My travel partner and best friend is my fiance, Steve. Travel has played a huge role throughout our relationship; we have traveled across the U.S. five times, and have a number of interesting stories. Three stand out in my mind.
The first story I thought of is my favorite to tell. We got lost while driving through western Nebraska. We tried taking a short cut on county roads, thinking they would be like county roads back in Ohio or Michigan, where we are from. We found ourselves on a dirt road, fifty miles from the nearest U.S. highway, no houses, and no fences. To make matters even more strange, we turned a corner and there were cows all over the road. They all gave us weird looks, as if we were the ones who were out of place. There’s nothing worse than being made to feel foolish by a cow!
The second story takes place in the Badlands of South Dakota. It was evening, and we were wandering near a cliff edge, and I was puzzled by the abundance of rabbit poop. Suddenly, Steve grabs my arm, and at the same moment a rattlesnake coils up and hisses at us, rattling fiercely. It was less than three feet away. I was so shocked I wouldn’t have moved, and I was actually thinking, “I should get my camera.” Luckily, Steve had my arm and he was already running for the car and pulled me with him. He’s a good person to have in a crisis.
The third story occurred at a rest stop in Iowa. I was wandering some of the trails looking at the trees, when I saw a bird that was behaving strangely. I looked at it closely and saw it had gotten neon green fishing line wrapped around its neck, and was caught in the branch; any time it moved, the line wrapped tighter and it was choking. I found a lady from maintenance, and she got a ladder and some scissors, and cut it loose. To this day, I am at a loss as to how it managed to get bright green fishing line so badly tangled around it.
Our recent engagement has us thinking about expanding our travel repertoire. Our dream is a honeymoon abroad, somewhere exciting, where we can have and write about new adventures!
PS. The photo was taken during a blizzard… in Albuquerque New Mexico!