Wait, You Want Me to Do What?

by Tiffany Friday, April 17, 2015 0 comments

Heidi Prezel. Yes, that is her real last name. Well, legally not anymore. Which is partly a result of this story, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Have you ever meant a person and started a friendship which seemed like it was established years before you even knew they existed? Yup. I'm lucky enough to have one of those people and it's Heidi. She has many attributes which allow for such a friendship including her hard working attitude (like work until your kidney is about to burst), honesty (as in, if you do something stupid she'll tell you with no sugar coating needed), and sense of humor (pure ridiculousness).

After 24 hours of driving and lots of memories.

After Heidi graduated from high school, she ran off to Oklahoma, and finally landed in the State of Enchantment (or entrapment, depending on who you're talking too) for her college career. Upon completion of her degree, she decided to hit the road and head for Montana where a "summer" internship at a large cow-calf ranch awaited her. Oh yea, and her long distance boyfriend. 

Heidi had a plan. Heidi always has a plan. She planned to hitch up her old Ford F-250 to a 20 foot long stock trailer, shove her three year filly and weanling colt (yup weanling, as in weaned from his mother by two weeks) in the back, and drive her happy butt 24 hours north to the Big Sky State. Just her, her horses, her dogs and the open road. Well, I saw this plan as a problem. 

So I offered to come along for the ride and help drive a little. Just to keep her company (and to make sure she didn't die). The night before I flew to New Mexico, I laminated about all the terrible things that could happen along the way, but put my big girl panties on and headed out the door.

So. Many. Hilarious. Stories. 

Like when we stopped in Colorado Springs at 4pm on a Tuesday for a potty break, which turned into a grocery store shopping trip and ended with two very large iced green teas, one in each of our happy hands. Fast forward an hour later, to grid lock Denver traffic with our 20 foot plus rig stuck smack dap in the middle of commuters trying to make their way home. If you've ever gulped down a large green tea you know where I'm going with this. Yup. We had to pee. SO BAD! With nowhere to go and not even a place to hide to go. And pulling off one of the exits wasn't going to happen. The truck stop never looked so good.

And when we stopped in Tiny Town, Wyoming at three in the morning and I headed into the 24 hour gas station to check out their energy drinks and supplements. No Doz is a little caffeine pill that one can take when trying to study for a big test, finish a project for work, or drive across the country in 24 hours, and is perfectly legal, by the way. I stared at the home goods products for at least ten minutes in my zombie state and then turned to the store clerk who was already looking in my direction with concern and maybe a touch of panic. "Do you have any No Doz?" I muttered. Full fledged shock and horror shoot across her face as she sputters, "We don't do that kind of stuff around here!" 

Or when we saw little tepees for little Indians and never gave it a second thought. We were about 22 hours into our non-stop drive (remember that weanling colt in the back) and mother nature hit us again. Lucky for us, it was 5am in nowhere Montana so we just pulled over on the side of the road. As we played a round of Chinese Fire Drill, we both noticed tepees in a field next to the road. Our delirious minds left it there and gave us some good laughs to help keep our eyes open. In case you were curious and hadn't figured it out, those tepees were markers for an airplane runway. 

Experiences are so much better than things. Even better when you're riding shotgun to a crazy girl with a plan.