Traveling With The Hubby

Traveling with the hubby is always an unforgettable experience as he has so many different kinds of interest with his cowboy way of living. One of the most recent memorable moments happened on the cold Thursday evening during Spring Break. It was a crazy adventure to say the least, but one I thought to be exciting. We purchased a horse, whom we've named Cash, from a cowboy in a town just outside Hays, Kansas. As most people would simply write a check and mail it (or even have their brother, who lives in Hays, hand deliver the check). A check does provide an honest bill of sale if ever one needed a proof of purchase. But not my cowboy husband. His great idea was to take that drive to Zurick, Kansas and settle up with a handshake. "That's the way we do things 'round here," he told me. The total drive would run just over six hours and still leave us with a few hours to sleep before work or so I thought.

He pulled into the drive and dashed into the house, changed into his comfortable clothes and grabbed a homemade bierock on our way out the door. The drive there was a blast! We talked and laughed like times of old and decided on a name for this horse I hadn't yet met. He made fun of me for wanting to call him Blaze because his face didn't represent a blaze face. I shrugged. How the heck would I know what a blaze face looked like? And I never would have thought to call him that had he not mentioned it to begin with.

We stopped off at his brother's and visited long enough to hold the baby and to see our future pet. He's only 14'2" and seemed short compared to Rusty, who stood 15'2".
"But he's got spunk for ya, babe," my cowboy said with a wink.
We journeyed on to the little town of Zurick and sure enough, he paid the cowboy, thanked him, and ended with a handshake. "Call me when it's brandin' time," he said with a twang.

Back on the road, the hubby, quite the chatty Kathy, was as giddy as child with a brand new toy. We were making good time, pulling ahead of schedule and made a pit stop for a restroom break at the convenient store. Still having plenty of gas, we grabbed a soda and a snack and headed back on the road again. We drove on making great time and chatting excitedly about our new horse, passing several gas stations along the way. Every time we passed a convenient store, I looked at the gas gauge. We had plenty of gas so I had little worries, though I had a nagging feeling we should stop, but neglected to share my thoughts aloud.

It was just after midnight when we were seven miles from Abbyville, and climbing up a hill. As we went down the hill, the gas gauge, which sat at a quarter of a tank, suddenly dropped. "Oh crap!" He turned off the highway and headed into Abbyville to search for a gas station. After all, the stretch from Abbyville to South Hutchinson was seventeen miles.
"There's gotta be a station in one of these small towns," he said with a hint of nervousness in his tone.
I prayed to the Lord to let us find a gas station and to not let us run out of gas out here in the middle of nowhere especially since it was the middle of the night and that's when bad things happen. Plus, it was a chilly thirty-three degrees and home was still roughly an hour away.
We drove through Abbyville and not a gas station in sight. The next town, a name in which I can't remember, too had no gas station. Hope started to fade away until he said, "Over there!" Thank the Lord, I thought as he drove to the station. But, it wasn't a gas station. It was a co-op station. With a co-op station it takes a special co-op card to get gas. I urged him back to the main highway and off these back roads. We made it onto highway fifty and I prayed silently as we drove until the tank was dry.

It was near one in the morning and the closest person we could attempt to wake up was forty-five minutes away. It was a long shot but what choice did we have? It wasn't getting any warmer. My husband made the call and though our friend was perturbed to have to get out of bed, he told us he would see us in an hour. I could tell my husband was upset and I wanted to lighten the mood.
"Look at all those beautiful stars," I said and smiled at him.
He looked dumfounded and asked, "What stars?"
I laughed. It was a very thick cloudy night. Even the moon was barely visible. I snuggled as close to him as I could. "You know honey, I've always hoped you would take me out to gaze at the sky. I didn't realize we had to run out of gas to get a chance like this." I kissed him on the cheek and he threw a blanket on me.

"You better get some sleep baby", he said sweetly. He always kept a spare jacket or blanket just in case. Just in case what? We ran out of gas? How can one sleep in a situation like this? I shrugged and started up a conversation. Anything to make the time pass by. It took him awhile to relax into conversing with me.
Every headlight gave us hope that we were rescued. Only one person stopped and asked if we needed help and had we not called our buddy to help us, we would have gladly taken him up on his offer. We sat waiting for our friend to arrive for almost two hours. Calling him constantly to make sure he wasn't lost. He took a different route than I would have imagined but hey, he came. And I will be eternally grateful for him. Once he arrived we made it home in no time at all. It was near four a.m. when we laid our heads on the pillows and drifted into a very deep and short sleep as he only had two and half hours before he had to get up for work.

We now know that when traveling in his truck, we will never let it get below a quarter of a tank. Unless we want to reminisce on our adventure.