THAT HAD TO BE A THRILLING RIDE

She came from New Mexico to party Texas style and she started to drive back home, also Texas style.

DELANI HAZEN: ALLEGEDLY DRUNKEN TRACTOR RIDE LAYS WASTE TO COUNTRYSIDE, CUTS POWER TO TOWN
By John Nova Lomax

Houston Press Hair Balls
April 19, 2011

What had to have been a wild night in Amarillo last Friday got even wilder after 20-year-old Delani Hazen's friends either intentionally or unintentionally left her by the side of Interstate 40 just west of the north Panhandle metropolis.

Apparently desperate to get from a town called Bushland back to her hometown of Logan, just across the New Mexico line, Hazen is alleged to have found salvation in a nearby pasture: an empty John Deere tractor she commandeered and pointed toward home, a mere 91.1 miles away, if Google maps is to be believed.

Hazen, allegedly drunk at the time, didn't get far. Police now say she forgot to turn on the headlights and almost immediately destroyed several power poles, thus causing a blackout in Bushland.

Still, westward toward Hazen's home the John Deere continued to rumble, its swath of destruction just beginning. According to a news release from the Potter County sheriff (quoted verbatim by Amarillo's Channel 10), Hazen managed to wreak over $100,000 worth of havoc before the John Deere ground to a halt.

The caller, the manger of the Pak A Sack Convenience store in Bushland, reported finding a wrecked farm implement on the parking area of the business and extensive damage to the business.

Deputies responded to the scene and found a John Deere farm implement crashed into and wedged on top of a parking guard immediately in front of the business, damage to the front of the business, extensive damage to a fuel pump at the fuel island, and damage to fencing just south of the business where another piece of wrecked farm equipment was found.

Hazen was charged with felony unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and driving while intoxicated. More charges could come as the final tally of the damages she allegedly caused comes into sharper focus.