Farewell to freedom | Anita Carol Waggoner

Forty-seven year old, Cheyenne Stevens meets a handsome younger cowboy, Rowdy Harrison from Freedom, Oklahoma in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo. After a sinful Vegas weekend, the cowboy invites Cheyenne to visit him in on his Oklahoma ranch. They fall in love and Cheyenne leaves an idyllic life in the city to live with Rowdy in a dilapidated bunk house on a run-down ranch in Freedom, Oklahoma. The cowboy and the socialite’s relationship soon becomes a business relationship when Cheyenne finances Rowdy’s fledgling bucking bull business. Thanks to her generosity, the once broke cowboy’s life changes forever. Spending several years in the small cow town, she puts up with Rowdy’s drinking and womanizing. She realizes that moving to Freedom was a huge mistake, but her investment there is so large she can’t just walk away. Life with Rowdy is a wild roller-coaster ride. She makes and loses fortunes as she sees her world tumble down around her. In the end, the shattered woman flees Oklahoma, saying farewell to Freedom, feeling lucky to have a shirt on her back. She is overwhelmed with sadness wishing that her life with the ruthless Oklahoma cowboy had just been a bad dream. Unfortunately, it was all too real. It had been an unbelievable, long journey, one she would never forget, nor financially recover from. And as she drove away from Freedom, the memories flooded her mind. She thought. If only for therapy, I’ll write a book about the Freedom experience, I certainly have one hell of a story to tell.