#WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRIVE?

Chapter One: The Good…

Would You Like To Drive?
By Molly Holly

I’m not the kind of person to go from my hotel to the gym to the building and back again. I always try to see a little bit of wherever we are, especially on days when we have a house show and can get to the building a little later than usual. I never know when I’ll be able to get back to some of these places, so I want to take advantage of it while I can. If there’s a tourist attraction, no matter how cheesy, I’m there.

I was once driving alone from Lincoln to Omaha, Nebraska. Somewhere between the two I passes a sign for Wildlife Safari. I looked at the landscape around me and there wasn’t much going on there, mostly flat and dry, just like you’d expect the Midwest to be. I was curious to see exactly the Nebraska locals classified as a safari.

A guy met me out front when I pulled into the parking lot. He explained to me that the safari costs five dollars per car and you have to stay under five miles an hour. This wasn’t a ride you got to get on, you rose in your own care along a dirt path and passed a bunch of wild animals.

I figured five miles an hour didn’t literally mean five miles an hour, but was more of a reminder to keep it slow. Well, I had no choice but to keep it under five because the roads were so bumpy. I’ve been on dirt roads before, but this was incredible. I’m going over huge rocks, then dropping down into ditches. The car is bouncing all over the place. My head is smashing up into the ceiling and I didn’t even see any animals for a while.

I was all set to turn back around but figured I’d just drive it out and be on my way. I’m so glad I did; it turned out to be awesome.

There were humongous buffalo and these egret birds that were just so graceful and peaceful to watch. Then there was this great, big deer, it was absolutely beautiful, standing only like teen feet from my car. I stopped to take a picture and rolled down my windows down.

The deer started walking toward my car. This particular type of deer is called a pronghorn deer and has two sharp horns that come out of its head. And it’s coming toward me. It didn’t look angry or antying, but I was still scared. I didn’t know what to do so I sat there, perfectly still. It walked all the way over and stuck its head right in my car window.

I retreat all the way over to the passenger side, practically squishing myself up on the window. I slowly grabbed my camera, took its picture, while its head was in my car, and starting him, “Go, go! Get out of here.”

He didn’t listen at first, but eventually took his head out of my window and went back to chewing on his grass. The second his head was out, I took off.

As I’m driving along, bouncing up and down, I was so excited. I starting calling all the other girls to tell them what just happened to me. Under normal conditions, talking on a cell phone while driving isn’t easy. On these roads, I was all over the place.

I started screaming to them on the phone, “You guys gotta come out to the Wildlife Safari! I’m not sure where it is, but it’s somewhere between Lincoln and Omaha! The animals are unbelievable. I just had a deer stick its head in my car! Right in my car!”

And they were like, “Yeah, we’re just gonna watch some TV here in the hotel. We’ll see you in a bit.”

“No! How can you waste your life away watching TV inside a hotel room while I’ve got deer jumping into my car?”

I guess what’s fun for some is just an animal sticking its head in your car for others.

• PHOTOS •
Check out the photos from the book


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