Well, so far the whole Utah experience has been a positive one, other than the fact that it’s so horribly cold here and my phone doesn’t work. Caleb can’t stand it and it’s an ordeal every time I have to expose him to the elements for even a moment. I had hoped to go exploring in the mountains with the kiddos but I’m pretty sure that would blur the lines of adventure/danger and I don’t really have it in me to expose my kiddos to high levels of danger. They can barely handle the low doses I throw at them every once in a while. The drive up here was incredibly uneventful, other than this one minor setback, or what mom is referring to as “the incident.” After surviving the biggest stretch of the drive, which is in disgusting New Mexico, I entered Colorado with high hopes of seeing something exciting. I was about thirty or so miles into Colorado and was on a road in what can only be described as the outskirts of a quaint little country village. The road was super curvy and there was snow everywhere. There were giant trees everywhere and I was trying not to let the scenery distract me. It looked like something off of a post card. It reminded me of the little Christmas village decorations grandma sets up every year. I knew there was a town coming up shortly and I wondered if I’d see carolers and horse drawn carriages. I even imagined this might be where Whoville was located. What a find. Anyway, so I was driving and trying to be super careful on the road since I am not that experienced in driving in snow. All of a sudden I saw a horse leap in front of my car and I knew for a fact there was no way I could stop fast enough to avoid hitting it. I would love to say it was my ninja instincts that helped me not roll my car or do something super stupid. Instead, it was all the stuff my grandpa tells me about what to do in case of an emergency on the road. We had even covered what to do in this exact circumstance except grandpa had prepared me for what to do if a DEER leapt in front of my car on an icy road, not a horse. So, I knew not to slam on the breaks or jerk the wheel or close my eyes and scream. In conditions such as these, I would either flip my truck or lose control of it, so says grandpa. So I quickly eased the breaks and drove my truck into the ditch which was not a ditch anymore because of all the snow. For a split second I wondered if I was about to hit a fence and was very tempted to slam the breaks. I might have; I don’t really remember. The truck stopped and I felt my heart beating super fast and for a moment I thought I might throw up. I checked on Caleb who was wide eyed and asking what had just happened. He was fine. I opened the door to my car which was a little difficult because of all the snow. I stumbled up the ditch/snowdrift thing and was very aware that I was ruining my boots. Snow was falling and getting in my eyelashes and making it hard to see. I saw the horse just standing there. He had reigns and appeared to be very used to people. My first thought was to tie him to something and get the heck out of there but I realized my truck was stuck. I grabbed the reign and lead him into the ditch back to my truck and held onto him while I opened my truck door and reached for my phone. Caleb saw him and immediately started squealing and freaking out. I was prepared to call grandpa and ask what the crap to do in this situation. We had never discussed this circumstance. My phone didn’t have service. I had no idea how far town was but remembered seeing a house about four miles back down the road. I wondered on a scale of one to ten how dangerous it would be to walk four miles with some random horse and my son to a stranger’s house to ask for help. I considered leaving the horse but didn’t want him to endanger anyone else. I decided that leaving my car would be the dumbest thing I could do and took myself and the horse back onto the road since people driving by probably wouldn’t be able to see my car from the road. I hadn’t seen any other cars on this road for a long time and I stood on the road and wondered what exactly my danger level was at this moment. I decided if worst came to worst Caleb and I could possibly ride this horse somewhere. He had reigns on so he belonged to someone and that someone had to know he was missing. For about ten minutes I stood there, thinking about options in the event no one drove by. But then I saw a truck and it pulled over. A lady hopped out and hurried over to me. She took the reign and looked super confused and was like, “where was he? Who are you?”
“I had to drive my truck into the ditch to avoid hitting him,” I said, “my three year old son is in there and I am VERY stuck.”
“I had to drive my truck into the ditch to avoid hitting him,” I said, “my three year old son is in there and I am VERY stuck.”
“Are you guys OK?” she asked, pulling out her phone. I told her we were and she called someone and told them about the situation.
“My husband is about ten miles away and I live right down there,” she said pointing towards the direction of the house I had seen earlier, “he got loose and I didn’t know which way he went. If you can hold onto him for just a little bit, I’ll go hook up the trailer and take him home. My husband is going to go to the house and grab the tractor to pull you guys out. Do you want me to take the baby to the house? My family is all there. They can watch him while we take care of this. I’m very sorry.”
She seemed nice enough but there was no way I was letting Caleb go with her.
“He can stay here,” I said, “and I’ll watch this guy until you get back.”
She took off and I stood there blinking snow out of my eyes and patting the horse’s neck. I can remember a few times that grandpa’s cows have gotten onto the highway so I know things like this happen to even the most responsible farmers/ranchers. I was still a little annoyed that I was losing time and even though Caleb was in his carseat, I was getting worried about him. I led the horse back down to my car, opened the passenger door, which wasn’t that easy, and told Caleb what was going on. He didn’t care about anything other than petting the horse. Since I didn’t know this horse, I told Caleb no. He asked if he could ride him. He asked if we could keep him. He got mad when I wouldn’t let him pet him. He wanted to get out. I told him to stay in his seat and closed the door so that he wouldn’t get cold. The horse and I went back onto the road and about fifteen minutes later the lady showed up with her trailer. She loaded the horse up and told me she was going to go put him up and she’d be right back and wait with me until her husband got there with the tractor. She said he hadn’t made it back to the house yet. As she drove away, I panicked a little. What if she didn’t come back? I went back to my truck to inspect how stuck I was. I was super stuck. The longer she was gone, the more convinced I was that she had stranded Caleb and me. I made sure the exhaust was clear of snow and grabbed my phone and stumbled up the snowbank. I aimed it at random things, walked down the road a little, turned it off and turned it on. No service. Ten minutes went by. Then fifteen. Then twenty. I wondered if there were any houses or anything up the road. I wished I had asked the lady how far I was from stuff. Surely she wouldn’t actually leave me and a three year old out here. Surely not. I was so cold but was afraid to get in the truck because if she came back I was afraid she wouldn’t see us and I wouldn’t hear her. I stood on the side of the road and felt tears run down my face and I felt like I would throw up when I thought of little Caleb being cold and there being nothing I could do about it if the car ran out of gas. I decided I’d set the entire effing forest on fire before that happened but realized I couldn’t because of all the snow. I started thinking about worst case scenarios. No one could see the truck from the road and if I had to I could go try to find help and leave Caleb there. Unfathomable. I could not leave my baby alone while I wondered around freezing balls Colorado. I panicked a little more when I realized I had ignored mom’s advice about which rout to take and taken backroads instead because they were quicker. No one knew where the hell I was. I went to the truck again to check the temperature and saw it was thirty degrees. I knew once the sun set it would be much colder. I had a quarter of a tank of gas left. I did a quick inventory of emergency supplies: food, water, extra clothes and blankets. I wondered if we were totally forced to spend the night in the truck if I could keep Caleb warm enough. I decided I would not be sleeping in order to keep an eye on him. I remembered something about staying awake and moving if you’re ever stranded in the freezing cold. I thought about my grandparents and quickly forced that thought out of my mind because that thought would make me cry. I decided to focus instead on how to get out of this mess. I was trying to figure out a game plan when I saw the woman driving up. She got out and instructed Caleb and I to come sit in her truck until her husband got there. I grabbed Caleb and we got in and it was so warm I thought I might cry again. My feet were throbbing and I couldn’t feel my fingers and I was snotting and had runny eyes and was still incredibly nauseous from being afraid she wasn’t coming back. My teeth were chattering so bad I couldn’t even talk but the lady talked to Caleb and was telling me about that dumb horse and how sorry she was. She assured me her husband would check my car out and that they had extra rooms if my car was too damaged to drive. She told me there was a town about twenty miles ahead and she knew a great mechanic. Twenty miles. I was glad I hadn’t been forced to decide whether or not to walk that way. I asked if there were any houses along the way to town and she said there were a few but they were set back from the road and hard to see. She asked if I was alright and I told her yes. About twenty minutes later, her husband showed up with his tractor. He had some teenage boy with him, probably his son. They pulled my truck out and looked over it. It was fine. I thanked them and the lady apologized again and I assured her everything was fine. I was so ready to get out of there. We said goodbye and Caleb and I were off. He was throwing a fit that we didn’t get to bring the horse with us. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach from the fear of being stranded there like that. I looked back at Caleb and thought I might cry at the thought of him freezing and being scared. The thought of having so few options and not knowing the outcome of those options when someone else’s life depends on me was putting me on the verge of a panic attack. I tried to take deep breaths and felt my face getting hot and then I remembered something grandpa told me once: “don’t think about what if. Think about what is.” What was, was that Caleb and I were fine, on our way to Utah. We weren’t freezing, we weren’t stranded, and we weren’t in a horrifying predicament. We were fine. I calmed down and after an hour, was able to find some humor in the situation. After a couple of hours, my phone had service again and I called mom and told her what had happened.
“Well, at least you and Caleb are alright,” she said, “only you could get in a wreck with an appaloosa.” She has teased me about it ever since. She was more than happy to share my adventure with my sisters later when I got home. I am now utterly terrified to drive back through the snowy roads to go back home. I’ve already got a few game plans to go off of in the event something like that happens again.
Christmas day was fun and my kiddos were up at five am to open presents. Things have actually been pretty uneventful. Caleb and Makayla are having the time of their lives and Caleb insists that his name is Ironman. I’m loving spending time with them but am also getting kind of restless. I am not used to doing nothing except hanging out in the house and am itching to go explore things. I want to go see around this town and go up into the mountains and go check out the Aztec Artifacts museum. There’s also a dinosaur fossil museum and I am very curious to find out if there is any possible way to obtain a small piece of a dinosaur tooth for my future engagement ring, which I’m sure my future husband will appreciate. I’m not sure if the kids would appreciate the Aztec museum or the dinosaur fossils but we’re going to see. Makayla really wants to see Yogi Bear in 3D and we’re going to do that tomorrow. Mom isn’t feeling very well so I’m going to spend today cleaning the house and getting things neat. I’ve been hinting to mom that I’m itching to go on a hiking trail and she keeps hinting back that that’s a horrible idea right now. It is just unfathomable that I am in a whole new part of America and am unable to explore it for myself, up close and personal. I need to see what’s going on around here. I’m highly annoyed that my phone doesn’t get service here. Caleb is probably the cutest little person in the entire world. He really loved opening Christmas presents. He opened half of Makayla’s too and she didn’t mind at all. During a Christmas party, while no one was paying attention, he tackled other people’s presents and brought me a Wii game.
“This is for me,” he said with a very serious look on his face. I looked at it and said, “Caleb, did you open this?”
“Yes,” he said, “that is mine.”
Everyone thought it was hilarious. I’m doing my best to get pictures of the kiddos but Caleb hates getting his picture taken and Makayla won’t hold still long enough to get a good one. They’re both having an absolute blast together. I love nighttime because I sleep in between them and they both cuddle me and wake me up giving me hugs and kisses. I am having a great time hanging out with the kiddos but I SERIOUSLY miss home. This is a dreadful part of America and I don’t appreciate it at all. I’ve decided to attempt maturity and just focus on the fact that I’m with both of the kiddos and not focus on the fact that there are a lot of things about being here that I hate but can’t do anything about. I hope everyone is having a super holiday and wish me luck not running over random appaloosas coming home. J
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