Boy drives 1,300 miles to Texas rodeo grounds

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Boy drives 1,300 miles to Texas rodeo grounds
13-year-old tows trailer with two horses all the way from Virginia

JETERSVILLE, Va. - A 13-year-old Virginia boy apparently loaded his family's pickup truck with food, clothes and his dog, hitched up a trailer with two horses in tow and drove nearly 1,300 miles to Texas, police said. The teen's parents found him safe Friday.

Police are unsure why the boy ran away Wednesday morning from his Jetersville-area home. He apparently was well-prepared, even bringing extra propane tanks along.

Wyatt E. McLaughlin was found about 2 p.m. Friday on a rodeo grounds near Weatherford, Texas, where he had performed several times before. His parents looked for him there on a hunch, said Sgt. Tom Cunningham, a Virginia State Police spokesman.

"These all don't turn out well," Cunningham said Friday night. "We're pleased to report the outcome was positive."

Surveillance video from a gas station in Mount Pleasant, Texas, appeared to show the boy pumping gas Thursday into his family's pickup truck. The parents flew to Texas to view the video and believed the boy on the tape was their son, Cunningham said.

"Then (they) took the initiative and went to places they thought the boy may be," Cunningham said.

The rodeo grounds are at least two hours away from the gas station, but "is a place the family had been to on several occasions and Wyatt had participated in rodeos."

Cunningham said he wasn't sure how the family found out about the video but said they made several phone calls to Texas rodeo connections.

The family had no listed telephone number.

Boy, 13, drives 1,300 miles to Texas - Life- msnbc.com



:shock::eek3:

 
Wow that's a long drive he made all on his own! Glad nothing happened!

JL
 
Very interesting...for someone who is underage of 16 and has no driver's license or anything he made one hell of a long way from VA to TX on his own without harm.
 
Modern beliefs in the inability of young humans to function intelligently or act capably.

When I was 13 in many states your parent could hand you their driver's license and you could drive to town using it. If you did something wrong you got in trouble but the ticket went against your parents license and they paid the fine.

Teenagers can do anything any adult can do, they just can't get caught doing it.
 
Wow, that's amazing and he made it just fine!
 
Steel X said:
Very interesting...for someone who is underage of 16 and has no driver's license or anything he made one hell of a long way from VA to TX on his own without harm.
Click to expand...

You should say "15" instead "16". Because 16 can get license and drive away for reason or not.
 
One lucky kid

I guess he really likes the rodeo. :)

I suppose his parents were really worried he was kidnapped.

He's lucky he did not break down in the arid parts of Texas in the middle of nowhere, or get robbed or hurt.
 
My dad learned how to drive when he was 14 and his driving record is a lot better than mine.
 
wow , that is a feat for a young kid to tow a trailer with 2 horses!! Each horse wieghs over 2000lbs. So with 2 horses and weight of the trailer capable of towing 2 horses, that is over 3-4 tons of weight behind the truck!! All I can say is wow! I wonder if he ended up at the stockyards rodeo in fort worth ? Funny to think of it, I was just there a week ago.
 
Dang!

Well prepaired! Guess he was determined to attend the rodeo.

Even brought his dog!!

Glad he is safe
 
Well - That boy has a sheer determination to do what he is passionate about; getting to the rodeo. That, I commend him of.

But - It also was a bit foolish to go on a 1,300 mile trip by himself even though he was well prepared. He's just lucky that nothing bad has happened to him on the way.
 
I do wonder what the parents thought when they found the kid! And what his discipline was.
 
Babyblue said:
I do wonder what the parents thought when they found the kid! And what his discipline was.
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I wonder too. While I think he did an excellent job getting everything he needed for such a long drive, he's only 13 years old and anything can happen.. I'd be worried out of my mind if he were my kid.
 
radioman said:
wow , that is a feat for a young kid to tow a trailer with 2 horses!! Each horse wieghs over 2000lbs. So with 2 horses and weight of the trailer capable of towing 2 horses, that is over 3-4 tons of weight behind the truck!! All I can say is wow! I wonder if he ended up at the stockyards rodeo in fort worth ? Funny to think of it, I was just there a week ago.
Click to expand...

I didn't see where they said how much the horses weighed? What was he hauling, Draft horses? lol! I have several large horses, on being 16.2h (4"x16) and the most he has weighed is 1500 lbs.. He was grossly fit, and fat...lol. From experience though, pulling a trailer isn't all that hard. Most of the time you forget its back there unless the horses are moving around. hehe
Though, the thought of a 13 year old hauling two horses cross country is quite crazy!
 
LOL, no surprise. I would never name a son of mine Wyatt.

But, country and farm people often learn how to drive way before they are even 15 years old, many parents who live on farms teach their teenage children how to drive trucks around their own farm property for hauling hay and other chores, etc at around even 12 years old. I have seen this happen while I was living on a farm in Bumfuck just north of the Twin Cities for 11 months. Nothing new. If this boy was very well-prepared and succeeded in driving 1,300 miles from Bumfuck, Virginia to Bumfuck, Texas without getting in an accident then he obviously had a lot of experience traveling to rodeos in the past with his family.

Teenagers are capable of a hell of a lot more than adults think. Don't underestimate them. That's the problem....adults often underestimate teenagers.
 
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