Dear loyal fans (lolsies!) I apologise for the long silence, I had no wifi in Halliday. I have kept notes over the last three weeks though, so fear not! You shall still know everything I've been up to! :) I shall be writing more than one post for this update as I have been here almost a month, so there is so much to share!
It all started back in Dallas. I woke up unnecessarily early on the morning of my flight, trying to quell a series of mild panic attacks brought on by Nicolette's harrowing tale of a traumatic crash landing experience with the very airline I booked with. Managed to successfully still my fast beating heart and had a lovely final cup of coffee with Nicolette and Carl before she and I headed off to the airport. Was mildly confused when she asked me which gate I was leaving from as, in my experience, you are given this information when you check in. Found the gate number on my confirmation email and all was well. Arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW) and immediately understood the need for my gate number. The place is the size of a city. It is unreal! You literally have to drive to the GATE not just the terminal that you are departing from! I was a little early for my flight (four hours early) so after removing almost everything except my underwear and having my hair patted down to get through security (OR Tambo has NOTHING on American airport security!) I decided to sit and have an eat. As I sat down, I realised I had not been asked if I would prefer a window or aisle seat. Puzzled, I checked my seat allocation and realised I had a MIDDLE seat for both flights! Unacceptable. I went back to the check-in desk where the poor man was being harassed by a lady with a very small English vocabulary because she had arrived very late and check-in for her flight had closed half an hour ago. She could not, however, grasp the concept that baggage goes through a security process and not just straight onto the plane and thus her bags wouldn't make the flight anyway and kept complaining that he was being mean to her. Poor Darnell. I approached him and very nicely asked with a smile if I could please have a window seat for each flight since I checked in so early. He not only gave me windows, he upgraded me to stretch seats (extra leg room... Cos I need that!) for free! Lovely man :)
Both my flights were very uneventful. I'm still convinced this was partly due to my fervent prayers to every deity known to man. I was highly amused and moderately terrified by the sight of a tornado shelter room at Denver airport. Another quick prayer to the deities that no tornados arrived while I was there. Still convinced I met Keri Russell... She promised me it wasn't her but assured me she heard that often and that her name was actually Maddie. I don't believe her because she even had the same eyelashes! But I felt rude taking a picture of her so I didn't. Decided I would make a poor paparazzo.
I was greeted in Bismarck, North Dakota by Elsabe and a huge lightning storm. The two hour drive home from the airport flew by and before I knew it, I was in Halliday! Total polar opposite of Dallas. Easily the smallest town I've ever been in. Population 200 give or take a few lost cows... I was absolutely blessed to have my own room with a double bed and drawers for my clothes! Such treats :) first (and probably only!) time this whole trip that I won't be living out of my bag! I was in for a major shock the next morning when I stepped outside (having just acclimatised to the lovely warm Texas weather) and almost instantly turned into Frosty the Snowman. Hello almost Canada.
I was put straight to work with the horses (no complaints here!) and rode my first genuine western horse in a western saddle with real cowgirl boots and no helmet. So badass :) the horse's name is Diggity and he is so well trained, he stops and starts like a machine and he can neck rein, spin, run barrels and do all the other cool things that cowboy horses do! He's lovely! I was then introduced to Joe. Funniest moment I've ever had to so with horses! Joe is a little Shetland pony, (by little I mean he is half my height!) and he is basically a live toy! We rode him bare back and I was laughing so hysterically that I actually just rolled right off his side while he was walking because I couldn't even breathe, let alone sit up straight. It was just too ridiculous for words! I also drove for the first time on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car... WEIRD! But I got the hang of it pretty quickly :) I drove around a lot in an awesome old pickup, a Ranger (too fun! It's basically a quad bike with a small cab around it), and a few other cars!
The following day we went to ride Finnish reining horses at a ranch in Bismarck. It was AMAZING!!! These horses are trained to slide to a halt by bringing their back end completely under themselves, spin around one back foot (fast! Dizzy making stuff!), side pass, move their hips around their shoulders without actually moving their shoulders, and so much other amazing stuff! I was grinning like an absolute idiot all afternoon :) one thing that took a lot of getting used to was the split reins. Basically two LONG separate reins that you cross over the horse's withers. A lot more rein to handle! The horse I rode was a lovely little filly named Sally and at the end of the day Scott (owner of the ranch) gave me one of her sliding shoes to keep! They are strange broad, flat shoes. Very interesting to see though :)
That weekend we went out onto an Indian reservation to go and look for a lost bull. I rode Diggity again but I was so stiff from the previous two days of riding I could barely ride! I honestly thought I might die. I was practically a sack of potatoes in the saddle. Elsabe thought this was hilarious however, and laughed at me endlessly :) so of course this is the day when Diggity (a calm, trained, professional cow horse) decides to not like water. So we get to the first stream (literally the width of my arm!) and this horse leaps into the air as though there's a building in front of him! Imagine my surprise. Needless to say every stream we crossed after that was great entertainment for Elsabe :) once we found the herd of cattle, I was left in charge of preventing their escape while Elsabe rode through them to find the bull. I had staring contests with quite a few curious cows. I never realised what completely unattractive creatures they are! I won the stare down every time though, of course. Cos I'm so scary :)
We went out on Saturday night for a bachelorette party and so that I could meet the surprisingly large group of South Africans that live in that tiny town. The bar looks just about the same as any other, except that it was pretty empty (although I was told that was a busy night!). The sucky thing about a town that small is that the sheriff has nothing better to do than sit outside the bar on the weekends and wait for drunk people to stumble stupidly to their cars. I think he gets quite a kick out of those moments. Luckily we weren't a moment for him, we decided to walk home (in the blerrie frigid winds!). I wasn't entirely convinced it was a better choice than being escorted home by the sheriff... But then, Iwasn't driving :) Sunday was my first Halliday braai - steak and home made boerie! Yes please :)
This marks the end of my first week in Halliday. I shall end this post here and start a new one for the next week :)
As always, stay classy c",)
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