The unexpected turn

As I said earlier, when I (Leslie) was 10 my mom drove my sister Chris (age 3) and me across the US.
I remember being in New Mexico and seeing Ship Rock directly in the road in front of us. The 2 lane highway was straight and seemed to go on for miles as the rock grew from a formless lump into the huge monolith that I believed would block our way. I kept silent about my fear as the image and fear grew and grew. I did not understand the illusion I was seeing and did not know that there was a turn in the road I could not yet see.

Day before yesterday, it happened again. A long straight road, this time seeming to climb up up up into the mountain directly from the desert floor. And then, the unexpected turn I could not see until I was nearly on top of it. We did not go up the mountain but continued in the desert.

The trip thus far has been delightfully uneventful. Except for the unexpected turns.....

Ely, NV: We needed to print out some photos to help me fight a traffic ticket I got earlier in the summer. I expected that surely there would be a Walgreens with a Kodak photo printer. Not so and the photo printer was out at the Economy Drug Store. But the vanilla and rootbeer floats were delicious!

On the first pass thru town, all we saw were the abandoned store fronts and the gambling parlours.

After a stop at the Chamber of Commerce, we followed the map of the 36 murals in town. They were beautiful visual teachings a the unexpected diversity of the mining community.

Great Basin National Park: Those of you who are facebook friends may have read of our run in with the park ranger with Ana our dog who was off leash on a trail leading to 3,000 yr old Bristlecone Pines. This was after we found there was no shade in which to leave her so we could go on the cave tour, after we could not find the petroglyphs, and before we also got busted for off leash behavior in a nearly empty campground where dogs are permitted but only on leash.

At 4 strikes we were out and left the park for the solace of our dear "Dream-cycle" back in the Whispering Elms Campground in Baker, NV. Imagine our surprise to drive in and find our Dream-cycle in the company of another T@B trailer! And to find that one of the more permanent camp residents (Lisa) was willing to dog sit the next day so we could go on the cave tour.

Further picture our suprise the next morning when our friendly ranger who turned us off the trail was the cave tour guide! She had completely forgiven our lapse and was an awesome guide since her avication is caves and is a self-described "claustro-phile.

We each took the hike to the Bristlecones- 2 hours of solitude and beauty apiece.

And those cave paintings were exactly where the ranger said they'd be and exactly where we hadn't quite slowed down and looked carefully enough to see the first time.

Luckily for me, and not at all unexpectly, Renee has capured these moments in her photos.
May you be open to the unexpected turns that move rocks or mountains out of your path this fall.