Orange is the New ... Lie Detector?

I am pretty sure I've never told you this story ...

One of my all time favorite snacks is potato chips. I love them all: Ruffles, Pringles, Lay's, Doritos, and especially Cheetos. I really, really like Cheetos. Back when I was still endurance racing, the one big treat that I always gave myself was a bag of chips for the drive home. After riding 50 or 100 miles, I was always starving and depleted of electrolytes, and chips just hit the spot. 

An old picture of me and Montoya at the Lakeside 50 in 2001.

Many years of chips in Blue Truck after an endurance race passed. Eventually, I quit endurance riding and made the transition to dressage. As it turned out, two days of showing had the same effect; I was also hot, tired, and feeling the need to munch on chips on the drive home, so the tradition of a bag of Cheetos or Lay's continued.

Eastern high Sierra Classic 50 in 2002

After 17 or 18 years of eating chips on the way home from an equine-filled weekend, I discovered that I had a very bad habit. It was funny enough that I had to tell my frequent traveling partner about it. Kathy, who has been my endurance partner, moral support for Izzy, and Pivo holder extraordinaire, often came with me as I traveled with my horses and those bags of chips. I think I was cleaning my truck one day when I noticed that the entire corner of my seat, next to the center console, was COVERED with an orange stain. I realized that while eating chips for all of those years, I had been wiping the grease off my fingers on the corner of Blue Truck's seat. 

Earlier this week, Kathy tagged me in a Facebook post with the meme above. Come to think of it, I never checked HER side of the truck. She ate as many Cheetos as I did. When I bought Newt, I broke that habit. Now, whenever Kathy and I travel, she checks my seat for the tell-tale sign of orange, and we laugh all the way home, munching on our bag of chips.

Orange is still the color of truth.