Creepers in Idaho

do exist. I met several of them in Idaho Falls after the fireworks.

Here was my situation:

-armed with about 1/8 of a phone. (It randomly broke on Monday morning. Still do not understand why. I could still call some of my speed dials and answer some calls, but couldn't see anything on the screen.)

-I had made it made it to Idaho Falls by finding my friend Sean's number on facebook, calling him from Nicole's phone, having him call his roommate, who then called me, and then gave me a ride to Idaho Falls.

-I was planning on getting back to Utah by way of Ride Boy, who was also going to be at Idaho Falls for the fireworks.

-Nicole didn't go with me to the IF fireworks.

-I did, however, find Olivia and hung out with her ward. We played Uno, walked around looking at the food, and then went back to Sean's car to get my stuff, since Olivia's spot was closer to the Phillips 66 gas station we were going to be meeting up at.

So to summarize, after the fireworks when I split from Olivia and her group, I found myself walking all alone through the business district of downtown IF, carrying my backpack, purse, and a lunchbox, unable to contact anyone on my phone. You can accuse me of being addicted to my phone, and I won't even argue. I kind of am. So I was a little nervous.

Especially when I reached the end of the business district (the road dead-ended at a museum) and I still had seen no sign of the Phillips 66 gas station or the Olive Garden it was supposedly next to. I stood on the street corner, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, trying not to look too lost or vulnerable.

The police officer directing traffic looked at me inquisitively, ready to stop traffic in whichever direction I wanted to go, but I shook my head and shrank away from the curb. I called Nicole, who called Ride Boy, who called me. We figured out that he had told me the wrong way to go, and I started walking back along the same street.

Here are some of the unsavory characters I encountered during my trek:

1. the longboarders with colorful mohawks who were smoking behind the portapotties and called out to me as I passed. Did they think I was somehow similar to them in any way?? Because I do not.

2. the policeman who leered at me as I crossed the street and said, "Be careful, it's dangerous," with a wink. .....Ew. That's not in your job description. I just said "yeah, thanks" because I think he's the kind of officer who would let you off with a warning if he pulled you over and you were cute enough.

3. the (intoxicated?) hicks who honked at me for a solid 30 seconds and then practically fell out of their ridiculously jacked-up pickup truck laughing.

4. the car full of boys who rolled down their windows when their car got close to me and called out, "hey, pretty!" "Dude, she's a lady." "Hey lady, do you need someone to carry your backpack?" "I'll carry your backpack..." "Is that a euphemism?" "Dude, you sound like a creeper right now." I actually think I would have thought they were funny under any other circumstances, but I just shook my head and said, "no thanks," and kept walking.

Here are some of the savory ones I met:

1. The cute family who told me which way I-15 was from the museum.

2. Yep.

By the time I got to the Phillips 66 gas station, I thought I was going to cry with relief when I saw Ride Boy's (kind of) familiar face. He smiled at me as I approached his car and said, "Garhett. That was like, a freaking creeper-fest!"

"Oh man," he said mildly, taking my backpack. "I'm sorry about that, getting you lost and everything."

I waved his apology aside. I really couldn't have asked for a better Ride Boy. We left the gas station ten minutes later and arrived in Salt Lake in under 3 hours.

Oh Hey, Harrison....

You know how sometimes, you wake up and have no idea what you're going to do with your day, and then it turns into the greatest day ever? That's kind of how Saturday was for me.

I woke up at about 11:30 (Connors are chronic sleeper-inners) and got ready for the day. Nicole and I went out to eat at Craigos, but for some reason, we couldn't find the famous pizza buffet, so we settled for Teriyaki Stix.

My friend Sean (who I met in Florida) and his girlfriend came and picked me up, but just as we were on our way over the water park, Olivia told me that it had reached capacity and they weren't able to get in. Plan B was longboarding at Porter Park. I learned how to longboard on Thursday night but I am not great at it, so I basically had to relearn everything. Luckily Sean is super-outgoing so he recruited four guys to be my friends and they taught me longboarding and then we ran in the water fountains at the park and then went to Jamba Juice.

The reason I wasn't hanging out with Nicole during this time is because she had a band concert. She wasn't really sure about all the details, but they were going to go to some fancy place on a bus (so not in Rexburg), practice a little, eat some dinner, perform, and watch some fireworks and then go home. It was from 3-11 and she said a lot of time would be spent practicing so I might be bored if I went with them.

To continue, we ended up going to Driggs, Idaho for a Freedom Festival kinda thing thrown by Mr. Jon Huntsman himself. There were carts selling carnival food, families on blankets tossing footballs back and forth, college students sunbathing, and a line of fancy old cars parked side by side behind a tether. We meandered around and then found a spot on the grass to watch the concert and the fireworks.

As it turns out, the first performers in the concert were the members of the BYU-Idaho band. Hmmm! I started putting two and two together and realized that Nicole was going to be playing here! It's great how I can be an awesome-sauce sister without even trying sometimes.

The concert was lovely and the weather was perfect. We started out sitting up close to the stage, but an older gentlemen (who was actually pretty cranky) sitting next to us kept complaining and glaring because we were apparently in the aisle, so we picked up and started moving to a hill on the other side of the VIP section.

Justin, one of Sean's friends who knows about 80% of the people in Rexburg, walked right into the VIP section and said, "Hey, so, how do you get in here, by the way, it looks like there's a lot of extra space here?" The guy in charge said, "Yeah, come on in, is that your party? Call them over."

He called us over. We waltzed into the VIP section, pointed arbitrarily at the clipboard, and he waved us in. We skipped up to the front of the section where there was a cooler with free bottled water and Sprite waiting for us. We flopped comfortably down on our blanket.

Elder Ballard walked past us. He smiled at Sean. I tugged at my skirt and wondered why I didn't think to wear long pants and a turtleneck since I might possibly see a General Authority here.

We glanced to our right and saw Harrison Ford dancing along to the music . We glanced at each other, our jaws on the ground. We glanced at Justin and whispered excitedly. He and Mad Dog got up and marched fearlessly over to Harrison Ford. After a brief conversation, I couldn't handle it anymore and followed them.

Mad Dog was in the middle of a sentence when I got there, but Harrison turned away from him and said, "And what's your name?" grabbing my hand to shake it.

"I'm Heather!" I said.

This is the face I was looking into:




The one on the left. It was a little bit older, too. But that's the face you guys.

That face said, "Oh, you're good-looking!"

I blushed. I stuttered out a thank you. I tried to think of something witty to say. Harrison saved me the trouble by turning to Mad Dog and asking, "Is she your girlfriend?"

"No, no...." he said. "We just met today," I said.

"Oh, that sucks to be you then!" said the Harrison lookalike.

The boys laughed and made all sorts of funny jokes all through this exchange. "Oh, he doesn't care what we have to say anymore." "Thanks for coming over Heather, we won't get any attention now." Then of course they made fun of how I was beaming the whole rest of the night.

It turns out he wasn't actually Harrison, just his stunt double. He gets people asking if he is Harrison a lot. Coincidentally, he sells hay to Harrison. Unfortunately, he declined to get a picture with us, but Tim did get a side shot of us talking to him. I'll put it up here as soon as it makes its facebook debut.

After our run-ins with Harrison Ford and Elder Ballard, we looked back on the stage and saw Glenn Beck. He gave a long speech. We applauded when he said something we agreed with. We reveled in the fame that surrounded us. VIP has its perks :)

The fireworks were some of the best I've ever seen. They lasted about a half-hour and were supplemented with video clips shown on huge projector screens. We watched them while listening to patriotic songs. I felt them from my toes to my chest.

I love being an American sodarnmuch.