Think it will only be short trips for awhile.   Give Whip time to adapt to the gator and to allow the ground to harden up again.