I'm gonna have me some fun...
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty chaotic. We were all running around the house (most of the time) trying to clean up and finish up things on our list we had come up with of things to do before we left for Las Vegas.
Thursday afternoon my dad came home early and we packed up our things into the van and piled into the car. We were all really excited; we’d been waiting for this day, counting down to it, for about three months or so. Now that it was finally here we were anxious to be on our way.
Let me tell you now, I’m a semi-die hard shot glass collector. Actually, several years ago (Maybe five years or so) my best friend at the time, who I admired a whole lot told me that he collected shot glasses and so I started to collect them too and I still do, to this day. :P So I had been saving up for this trip, with thoughts of shot glasses and souvenirs in mind. I was uncertain after buying my new lens, but luckily I had enough. The only states that I didn’t get shot glasses from were Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Missouri. (But I had one from Branson anyways) Anyways, back to my story.
Thursday evening we drove. And we drove. And we drove some more. We actually drove for about 28 hours straight through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, mostly in the dark. As the sun rose on Friday, we entered into Nebraska – which was pretty flat, boring and full of enough corn to feed a few armies.
Then the end of Nebraska began to get a little hilly and we entered into Wyoming. The cow-flecked landscape full of hills and mountains was pretty amazing. But it did begin to get old after however many hours we were driving through there. It was also a bit chilly. And brown. The state was nice but it was really brown there, and pretty much everything was in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice place, especially the ranch we visited, but I don’t think it’s the kind of place I’d like to live… I liked Missouri and Oklahoma a lot better: slightly greener, not quite as “middle of nowhere”-esque but still the countryside.
Anyways, after we drove for 28 hours (including breaks,) and almost getting lost, we found the ranch. The family was very nice, they had three younger girls who were a little shy at first but warmed up to us after a few hours. They also had an adorable little Jack Russell who was very lovable and cuddly. We had a delicious meal of home-grown briskets and some vegetables and rolls, then after hanging out for a little bit, we went to bed. We were all pretty much zombies at about 8, since technically it was 10 pm our time.
Saturday, we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, along with some yummy raw milk and then we hung around outside for a while, taking turns on the motorbike and doing some exploring. Jake, my dad and I got to feed the steers even, which was pretty cool. At first I thought, since they were so big, they might be pushy or something but they kept their distance... They had more important things on their minds.
One of their daughter’s friends had a birthday party so the girls all went to that, including my little sister and my mom. We hung around and watched a movie and then the dad got out two horses and we were allowed to ride them around for a little while.
Jacob’s horse got annoyed and tried to buck him off. I could imagine him flying off the horse but surprisingly enough he stayed on. Apparently he’s a natural. Go figure... Finally we decided to give the horses a break and went back inside to watch some tv while we waited for the moms and girls to get back. For dinner we had some home-grown cheeseburgers which were also delicious.
Bed time rolled around and the youngest daughter who had randomly declared that she liked me a lot, asked me to read her a bed time story; which turned into about six bedtime stories for about four or five little kids. :P Then we all hit the sack early for church the next morning.
The church was a little ways away. But I’d just survived 28 hours in a car so it wasn’t that long. :P It was small but cozy and the pews were comfortable. ;) The hymnals they use are a bit different from ours and so I got lost a few times but I figured it out. After the service we had donuts and the shortest bible class I’ve ever attended. Which surprised me. After bible class we went out to Pizza Hut for some lunch.
You don’t have to spend a lot of time in Colorado/Wyoming to figure out that most people there wear cowboy boots and drive trucks. So I was quite surprised to see the kids in their goth pants and chains at the pizza hut. I did a few double takes just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things… It was kind of weird. But anyways, after lunch we went to a park so the younger kids could play and burn off some energy before we got back in the car.
Reluctantly we all said our goodbyes and piled back into the car, to continue our drive to Las Vegas. We were sad to leave our new friends but excited to be so close to place we’d been dying to see for so long.
To be continued.
