The Adventures of Off Roading in a Mini Van

A friend of mine had told me about this Gypsum Mine out in the middle of no where {if you live in the area, I can send you directions}  They call it Glitter Gulch.  I told my family and some friends about it and we decided to go find it on Saturday….at 3:00, time is important here!  Let’s just say the directions we got were WAY off unless there are two Glitter Gulches.   We found it, or what we think it is and the kids had a blast.  My son thinks he is going to be rich and famous because he collected a whole shirt full!

Oh and pockets full…

I wish the pictures showed how much it glittered but it was 4:00 by the time we got there.  So just pretend these pretty rocks are glittering in the sunlight

My baby loved chewing on his first rock…

We hiked around a bit…

Carried crying kids, and hyper babies, and then decide to get in the car again…and that, my friends, is where the real adventure began…

My sister and her husband decided to drive down the road a bit and see if maybe there were 2 Glitter Gulches.  We (our friends and us) decided to follow.  We got to a fork in the road and decided to go left.  It wasn’t to rocky…yet.  Then we got to kind of a dead end…well sort of.  It was a fenced opening, but it looked narrow.  Our friend had a GPS and said that it would eventually loop around into the city right by ours and by some dinosaur tracks.  We thought…ok why not.  Had we been by our selves we would have for sure turned around.  But hey we were two white minivans and a pathfinder…we would be just fine! 

My kids thought the bumpy roads were fun and they were cheering and happy as can be. 

Our friends little girl puked

It was pretty and still day light and we were enjoying the drive. 

Then it got a bit rockier, but we had already driven so far and it wasn’t going to be easy to turn around.  The rocks weren’t huge, but it was probably not the best drive to do in a mini van. {Don’t Judge}

Our friends got a flat…{see now its getting dark, it was about 6:00 right then}

But we did find this pillow on the side of the road, and considered taking it home…yuck.  I wish I new the story behind the random pillow in the wilderness.  Maybe it was an old pioneer pillow…he he

I kept teasing my husband that the road we drove on was an old wagon road for the pioneers.

Around 6:30 the kids were getting grumpy and hungry…ok I was also feeling the same way plus sick in my stomach from all the bumping around.  I was surprised we all didn’t get a flat tire and have leaking oil pans. 

We decided to play a game with the kids and apply this situation to our lives. 

My daughter said that it is like life because it is rocky and sometimes not, but we can get through it, if we just keep going.  {pretty good for and 8 year old}

My husband and I came up with this….This journey would have been a lot harder and a lot scarier had we been alone.  Like life it is better to be surrounded by good friends and family.  We are going to go through hard “bumps” in our lives, we are going to get “flat tires” along the way, but we are never alone if we surround ourselves with good people who will help us, and if we pray to our Heavenly Father to help us get “home safe”.  Which we did!

I guess you could also apply this situation with being more prepared also…  

During the drive my friend sent me a text saying “The only thing giving me hope is the light up ahead”  Sure enough there was a light off in the distance.  According to my friend GPS we were close, but  it didn’t feel like it.  

And here we are at 7:00 at night getting on to a paved road.  We had driven 33 miles in 1 1/2 hours. 

We all pulled up next to each other as we pulled out of there and my husband said “I didn’t see the dinosaur tracks can we go back?”  ha-ha funny!  We all just laughed.  It was an adventure to remember and never go on again unless we all own Hummers…{which should happen as soon as my son makes his millions selling Gypsum}

As tired and hungry and grumpy as we were, this will make us laugh in the future {actually I am already laughing} and we made some fun memories I bet my kids will never forget.