What happens to a city girl when she spends a weekend in the country? Well, a lot actually. I discovered that hours aren't wasted and that you get up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday to hike a massive American flag up to its proper place. Apparently you can't let the flag touch the ground so we all held on to it while it was hoisted up. I was a respectful Canadian and actually appreciated their patriotism. This peak is right beside Kristina's parents amazing property.
Later in the afternoon, I was initiated in to true jeeping. When I wasn't scared silent, I screamed/giggled. I like to call it the sciggle. The climb to the top nearly put me over the edge but replaying the Titanic calmed my nerves.
The jeeps got to the top but the bigger concern of mine was getting them down. The drivers were fairly calm, don't you think?
I'm not quite sure how we made it down as my eyes were closed for most of it. I'd rather be surprised if we rolled.
Sunday was even more of an initiation to Vernal life. We hiked to some petroglyph's which ended in us wading through the river to get home in time for Sunday dinner. They were quite amazing. I don't look quite as amazing but rather than believe I'm not photogenic, I'll blame the photographer.
Later that night I was up close and personal during a horse surgery. See, I'm the kid whose parents actually paid people to let me ride their horses. I went to several horse camps... a city kid pretending to be country. So, keeping in line with the country initiation, the vets chose me to be the one to drip saline (I think) on the horse's stomach. Apparently it keeps it from drying out but I didn't want to ask too many questions, as their hands were literally full of guts. I think the ranchers knew the nervous looking gal in flip flops had no clue what she was doing. My true colours continued to show when we went to feed a calf. Dave was pouring store bought milk in to the bottle and I said "We're giving it human milk?" I was greeted with a pause then a "What kind of milk do we drink Aislinn?" Yeah, that would be cow milk. In my defense, I thought they would give the calf some special cow milk, not just the kind I can pick up at the local grocers. As an aside, it's kinda gross when a cow nibbles on your finger. The last day I tried to be more country by helping Kristina's dad change the wheel lines. The biggest help we were was looking pretty for the camera.
Then it was off to do some target shooting. I have never shot a handgun before and I was rather nervous. However, after I shot the lid off a bottle with a 9mm I felt rather cool. Some say luck, I say raw talent! 
Kristina and I could easily be the next Charlie's Angels. I'm not sure who the third angel would be, because we're really angelic enough.
I was exhausted by the end of the weekend but enjoyed every minute of it. Being outside, away from all the noise is good for the soul. It was also refreshing to do something out of the ordinary, especially something that was so enjoyable. I appreciated how much work that lifestyle requires. I was sleeping in when I got up at 7 on the weekends.
Next goal: herd some cows!
12 comments:
That sounded like an awesome weekend. Except for the bit about helping during a horse surgery. Being that (a) I am scared of horses and (b) I'm not so interested in seeing the insides of any living being. Yowza.
I'm not sure I could shoot a gun though. I don't think I would trust myself to hold an object that could kill someone. I'm kind of a spaz. I once hit a bullseye with a bow and arrow in high school gym class. It wasn't my target though, it was the one 3 down.
What's weird is knowing almost exactly where you are in almost every shot.
City Slickers 3? Where's Billy Crystal?
I pass on human milk. It's all cow for me, from here on out.
hanguns rule. i'd like a whole aresnal. however, with the respect for life thing, it's tough to rationalize a gun purchse. also, i don't want to be on any fbi watch list, ha ha. like we're all not already. kudos on shooting a bottle cap, that's impressive.
I just fired my first gun a couple weeks ago when a client took me trap shooting. I kept inadvertently pointing the gun at peoples legs as I was waiting for my turn to shoot. In my defense, the gun wasn't loaded at the time, but apparently it is still a no-no and caused a few people to panic. But I did manage to hit a few of the clay pigeons which felt cool. But a bottle cap is small! Good going.
it was mucho fun. i'm surprised more people don't live in vernal... there is a lot of cool things to do.
i'm thinking of bringing my bottle to work but am debating if it's a good image for troubled boys to look at! i figure some flowers in it might look pretty ;)
Didn't Vernal used to be the teenage pregnancy capital of the nation? I remember looking through a high school yearbook back in the day and about one in every four girls was posing with their wee one. Yeah.
Oh, there's three or four towns in Utah that claimed to hold that town. Weird eh?
That yearbook? Must've been way before my time.
Have you every seen a yearbook that has pictures of peoples' babies? Vernal like every other high school has girls that get pregnant, but they don't hold any kind of record. I guess that is always a good one when you need small town gossip.
Ais, you must consider yourself totally lucky to have such an awesome friend that would take you to Vernal. From what I hear it is a pretty exclusive place. They don't let just anyone in.
dear anonymous... the initiation process to go to vernal was excrutiating. it entailed living with said friend twice, eating plenty of indian food, watching desperate housewives together, attending the jeep jamboree in moab, and almost daily phone calls after work was over. this friend even forced me to move back to utah in order to be able to go to vernal. but hey, it was all worth it!
by the way, this awesome friend also ran her fourth marathon on saturday (if you're not going to brag, i will).
speaking of teen pregnancies, my school back in calgary had a daycare so we had all the teen moms at my school. happens even in big cities.
Bring the bottle in, instant street cred with the boys. You look good with a pistol in your hands but try leaning in a little and bring your head down some more. We'll get it down when you come up. I think Bellmoma wants to give it a go too. Get it done with a .41 I say.
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