This past weekend I took a trip to the coast with a friend in search of wild horses. I lived within hours of this place for years but never visited, so this time I was determined to see the horses.

The first trip out in my friend’s four wheel drive got us lodged in the sand within thirty feet of the entrance to the beach, tide coming in and other trucks flying past us, including a beach patrol. The patrol person was a woman and I’m sure it was just her confidence in us so that she knew we’d get dislodged… Well, maybe we should’ve learned how to drive on sand first, but neither of us had ever driven on truly soft sand and as I said, within thirty feet, we were stuck. I was wearing a ball gown (which will be explained later) so I got behind the wheel while my friend pushed. Having been stuck in mud, I knew we needed a board… But we were on the beach and there was no wood to be found.

And then she remembered her cutting board.

It was about eighteen inches long and twelve wide and thick plastic… But we wedged it under the stuck tire and slowly, slowly I managed to get traction.

So I have now driven a truck on a cutting board. Beat that.

From there, we drove back to a tour company and hired a guy to take us to the horses. Was that ever the best idea! He took us back into his company’s private property in the dune, to where the really wild horses live, that we’d have never found on our own. And it was amazing.

The whole weekend was incredibly cold and windy, and we discovered that a winter storm was bouncing along the coast, but it made for some spectacular photos one day. So here they are, the wild horse (and other stuff) photos. Come back this weekend for the explanation of the ball gown. [edit: You can read about it here!]