The Girl - part 2.

To the blog readers: You might want to scroll down and read "The Girl - part 1." first (Thursday Sept 11, 2008) to keep with the continuity of the story, Sorry to be confusing.

So, off we went the next day, just like any other day on the trip. We packed up the car as usual, filled the ice chests and prepared for the drive to the next destination. All that morning getting ready to leave I was trying to see if the girl I saw at the pool was still around, hoping to catch a passing glance or make one final attempt to get noticed by her before we all departed. However, it wasn't unusual for most families like them to leave the motel at the crack of dawn, way before any of us got up. As a rule we all tended to get going a little later than the normal human being, which might explain why it took us weeks longer than everyone else to drive to Colorado and back. So I was disappointed, but not surprised to find that the girl and her family had already left for the day.

I guess the drive that day was uneventful and I assume I thought about the girl more than once, but even I knew enough not to dwell on a fantasy and quickly forgot about the day before at the pool, dismissing the experience as "passing ships in the night". Besides, there are plenty of other girls out there, one is eventually going to notice me someday, I hoped. In fact, there were going to be other encounters that would be disappointing, or missed opportunities. Only in hindsight do I realize now how stupid I was, that there were golden opportunities for me to make friends, but for some reason or another I was reluctant or scared, or encouraged in the wrong way, or not encouraged at all. This was something that I learned much later in life which deprived me of a valuable element of childhood. Dad was able to show me the entire contiguous Western United States by car, but was unable to show me how to make friends.

At Wind River Ranch, every year brought a new group of guests and potentially new friends to make. Fortunately, David was part of the ranch experience and was my best friend during these times, David was also far more comfortable and adept at socializing than me and when other kids were present at the ranch, I was able to blend in, in the shadow of David. One year two brothers, about the ages of David and I were staying at the ranch. At first I was a little uncomfortable but quickly warmed up to the situation, and the four of us hung out together most of the time. But even then, in this group situation, age and maturity tends to separate friends and the older boys would sometimes become bored with the younger ones, resulting in slightly rude behavior, and valuable lessons about life. This however didn't phase me because us younger boys found ways to cope with being ignored, being cool in our own way, and after a short time we all forgot the difference and were all hanging out together again. This was how actual cowboys dealt with life, and this was how I dealt with it also. When the two brothers had to depart the ranch before us, David and I were both disappointed and sad for quite awhile, not knowing how to occupy our time for the remainder of the stay.

And every once in awhile, girls our own age would come to stay at Wind River, but unfortunately I was clueless about how to handle these situations. I always had a tendency to be attracted to the wrong girl, (maybe like the girl at the motel pool) but I tended to have tastes that were completely out of my league. Like the time this slightly older, very pretty girl with long, straight black hair, came to stay at Wind River. Even then I knew I had a snowballs chance in hell to make friends with her since she was older, more popular, flirting with the wranglers and ranch hands and probably didn't know I even existed. But regardless, I was attracted to her and I thought it would've been nice for her to at least say "hello" to me. At the same time, there was this other girl staying at the ranch, about my age, and not quite as attractive as the dark haired girl. This plainer, more appropriate and friendlier to me girl was forced on me as a companion, and in true stupid boy form, I was rude and rejected her friendship. This didn't seem to phase her though as she continued to hang out with me and we passed the time doing the usual ranch activities together. I like to think now that she grew up to be a gorgeous hot mama, while the other dark haired girl gained 80 pounds and has a 2 pack a day habit. God only knows.

But the most memorable, and biggest lost opportunity was the time the noisy European family with the little girl came to Wind River Ranch. The situation at the ranch required all the guests to interact with each other, eat meals in the common dining room, and do some of the ranch activities together, it was a golden opportunity to make friends. So, this large extended family, who I guess were foreign since they acted very different than us typical American guests, descended on the ranch the same time we were there. One of the men of the family wore what looked like a military coat with a medal, I wasn't sure at the time but I thought they were Russian, but in any case, they tended to be noisy at dinner, drinking and whooping it up more than the other guests, and being somewhat disruptive in general. My family tended to talk under their breath amongst themselves about how rude and noisy they were, and how inappropriate it was for them to be having such a good time. I think someone (one of the other guests) complained and they were told to keep it down, which only offended the Russian family and succeeded to separate us all even further.

But, to her credit, I think my mom liked this family, and wanted to make friends with them, even when one of the men, coming back to the cabin drunk, shined a flashlight in our room to see if anyone was home (mom was trying to get my baby sister to sleep) But mom succumbed to peer pressure and was compelled to reject them as everyone else did.

So, getting back to my point, there was this little girl in this family. Her mom was very pretty I remember and both her parents spoiled her rotten, so she tended to be unfriendly. But I think she was just shy and as uncomfortable as I was, or maybe there was a cultural difference that led to these misunderstandings. My mom was encouraging me to make friends with her, saying she was "cute", which she probably was but I didn't see it at the time, and I think attempts were made by mom to get us together. However, discouragement from our family coupled with the rift established between them and the rest of us guests made that very difficult to make friendly advances, and had mom been more confident we probably would've made friend and shown all the other uptight guests how totally un-Christian everyone was being. I myself had already made all my ranch plans with David and the rest of the cousins and really had no time or interest to pursue a friendship with the little girl. So during the stay this poor little girl had to do the cowboy activities by herself.

One day the little girls mom took her horseback riding in the corral. Already the wranglers were making fun of her and she was obviously uncomfortable around horses, and somehow during the ride the little girl fell off the horse and sprained her ankle. Now from what I heard from the wranglers, she was being a sissy (even for a girl) and made a big deal out of nothing. This only led to more ridicule and rejection from the ranch. From then on the little girl was carried piggy-back by her mom or dad everywhere they went. I have to admit that the girl was being a whiner. So for days afterward the little girl was carried everywhere and became insufferable and a source of morbid amusement to the rest of the guests. To every ones relief the Russian family left and the ranch was back to normal. But to this day it is a huge regret I didn't make friends with the little girl, because if I had, things would have been different, and she would have been running around the ranch instead of being carried.


Always hindsight is 20/20, and during these trips I had plenty of time to think about nothing, and only many years later do I reach a conclusion. But in the case with the girl I briefly saw at the motel pool, nothing could have been plainer.

We reached our next destination, probably another Holiday Inn or something similar, it was hot and I looked forward to jumping in the pool as usual, and as usual there was already a crowd of kids playing at the pool. I got to the pool and I couldn't believe it! There she was again, the girl from the day before! By sheer coincidence our families were traveling the same itinerary and staying at the same motel again. I can't remember if we were coming or going but I wonder if I thought she might be going to Wind River Ranch the same as we were. I was stunned. I remember she was wearing a different bathing suit this time, which made little difference about the way I felt about her, all I knew was that possibly, divine intervention brought us back together again, I was given another chance, somebody was trying to tell me something! So I did the most logical thing I could think of... Nothing.