Over There by Nevada

Over the weekend we went on a little adventure. We've been itching to go somewhere... anywhere. We were very fortunate to enjoy several camping trips this summer and a quick trip to Wyoming with some friends, which helped suppress our wanderlust, but it's starting to come back in full swing. We don't need to go far. We just need to go.

Scotty is a wonderful adventure planner, so he took Friday off work and made arrangements for our journey. Meanwhile, I planned the food. Since we are still under contract (via Nicky) to not go out to eat this month, we had to take all our food with us. I think "road trip food planning" is one of my talents - at least when it comes to food we take with us. When we eat out on trips, Scotty usually does the research and finds the food places. I excel at things like Thanksgiving leftovers in gas station parking lots while he excels at finding the best burgers in town.

We left around 8:00 Friday morning and drove to Gandy, Utah. You've probably never heard of it. We hadn't either. It's over there. By Nevada. 

In fact, we stopped at a place called the Border Inn, which is a gas station and motel right on the border of Utah and Nevada. 

While we were there, Daisy asked how far we were from Utah. I said, "Utah is right there," and pointed ten feet away. She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Utah is literally right there. By the gas pumps."

The gas station had pay phones, and our kids have never seen any, so they were pretty blown away. We didn't have any change, or we would have let them call Grandma. 2020 Coin shortage... you know... plus I don't know if they were in working order. I'll have to ask Nicky if he heard a dial tone. Not that he'll know what that means. 

Of course, we got a taste of Nevada's COVID signage which is just as overwhelming as Utah's COVID signage. 

The gas station was our potty stop before heading to Gandy. Our purpose in Gandy was to tour the Crystal Ball Cave. 

But first... lunch:

Some sandwiches deserve to be on the internet

This is my signature veggie container with dips.

I take one on most trips we go on. 

We tailgated on the side of the road in the desert after driving 29 miles on a dirt road. 

The tours are provided by the Bates family, who originally found the cave. They are voluntary stewards of the cave. 

We met our tour guide, Granddaughter Bates, at the family property. 

The lane leading to the Bates property

in the middle of nowhere

We then followed her a few minutes up the mountain where we parked and hiked a quarter mile to the cave entrance. 

The cave was amazing. 

Stalactites

The first room of the cave

Trypophobia triggers aplenty

Crystal

A ladder going up into a "chimney"

(no one has gone up the ladder since the 50's)

The wedding cake

Nicky sitting in a crystal (with permission)

The exit to the cave 

(you enter and exit at different points)

After the cave tour, we took the kids to swim in a warm spring nearby. As we drove to the spring, we came across a sandy stretch of road that didn't seem very "van friendly." We decided it might be wise to park and walk the rest of the way to the spring. I think we made the right choice because the sand was the consistency of powdered sugar - finer than the sand we normally deal with, and at some points, it was 8-10" deep. 

Behold the "poof:"

The photos do no justice to just how messy this was. There will be sand in our van for the rest of time. But it was worth the mess to get to enjoy the spring. 

It's a really small spring, and we were the only ones there, so that was nice. When we were leaving, another family was coming (they toured the cave with us), and they, too, opted to not drive through the sand. 

(I'm not much of a water person, so I didn't go in the spring. Nicky constantly tells me what a boring mom I am. Sorry, kids).

After the warm springs, we drove two and a half hours to Fillmore, Utah to have our first Corona hotel stay. We had the hotel pool to ourselves (yay!) and let the kids swim for a while. Then we enjoyed some road trip tacos in our hotel room. 

Scotty and I like to wrap hard shell tacos in soft

tortillas. We put sour cream on the soft shell like glue.

All the kids showered, and we went to bed. 

In the morning, we got some grab-and-go continental breakfasts from the front desk (it was distressing to drive past Burger King on our way out of the hotel parking lot knowing we could have had breakfast croissants instead of cardboard muffins, yellow oranges, and bottled water). We got everyone ready and packed up all our stuff so we could head to the Fillmore lava tubes. 

We got to the tubes around 9:30 and went exploring. Lava tubes are cave-like tunnels formed by magma flow. They're equal parts creepy and cool. They (and caves and mines) scare me because I envision all the ways I could get trapped or die in them. But they also fascinate me. I was okay with Crystal Ball Cave and the lava tubes because they're very spacious, but I still thought of at least 88 ways we could have died.

Where is Scotty?

Floor is lava!

Inside one of the tubes - that bridge collapsing

is one of the 88 ways we could die in there

More trypophobia

Inside one of the tubes - those rocks had to fall 

from somewhere!

In the first tube we went in, we could hear bats. It was pretty cool but also eerie. 

The lava tubes reminded us of Pirates of the Caribbean, so we walked around saying, "Dead men tell no tales!" while crying about Disneyland a little bit. 

It's fine. 

We're fine.

Sniff.

In reality, I'm just as happy on trips like this as I am on trips to Disneyland. I'm just still in utter shock that we live in a world where Disneyland is closed. 

After we ventured through the lava tubes, we went to some hot pools about 20 minutes away. We arrived around 11:00, and the pools were full of partiers already. So with social distancing and the fact that drunk twenty-somethings aren't really keen on being joined by a bunch of kids, we just took a quick look and moved on. Plus it was starting to get really windy. But then we saw another pool a ways down the road, and no one was there!

Turns out, it smelled like cow poop, and the water was cold, but we didn't let that hold us back!

(And by "we," I mean "everyone but me" because I'm the boring mom!)

Scotty and the kids swam for about half an hour. Multiple people came and tried to get in and left because it was so cold. It was quite amusing to watch! 

While everyone else was swimming, I made sandwiches. When they got out, they were freezing, but they changed into warm clothes and enjoyed another tailgate lunch. 

From there we set off for home. 

We had a really great time, and it was fun to see a part of Utah that we weren't familiar with.