I have, quite honestly, attempted an entry a day, even on those long days where my muscles ache and bones creak as I sit down at my computer.
Yesterday I had absolutely no intention of abandoning you, causing even the most minor of irritations in your lives…
I chose, relatively late in the morning to go to Cody.
Cody, the town that hosts the Wild West Days horse sale.
That hosts the Cody Night Rodeo.
That welcomes thousands of tourists entering and leaving Yellowstone National Park.
That has great antique stores.
That provides a base for Cowboy Culture to thrive.
I had even tried to find someone to go with me…
Someone who likes thrift stores and antique stores and cowboy furniture and Indian jewelry and horse tack and Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzards at Dairy Queen and cowboy boots and cowboy clothes and cowboy music and hitched horsehair and the smell of leather and the taste of beef and buffalo and the heady smell of sweetgrass and someone who will smile gently at the tourists trying on cowboy hats that they will wear for only a week and will let me go to Walmart because I *have* to and someone that could talk me into buying that blue spatterware pitcher and platter for no other reason than an insane like for teapots and pitchers and that color of blue.
I found no one.
So I went alone.
To tell you the truth, I was having a wonderful time.
Serenading myself.
Going at MY speed.
Then I decided to go buy my cowboy boots. Been needing some new ones for a while… grabbed up my purse and reached for my wallet.
My wallet.
Hello?
I had stuck my hand in my purse before I had left… sure I had felt the leathery roughness of its stamped basketweave design… and called it good.
It wasn’t.
I had just driven two hours to shop all day… which I do once a year… and I didn’t have my wallet.
No credit card.
No driver’s license to confirm my identity had I wanted to write a check.
I had cash, thank goodness, the remainder of my “puppy money stash”, so I could shop… but not to the extent that I had planned.
I called home to confirm the presence of my wallet in a jacket pocket, benignly weighing down the corner of a dining room chair.
I still did well… the boots turned out to be $150.
A wedding present, collected from the alleys of Walmart another $30.
Some *ladies unmentionables* for $30.
Thrift store buys $15.
Thin mint blizzard at Dairy Queen $4.
Then I decided to drive another 20 miles to visit a friend.
She offered wine and Pizza Hut pizza and shared her house and friends and campfire.
It was delicious.
I spent the night there.
Unexpected.
More delightful because of it.
Find me here!