Two Girls, One Speeding Ticket

I know that when something good happens to me... it's always followed by something bad (and it doesn't necessarily work the other way around).  This morning, Two Girls got up bright and early (9:47 am) for an exciting adventure: Bears! (And by got up, I clearly mean got kicked out of their serial-murderer motel room).

Bears not only included bears, but also, baby bears, buffalo, illusive white buffalo, antelope, sheep, wolves, foxes and otters... hmmm did I forget anything?  Our bear adventure definitely happened completely in the wild.  Maybe. 

It was both fun and adorable.

The day started with a bang.  Or should I say a bear-ng.  Though we were insanely tired from our first night of non-sickly drinking at the Firehouse in Rapid City with some super nice locals - we rolled onward, our spirits beary happy.   We floated through the Badlands, the sun enveloping us in it's glow, the landscape reminiscent of the bright colored manicured lawns in Edward Scissorhands (only this time, nature was the gardener).  Beauty surrounded us.

We kept driving, getting more and more tired as we left the beauty of the Badlands and drove endlessly on a boring South Dakota highway.  Hours felt like years.  All I wanted to do was get to a hotel in Sioux Falls, where we could lay our weary heads to rest for the night.

Suddenly... "weeeoooohhhhweeeeoohhhh"  (actually there was no siren - I say this only for effect) and a flicker of police lights.  The officer came up to the passenger window and asked me to get out.  I turned off the car.  Got out on the side of the freeway (kind of dangerous, no?!) 

He said "Son, do you know why I'm stopping you for?"  And I said, "Cus I'm young, and I'm black and my hat's real low.  Do I look like a mind reader, sir I don't know!"  Ok, I'm not a "Son," because I'm a girl, and mayyybbeee those are Jay-Z lyrics, but I did have to sit in the passenger seat of the cop's car with a search/drug dog in the back.  We hung out for like 20 minutes - no big deal - at first he was intimidating - judging me by my Cali license and alternative haircut (he totally said lots of Cali people drive through S.D. with drugs?  State-profiling?  I bet lots more people do drugs in S.D. - look at it - it's boring!)  And then he asked me about myself.   After a nice chat about how he has two young kids - he handed me the first (and hopefully the last) speeding ticket of our One Car adventure - inked in my name.   Thanks, dude.

The last few hours of the evening were spent driving like a grandma, so even the RV's dragging boats passed me, to a shitty town (I name no names) that forced us into a stinky, smokey, one bed hotel room, because everything else in town was full of teenage soccer players in for a convention.   Psh.

And this is how I feel.  One eye sunglassed, protected from bright sunlight, the other, broken, staring into a future I am unsure of.  What now? Do I drive 35 on the freeway?  How do we get anywhere?  How do I pay for this additional expense?  Tickets, who needs'em.