The Adventure Begins.........The Road Hits Back............Getting to Tulsa

The Adventure Begins

If you remember back to the Region 4 All Arabian Horse Championships, you might remember that dear sweet Rhet (yes, I am being facetious here!) had an injury right before that horse show. Now looking at the blood streaming off Rhet's nose, I was wondering if maybe this colt had a hidden agenda when it comes to horse shows.........something along the lines of a major self destruct button, I'd guess.

The first injury had so many staples Dave referred to it as his own personal line of jewelry. I was afraid that this injury, however, was going to look more like some kind of deformity than something that had happened on the trip. Between this and the rub marks right at his tear bones he managed to do right before we left home, Rhet's beautiful face was going to look like some kind of a war zone. Tulsa was looking less and less promising.............

I was glad when we finished at the station and headed on down the road again. If I coudn't be excited about showing, at least I could be excited about not having to drive anymore. This whole trip totalling over 2600 miles was taking its toll on me. I was hoping we'd be arriving in Tulsa before dark.

Oklahoma had plenty of construction zones. The things I noticed the most about them was they weren't all marked the same way. Some of them gave a lot of distance from first warning to when the lanes actually merged, while others, not so much.

The worst of those came as we entered Tulsa. We merged onto the freeway in a far left lane. Shortly thereafter we spotted the contraction's signs saying the left lane closed ahead.......only ahead turned out to be just a matter of feet. Before I knew it, Jesse was darting into the right lane into oncoming rush hour traffic and I was looking at concrete Jersey barriers right smack dab in front of me.

I, too, darted to the right hoping there was room for me there. There was no time to signal, not much time to think, as I dove into the right lane to avoid hitting the bulkhead in front of me.

Thankfully I had an astute driver coming from behind in that lane. The driver knew I'd be making an emergency change into that right lane and made room for me. Otherwise I think my story about Tulsa would have ended right here.

By now my heart is pounding and I have enough adrenaline coursing through my veins to last me at least a week. My hands were shaking, there was sweat running down my face and my knees were weak. Rush hour traffic in Tulsa didn't really care about my distress, there was no time to regroup. Jesse was headed off toward the far right to exit onto another turnpike.

We don't have turnpikes in Washington state. They are foreign beings to me. I saw them on the MapQuest directions but they just did not compute, although the very thought they had used that word, turnpike" had made me quake just a bit. Now that I was actually experiencing a turnpike, I was wishing I was back home safely in my bed with the covers pulled up tightly over my head. Turnpikes are definitely NOT for the faint of heart........again I was glad I had Jesse as a guide.

I don't know how long we were on the last turnpike. I do know it went from daylight to nightime........and it still seemed like forever before we pulled off that thing. By the time we did, I was really ready to be done. Thankfully I also remembered once we left this thing, it was only a few short miles to Tulsa Expo Square.

It was about 7 Pacific Time when we finally reached the fairgrounds. Another half hour or so figuring out where our stalls were located. Then it was time to move horses in...............at least I didn't have to worry about anymore road hazards.

To be continued......................

Moving In......