The Multi-Country Tour

A woman goes on a four country tour with one of her good friends. The tour begins in the West with a three-day horseback ride through a national park. Once they arrive at the park and listen to the orientation, they meet with a tour guide. The tour guide asks them a few questions to figure out their familiarity with horseback riding.

When it’s the woman’s turn to meet with the tour guide, she says she is a beginner. After everyone has a chance to meet with the tour guide, they are taken to the back of the building where the stables are located. The tour guide goes into each stable and takes out a horse for each person in the tour.

The tour guide brings out a gray horse with white speckles and a white mane for the woman and says, “This is Wilder, but don’t worry, he’s very calm.”

Each person in the tour is provided a saddle and assistance to help them sit comfortably on it. Once everyone is situated, the tour guide leads them carefully out of the stable area to the beginning of the trail.

The woman is near the front of the line and shortly after they begin walking along the trial, the other horses begin huddling around her instead of walking in single file. The tour guide stops, and moves towards the woman. The tour guide takes the reins from the woman and carefully pulls them to move her and the horse toward the back of the line. The tour guide then goes back to the front of the line to continue the tour.

After a couple of hours of walking along the trail and making a few stops to enjoy the view, the woman’s horse stops. She is unable to get it to move. The other people in the tour continue to ride behind the tour guide and the distance between her and the rest of the tour is getting greater and greater.

The woman hears the tour guide call her on the radio, “The rider with Wilder, where are you?”

The woman responds, “The horse has stopped walking and I can’t seem to get him to move. I’m not sure what to do.”

After a few minutes, the tour guide comes galloping up to them. The tour guide gives the horse a carrot and a few other treats. After they reach the other tour group members, the horse follows more closely behind the other horses.

The following morning, the woman meets with her friend before they go to the stable to continue the tour. She greets her friend by saying, “I have never been so sore in my life. I didn’t realize horseback riding used so many muscles.”

Everyone in the tour meets around the stables to obtain their horse for the day. When the tour guide brings out her horse, the horse looks like he is limping. The woman says, “Is he okay? He looks like he is limping.”

The tour guide responds, “He is fine. He is just imitating you. He has a keen sense.”

Later in the afternoon, the horse once again stops and doesn’t seem to want to move forward. The woman radios the tour guide and says, “I think the horse may be hungry. He doesn’t seem to want to move forward.”

The tour guide comes up to the woman and says, “No, he’s tired.” The tour guide makes a call back to the main office, and explains where they are located. A few minutes later a truck pulling a trailer approaches them. A beautiful brown horse with white markings at the bottom of its legs is taken out of the trailer.

The saddle is removed from her original horse and placed on the new horse. Once she is situated on the horse, the tour guide says, “This is Chestnut.” The tour guide takes the reins from the woman and positions them towards the front of the line. She rides with the new horse for the rest of the day.

On the third day of the tour, they once again meet with the tour guide at the stables at the start of the day to obtain their horse. The woman is secretly relieved to be paired with her original horse, as she felt the new horse was too advanced for her riding level.

As they walk along the trail, a group of people riding three-wheelers pass the horses. The loud noise of the vehicles scares her horse and he crouches down momentarily as he hears the loud roaring of their engines.

At the end of the day, as she returns her horse to the stable, the tour guide asks, “Do you want to have your picture taken with the horse? I can take one using your phone.”

The woman shows the tour guide how to take a picture using her phone and poses with the horse. When she looks at the picture, she notices how photogenic the horse is as his gray coloring has a nice silver sheen and his white mane seems to glisten.

The second portion of the tour includes a three-day cruise. The woman has never been on a cruise before and suffers from a severe case of motion sickness. She is very nauseas and dizzy. She spends most of the day inside the cabin.

The woman’s friend is very concerned about her condition and returns at the end of each day to check on her. She tries to cheer her friend up by sharing what the tour group did each day.

She begins by saying, “Today, when the ship docked, a few of us when to the aquarium. You have to see my pictures.”

The woman replies, “I will look at them later. I’m too nauseas and my head is spinning.”

Her friend continues, “Do you want to go to dinner? They have the best all-you-can-eat buffet. There is a lot of fresh seafood.”

The woman says, “I’m going to stay here.”

Her friend says, “Are you sure? I will come back after dinner and see how you are doing. Tonight is Casino Night and I heard the odds for a number of the games are pretty good.”

On the third day of the cruise, her friend returns from a day at the beach to find her friend sitting in a lounge chair. She approaches the woman and says, “I am glad to see you out on the deck. Are you feeling better?”

The woman says, “I went to the Infirmary today. They said I should sit outside, but to be honest, I’m still pretty nauseas.”

Her friend says, “You look green. I’ll take you back to your cabin.”

The woman is relieved once the cruise ends. After a few hours of walking along solid land, she feels a lot better.

The third part of the tour includes a trip to visit famous ruins. The people in the tour group are taken to visit a bridge, temple, and coliseum. As they visit each destination, they learn about the history of the site, which parts reflect the original structures, and which parts have been restored.

The woman is intrigued by the intricate mosaic pattern inside one of the buildings and amazed by how they were able to restore the large dome ceiling to reflect the original design.

On the last day of the tour, they are taken to a ruin where they are given a couple of hours to search for old coins. While she didn’t find any, a few people in the tour found a few rare coins that they passed along on the tour bus for others to see.

The trip to the ruins ends up being the woman’s favorite part of the tour as she learns and sees sites that she knows could never be replicated and reflect a key time in history.

The fourth and last part of the tour includes a visit to a famous city. They spend the first day of the tour on a tour bus where they are taken on a city tour. As they pass by different buildings, the tour guide explains their historical significance. The tour guide also explains the different areas to help them plan their visit as they will have a few additional days to explore the city.

On the final day of their visit, the woman and her friend decide to visit one of the famous museums in the city. As they are viewing the collections, the woman and her friend go inside one of the exhibits. As the woman looks at the paintings, she says, “I feel like I am having a déjà vu.”

Her friend says, “You may be. This exhibit is one of their rotating exhibits.”