Adam's happy place

I grew up living on a dirt road but Adam is the one who loves driving on dirt roads.  Since our trip the previous weekend had been canceled courtesy of my head-ache, we went on Saturday.  This time it was more of a spontaneous decision and we didn't have everything ready.  It just took minutes to marshal the troops though and pack a cooler and a water jug and a bag of snacks.  Kids this age are kind of a dream.

What we didn't take was our map.  We have this big atlas that we bought when we went to Oklahoma because we forgot to take our map on that trip too.  We keep our atlas in the garage so we will remember to take it.

It isn't working.

We headed west and eventually hit a dirt road.  We had downloaded a map on Emma's phone because we knew we would lose cell service and we did.

Also, a combination of a really and truly warm day and everyone being stuck at home resulted in a BUSY road.  The place was packed with ATVs and pickup trucks pulling trailers of ATVs and little cars that struggled to navigate the dust choked road and slowed everyone down.  There were serious washboards in the road and we couldn't go very fast at all because we kept getting stuck behind slow vehicles.

We stopped along the way and looked at a few Pony Express station markers.

Adam took this picture.  It was at Simpson Springs.

I have always been fascinated by the Pony Express.  It feels like this mix of genius and craziness.  Adam had me tell everything I knew about the Pony Express to our kids like I was some sort of expert.  I'm really not.  But they listened appreciatively so we all pretended.

We finally made it to Fish Springs, our destination.  It is a wildlife refuge in the very middle of nowhere.  There is water there where birds stop mid migration.   We saw lots of ducks and some Canada Geese and sparrows and lots of coots and red-winged black birds.  (I didn't know the coots were named coots but I googled it when I got home.)

The most amazing thing was the pelicans.  Pelicans in the middle of the desert!

Adam took this picture through the binoculars.

The pelicans stayed away from the little road that skirted the ponds but we did see one flying near us and we saw one swimming nearby with a fish in its mouth.  It was so incongruous with the dusty remote drive we had been on that it was delightful.

It was a beautiful spot.  Spring is much later there.  It was all still brown with not much green showing yet.

I loved hearing the birds.  Some of them were familiar sounds that I've heard a lot and some of them were completely unfamiliar.  There were hundreds of different kinds of birds and I had no idea what most of them were.

We decided to head home a different way.  We didn't want to face the congested dusty road again and knew that it would probably be even more congested with people heading home too.  There was a way to go south to Delta but we weren't exactly sure which road was the best and we didn't have cell service or a map.  We looked on the map programed into Adam's navigation system in his car.  It isn't great but it gave us enough of an idea to give it a try.  We slowed down on the dirt road when there was a road heading south.  I read the faded barely legible sign that pointed to Delta.  Why not?

Adam was almost giddy.  Not only were we on an unfamiliar road but we weren't 100% sure where it would take us.  It's the kind of adventure he loves.  We had 3/4 of a full tank of gas and plenty of food and water so we went for it.  At one point, Adam said, "Did we tell anyone where we were going?"

We hadn't.

It was a great decision though.  We went through this lovely mountain pass and then soon enough we were on paved road!  The paved road took us all the way to the freeway.  The return trip was longer mileage wise but felt much faster and more pleasant than the trip there.

It pays to take a risk. (sometimes)

And also, we should remember to take our map!