"Enjoy your stay," said the friendly receptionist. "Oh great," mumbled Renee to herself. This was one vacation she could do without. Renee hated family vacations, and this year was on its way to being the worst one ever. "Honey, what cabin do we have?" her mother asked her dad. "Well, let's see here," he paused, "I think it says Bluebird." Renee rolled her eyes, "They even have corny cabin names. How bad can this possibly be?" she thought.

"Yippee," Amy's younger brother Jared screeched. Finally, after five hours in the car for the second day in a row, Amy's family arrived at the Great Colorado Dude Ranch. Amy loved the Dude Ranch. It was her favorite place in the whole world. "I could live here forever," she said to herself as she piled her suitcases on her bunk bed. Immediately after unpacking, Amy called the livery and asked about their next breakfast ride. She scheduled herself, since no one else in her family liked to ride, for the Thursday morning ride. Amy had a tradition that she always did ever since her first time at the Dude Ranch seven years ago. She always went on two breakfast rides during her stay. The breakfast ride was the earliest ride the livery did. It lasted for two hours, but you got a break half- way through and ate breakfast cooked by the wranglers. Amy loved every minute of it. She couldn't wait for her first one of this vacation.

Renee slammed her stuff down on her twin bed and glowered at the rustic furniture. She felt lonelier than she ever had in her life. "Renee, sweetheart, come here," her mom called to her. "All right," Renee answered. "Look at all these activities they offer," her mom showed her after she had entered the kitchen. The only thing Renee wanted to do was get away, and be by herself. She tried to pick something that no one else would do with her. "Ahhh, perfect," she thought when she saw a two hour horse back ride, " even I don't like horses." She kept her plan to herself until she needed to get out of some family thing.

Amy changed clothes and took Jared down to the day camp building where she helped him register. Amy used to do day camp but, eventually, grew out of it. After signing up, she and Jared headed up to the games building to rent a board game. The Great Colorado Dude Ranch was the only place she and her brother ever got to have brother-sister time.

"Renee, why don't you go exploring and meet some kids," her mother pushed. 'There's nothing better to do around here," Renee mumbled. Renee's morn followed her to the door. "Please have a good attitude Renee, I know you don't like vacations and being away from your friends, but try to have fun," her morn urged. Renee took a walk around the main drive. She was very interested to see how it was more like a small community than a dude ranch. There was a restaurant, general store, laundromat, arts and crafts building, and other things Renee thought would be fun if she only had someone to share them with her. She decided to go check out the games building, since that sounded interesting. She ended up renting a deck of cards and playing solitaire. When she got back to Bluebird, her mother showed her a nature walk she wanted to take. "Oh, Morn," Renee whined, "I really don't want to do that." "Well, sweetheart, what else do you want to do?" "I, uh, want to, uh, go on this breakfast ride thing," she stumbled over her own words. Her morn was surprised, "Really, I thought you hated horses ?" "Well, they might be different here," she rushed to explain. "Okay, whatever will make you happy, but I won't go with you," her mother said. "That's fine," Renee ended the conversation. She called the livery and scheduled herself for the early Thursday morning ride.

Thursday morning finally arrived, and it found Amy more excited than usual. She walked down to the livery with her stomach already growling for breakfast. She found a line of people at the livery. Someone called out her name, "Amy? Amy!" cried Kim, who was Amy's good friend and a wrangler at the livery. Amy was happy someone recognized her, she felt like the people at the Great Colorado Dude Ranch were just part of extended family. She ran over to Kim and bugged her tight. "I can't believe you're here," Kim squealed. "I just got in two days ago," Amy said, " hey, do you still have Jolly for me?" "Of course we do. Jolly is the best horse we have, and you can ride him," Kim said. Kim led Amy over to Jolly and helped her mount onto the huge horse.

Renee checked her name off the sign up sheet and followed the wrangler to her horse, Durango. As the hopped on she noticed a girl about her age on the horse in front of her. "Great," Renee thought, "maybe this won't be so boring after all."

Amy turned around to fix her saddle and heard a quiet, "Hi, I'm Renee." Amy glanced up and saw a girl probably the same age with an uncertain smile. "Oh, hi I'm Amy, where do you live?" she asked Renee. "Florida, and you?" Renee replied. "Arizona," Amy answered. For the rest of the ride the girls got to know one another. Amy continually turned around to check up on Renee, who had told Amy she was just a little nervous about riding a horse for two hours. At the breakfast break, Renee saved Amy a seat. While they enjoyed their home-cooked pancakes and cowboy coffee, they found out how much they had in common. The friendship blossomed. From that minute on, the two girls spent every minute of their vacations together. They made candles at the arts and crafts building, played a competitive game of miniature golf, had swimming contests, tried to play tennis, and hiked Eagle's Cliff together.

Near the end of their week stay, Amy invited Renee on her second breakfast ride, but this time they rode double. Renee couldn't believe how well her vacation had turned out, and all because she had wanted to be alone. Amy loved this year more than any other because of Renee's friendship.

When it came time to leave the Great Colorado Dude Ranch, both girls were in tears. "I'm going to miss you so much," Amy sobbed. "Me too," Renee cried as she bugged her. As Amy climbed into her family's mini-van, Renee handed her a carefully folded piece of paper. Amy waved good-bye and closed the door. Renee watched her new best friend drive off and began to pack her suitcase. In her car, Amy started to unfold the note from Renee. Out from the folds of paper fell horse's hair. Inside it read, "I guess I was holding onto Durango too tight!! This week has been the most fun I have ever had. You made this vacation the only one I have enjoyed. That horse-back ride was the best thing I ever did, because you were there. Amy, thank you for answering my hello. P.S. I will be back next year!! " Amy held the paper close and thought to herself, "See you then, Renee."