How Bizarre, How Bizarre

So, I have to tell you about the most bizzare-o thing that happened on our vacation.

The lake house that we were staying at was in a town called Troutman, NC, and we had to drive a ways into town to get to the grocery store. The area is beautiful: houses spread far apart, lots of green pastures and pretty scenery. On our first night, mom, Erin and I made the trek to the grocery store. On the way back, it was starting to get dark and I was in the backseat of the car lost in my thoughts, gazing out the window at the farm houses when I saw something.

It took a few seconds to click in my head that I had seen something out of the ordinary. Then I was speechless, I couldn't get my words out. 

Finally, my mind started chugging along enough to move my mouth: "Uh...uh...I think I just saw some zebras!" I blurted out.

My sister, who was driving, said "yeah, I think I did too." Mom didn't know what in the world we were talking about. "Seriously, I think I just saw two zebra butts. You have to turn around!"

My sister wouldn't turn around. We still hadn't eaten dinner and she was ready to get home. I was NOT happy.

I tell Lee and Dad about it when we get back to the house and they of course think I'm nuts.

Me: There's nothing really that looks like a zebra besides a zebra...what else could it be?

Lee: It was probably a horse or a donkey, that somebody painted like a zebra. Which did it look more like, a horse or a donkey?

Me: Ummmm ... it looked like a ZEBRA.

They tease me about the zebras I thought I saw for two days until finally, we're all in the truck headed to Mooresville for shopping and dinner. As we get close to the house/field with the alleged zebras, Dad slows down. We're all looking for them. We round the corner and THERE THEY ARE.

No denying it. They are bona fide z-e-b-r-a-s:

Of course I had my camera ready and jumped out to take a bunch of pics. There were two of them:

This is pretty much what I saw that first night. Big 'ole zebra butt:

He's actually quite beautiful, huh?

Here's Lee, looking a little bewildered as he points to the ZEBRA in the background:

We pretty much talked about zebras all week. It was the running joke. Somehow, Dad and Lee managed to find a zebra skin display at Ikea to joke on me further:

When we ate at Talley House restaurant a few nights later, I asked the waitress "So what's the deal with the zebras?" "Which ones?" she asks. "There are more than one set of zebras in Troutman, North Carolina?!" "Yep." "Well we were talking about the ones on Talley Rd." "Oh, yeah, those have been there forever."

Ummm, ok? Because that's not weird at all. To have ZEBRAS in your pasture instead of something like, oh, maybe cows? Or horses? What a strange little town.

At least it gave us some excitement for the week.