Yesterday, we headed to Denver to spend a day in the city. We were able to visit Jessica's birth parents and we also visited the new IKEA there. It was crazy...don't go yet. Fortunately, we like IKEA, so we'll be back, but if we had never been, we would never want to go back. There were about 40 people directing traffic just to get all the cars in the parking lot. Just to get our car parked and then to find our way into the store took over 30 minutes. Andrew says it is like the game RISK--it takes forever to set the thing up, and once you start playing it isn't even fun, and you realize it will take forever, so you just quit and put it back into the box. Kind of anti-climatic.
Anyway, we survived IKEA, and decided we were ready to head home. It was a pretty normal trip, until we got into Nebraska. We were on a dark country road, and well, you know how there are some places that have deer crossing signs? We needed a cow crossing sign.
We were just driving along a somewhat hilly road, talking about our day, when all of a sudden Andrew said, "Whoa!" and swerved. I looked up, expecting to see a deer...and instead saw the fattest cow in the world lumbering along the side of the road. I swear that cow was pregnant...it really was pretty big. We figured we better tell somebody because a cow that big could really do some damage. But, if you remember right, we were on a dark country road in Nebraska, so there were no houses and no lights for a few miles. We finally passed by one that looked pretty dark, so we drove by and then noticed one light was on in an upstairs window. But, just a little bit down the road, there was another house we could see, so we headed down their long driveway. The only light on there was in the garage, and everything else looked really dark. Then, two dogs came running out to greet us, and we weren't sure if they were nice or mean, so we figured we'd go to the other house. Little did we know that those two dogs looked like chihuahuas compared to the one we were about to come face to face with.
Here is the rest of the story in Andrew's words
[and notes by Brianna]:
We pulled up to the house, and someone came to the window and looked out. I walked slowly to the door because there were no lights. It was a pretty eerie sight: a full moon, a dark night, and then a bat flew out from underneath their deck.
[There really was a bat...I saw it.] Eventually, a lady turned on a small light, came to the door and let out the biggest dog I've ever seen. The dog was all black and its head came almost to mid chest. I kind of froze and hoped the dog was nice. I told the lady, "Sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to tell you that there is a cow out." She said she'd call the Sheriff or something, and I told her thanks and headed back to the car, but that dog was still trotting around out there and barking at the car.
[Brianna now: When Andrew got out of the car, he was walking slowly to the house and then, the car headlights turned off, which made it very dark. I felt bad for him, so I figured I'd look for a little flashlight to shine through the window for when he came back. I saw the door open and a big dog come out, but I didn't realize how big this dog was. And actually, I just kept looking for the flashlight, because I had a hard time finding it. At this point, I was looking in the glove box, and then, I gave up, lifted my head and looked out my side window...and was facing the biggest dog I've ever seen. It was level with my head and it was just staring at me. I was glad the window was closed...and I love dogs. It looked like a nice dog, even thought it was as tall as a small horse...and it probably would have looked even nicer during the day, at the house of someone we knew, but those were not the circumstances.]
I'm not the world's greatest dog lover, which kind of made things worse. I headed back to the car, and could see the dog looking at Brianna through her window, and I figured I better make a quick break for it to get inside before the dog joined us inside the car. So, I got in real quick and shut the door just in time to see his big head peering through my window. We were happy to pull out the driveway and head home once again knowing that we had done our good turn for the day knowing that we had at least told someone about that cow getting out and hoping they could take care of it.
Just in case you are curious, like we were, to find out what type of dog we met that night, it was Clifford, the big black dog. Don't you remember those books? With Emily Elizabeth? Anyway, it was actually a
Great Dane, emphasis on Great. Did you that the world's tallest dog is a Great Dane? His name is
Giant George and he is 43 inches tall from his paw to his shoulder. That height does not include his head in case you didn't catch that. So, in case you are ever driving through Nebraska on a country road, you might just see some big cows and Giant George's cousin lumbering together through the fields.
