Racing the wind...

So, here's a secret: I love racing with antelope. (Don't tell my mother...)

When I was a girl, about 8 or 9 years old, I think, I was with my Dad and Gramps in the back of the pasture, coming back from checking mineral or something mundane like that. We were in the old feed pickup, and it was hot, so the windows were rolled down, and there was a breeze stirring the dust around. We startled a small bunch of buck antelope, and they started to run, not quite alongside us, but parallel to the pickup. I remember Dad giving the pickup a little gas, and the antelope gave it a little gas. We were on a good road (for the pasture) and Dad got a little smile and gave it some more gas, and the antelope picked up speed, too. They love to race....I think it's because nothing in their world can run as fast as they can, so the challenge of a really fast opponent is too good to let go. Anyway, I can remember feeling like we were flying and the antelope were, too. Finally, we had to slow down a little, for a change in the road, and they turned and blew across the road in front of us, and pulled up, too. They had won, and that was all they had to prove. I can see that whole thing in my mind as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

Yesterday, I took the Honda Big Red and Molly, and put out salt and checked wells in the big Winter Pasture, that we are using in the summer. (Another thing to confuse me, but that makes perfect sense to the Farmer and his father...) We had gotten done with the project and were on our way back, on the road, and this little band of buck antelope, who'd been turning up where we were and looking for a rumble, gave us a serious challenge. The road was good, so I took them up on their offer. We were running pretty good, for about a quarter of a mile, when a butte rose up between us. I took the left, they took the right, and I thought our race was over, because there was a good chunk of rough country for them to run through, to get back to the road I was on. I drove on, thinking about my Dad and how fun it was to run the antelope.

When I got to the flat, they blew out from behind a hill, running with all their hearts. They really must've wanted to race, because they had a lot of opportunity through that terrain to veer off and leave. I smiled to myself, and gave Big Red some gas. They really poured on the coal and gave it all they had. I could see that I was going to have to slow up a bit, because of the road, and the moment the lead buck sensed my heisitancy, he turned and the whole bunch ran in front of me. Their mouths were open, their bodies stretched out, rumps fluffed, and they were having the best time rubbing my nose in the dust, figuratively speaking. When they had proven they had won the race, they pulled up and watched me drive on. They really earned that win, and I had to laugh at their insistance on a run.

The pronghorn is classified as the second-fastest land mammal, just behind the cheetah, although they can maintain their speed longer. I didn't realize it, growing up, but they are found only in a small area of the United States and Canada, and are just as exotic as African animals to others around the world. I don't know all the scientific data on them, but I do know that they run like the wind blows and they love a worthy competitor. When they run alongside the outfit, they do look like they are almost in flight, and it makes my heart thrill.