I made the hour and 15 minute drive from Torrington, WY to Cheyenne, WY yesterday, twice (there and back). actually it’s supposed to be an hour and 15 minutes. but because I’m jen, and God has created me uniquely and curiousitively (dude that is an amazing word creation right there, I’m claiming it!), yesterday’s trip there took about an hour and 30 minutes or so. the trip back took about the same amount of time. the following is a fun-filled photo documentation of my journey across the barren (or not-so-barren, apparently) plains.
from Torrington to Cheyenne:
about 30 minutes or so down the road, I saw a snake coiled up in the middle of the road. now, if you read my previous post, you’ll know the turmoil that this caused inside of me. do I stop or do I keep going? do I stop or do I keep going?
learning from my last experience where when I finally did turn around, the snake was gone, this time I made the decision a lot sooner. I slammed on the brakes, whipped a u-turn and headed back. this time, the snake was still there. ok so maybe it was dying and that’s why it hadn’t slithered off. if I could, I would re-enact what the snake was doing. but alas, I have to resort to a description with words. it was coiled up, slithering around in a coiled up heap. it had its mouth open and was whipping its head around like it was trying to bite its ear. I don’t know if snakes have ears. but it looked like it was trying to bite what it thought was its ear and where I would imagine its ear to be. and yes, I took a picture. because I had to document this exotic creature.
don’t worry, mom – I took the picture from inside my car. you’re welcome. :)
I continued on my drive, super stoked to have captured this moment. when all of a sudden I see this huge, transformer-looking monster down the road. it looked ginormous. as I got closer, I realized it was one of those farm tractor things that I have no clue what the name of it is but I’ve seen them out by our family’s ranch in Nebraska. not nearly as exciting as the snake, but I still took a picture. because I’m cool like that.
do you see how dirty my windshield was? ugh. I swear it’s impossible to keep your windshield clean out here, at least during this bug-season. at one point, I heard a big “SPLAT!” and saw some creature had suffered an abrupt death upon meeting my windshield and left it’s bright yellow insides splattered in a very nice but disgusting circular, bright yellow splatter. unfortunately, I did not take a picture of this event. but I decided that if I was a bug, I would want brightly colored insides so I could make sweet splatter marks on windshields. or 1 windshield, for that matter. because I don’t think I’d last after splattering once, even though I like to think of myself as strong and bionic.
from Cheyenne to Torrington:
on my drive back, I nearly died 57 times. that may or may not be an exaggeration. but it probably is. however, it was a lot more on the “oh my goodness I’m going to die” side than the “oh sweet - snakes, machines, and bug splatters!” side.
about 20 minutes down the road (it was dusk when I started driving back), a big herd of deer finished running across the road right when I came upon them. I braked and braced myself in case there were any stragglers waiting to cross at just the right moment (that being right in front of my headlights). thankfully, no stragglers. but I did wonder why I scrunch my face up and nearly close my eyes entirely when bracing myself. I don’t know what good that will do if my face is scrunched up when I hit something. but it just feels like the right thing to do.
about 15 minutes later, I saw this lonely cow walking near the fence on the side of the road. I rubber-neck stared at it as I went by. it stared at me. as I kept driving, I said out loud, “…I think that cow is outside the fence…” curiosity taking over, I slammed on the brakes and pulled another u-turn. this next line is 117% serious (not that the rest of my post isn’t 117% serious…). as I turned around in the middle of the road, I caught a glimpse of the same, coiled up snake on the side of the road!!! I kid you not!!! out of the 83 or whatever miles between Torrington and Cheyenne, I pulled a u-ey right at the same exact spot as the snake from earlier in the day!
anyway – I drive back to check out this cow. sure enough, she was out of her fence. do you realize how bad that would be if someone hit it with their car?! those things don’t move. they’re solid. so I pulled another u-ey and pulled over on the side of the road the cow was on, rolled down my window, and hollered at her. I don’t really know what good I was thinking I would accomplish by yelling at this cow. but I just felt like it was the right thing to do, next to getting out and grabbing it by its tail and hurling it back over the fence. I yelled, “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUT HERE! GET BACK INSIDE YOUR FENCE!!” she jumped (no really, she did) like I startled her. then she started running along the fence line. and then I realized I could do absolutely nothing with this cow except maybe get charged by it if I kept harassing it. so I took a picture. because I take pictures of exotic creatures.
I called Cristine because they were a little bit behind me in the suburban. I called her to warn her about the cow. I don’t know if that’s what you’re supposed to do when you see a cow out and you know your friend is coming down the road behind you. but I felt like it was the politically correct thing to do.
I continue on, and about 25 minutes later the most nearly-epic-clash-of-Zeva-and-the-deer occurred. I’m just driving along, on high alert because of all the natural wildlife I’d encountered hanging out on the roads. also a little spastic because I had caffeinated coffee to keep me awake. all of a sudden this deer runs in front of my baby girl (Zeva). I slam on the brakes, the cooler of food goes flying, and the deer jumps out of the way. thankfully.
I decided I don’t want to drive on the country roads at night any more in my lifetime. there are plenty of hours of daylight to be driving. I’ll drive within those hours. :)
1 comment:
haha wow - now that's an eventful drive!
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