Herds of..... HORSES?!?

Thursday night began as a disappointing, lazy night spent in the dorm room "studying" while the rest of the world (or so it felt) was out having the best night of their lives. After a couple of hours, Emily and I could not take it anymore. We HAD to get out of our dinky little room! So what do we do? Put on sweats and t-shirts and headed down to the lobby. There were a couple of people to talk to, so for about an hour we chatted (our lame attempt at being social for the night). As the clock hit 12, the guys had to leave the building. Emily ran outside to do who knows what with who knows who, and I stumbled up the stairs to our room exhausted but dreading that tiny prison.
A few minutes after reaching our room, Emily bursts through the door and says, "Do you want to go to the hot springs?" .... What? It took me a few seconds to really understand what she was asking. Finally, I got the picture and we put our bathingsuits on, grabbed our towels, bundled on a bunch of clothes (cuz it is FREEZING here) and headed out the door. We walked all the way across campus to meet up with some other people who were going, got in the car, and drove off.
Let me first explain the car situation. There were six people going, two couple plus me and Emily. The car could fit five. Emily decided she would be the one to sit on someone's lap. Who does she choose? One of the guys, who is in a couple, sitting next to his girl. Emily and the guy have known each other for a long time so it wasn't that big of a deal. It just made all of us laugh and the situation was a tad awkward. Finally, she moved and I sat on her lap.
Our drive took us to unknown locations. We traveled south on the freeway for a bit. When we got off we headed for the mountains. We probably passes a total of 3 cars along the road through the mountains. We we turned off the main road, there was not a soul in sight. No lights, barely any useful signs, anda blank wall of mountains around us. We drove up and down the road a few times, trying to find the place where we were supposed to park and start hiking, but to no avail. We ran in to a herd of horses just standing in the middle of the road. There were probably somewhere between 15 and 20 horses crossing the road in front of us. Definitely NOT something that would happen in California, let me tell you. Cows, deer, that's all normal. But HORSES! Are you kidding me!?! It was pretty crazy. They were very beautiful, if that gives them any credit for being there.
Finally, we could not find the hot springs and the car was almost out of gas. We had to get back to civilization before we ran out or else we would be pushing a car through the middle of no where. Luckily, we made it, filled up, and headed back home. At this point, it was about 2:30 am. The entire ride home was silent. Most people had fallen asleep in the back (except for me due to my awkward position sitting on top of people). We got home at about 3 am, headed upstairs, and immediately went to bed. Our own little adventure to find the hot springs didn't turn out to be as fun as hoped but it pulled Emily and I out of our dorm room which was all we needed for the night. Maybe next time, we will go during the day so we can actually find the hot springs!