A Day That Lasts

Today was the kind of day you don’t want to forget.

The kind of day that makes you grateful you moved across the country.

A fall day with yellow aspens, a happy hunting dog, and a friend I’d be proud to call sister.

It started as a little joke. A side quest, really, late last night. Juls messaged some vague details about hay needing delivered to some stock at a trailhead, and they needed taken to water.

I looked at my day and thought, I can do this.

Could we go early?

Juls couldn’t.

What about lunch?

Lunch worked.

So we met up, loaded certified hay — because National Forest — jumped in her truck, stopped in town for sandwiches, and headed out.

I don’t get to travel the Chief Joseph Highway very often when I’m not the one driving. In fact, I think this one of the only times I’ve ever ridden it as a passenger.

And I loved it.

I got to look at everything.

Every nook and cranny. Every tree. Every contrast. Every little thing you miss when you’re watching the road.

Juls has driven that highway her whole life, and there was a photograph she’d wanted for a long time — the yellow lines of the road leading straight toward Pilot Peak.

Every other time she’d tried, there had been too much traffic to stop safely.

I told her, “We’ll get it today.”

And we did.

Then we got to the stock.

Mules we’d never worked with before. Some pushy, some kind. Hungry, thirsty, and pretty well over the whole situation before we even got halters on them.

We got them out of the pens, took them down to water, brought them back, and got hay in front of them.

And honestly, I could have stayed there all day with mules that weren’t ours and a friend that is so easy to laugh with.

But we had to get back to town.

So we drove.

And laughed.

And talked about our moms.

I told her a story about mine. She told me one about hers.

She talked about her kids.

She showed me a place and said, “When you get your truck and trailer, you have to come here. Camp here. You can ride out of here for days.”

She showed me exactly where to go and where to set up.

We talked about makeup and matching “giddy ups” and the importance of having the right nail polish on for different colored horses when your riding and people we both know and people I don’t know yet but hope I get to meet someday.

Just girl stuff.

Life stuff.

My heart was full.

Because I am so grateful for everything in my life that has led me here.

Not only the good things.

The bad things too.

There are things I’ve lived through that I would never wish on anyone. But some of the people I love now, almost all of the life I have now, exist in my world because those roads changed where I was headed.

And I’m grateful.

For Wyoming.

For my history.

For the people who are here now.

For all of it.

I hope there are many more days like this one.

Days when even the ordinary leaves you feeling blessed, and somehow becomes the kind of day you know you’ll remember.

Here are a few photographs of a life well lived in one afternoon.