Mirage (Memorial Day Weekend: Part 1)

This weekend we decided to take the kiddos 4-wheeling. Have you looked at the peaks of the mountains?...still snow. So we decided to take them near the Great Salt Lake, by Golden Spike, where we had heard there are fun trails and salt flats that the kids could get more practice on their motorcycles without too much damage if they tip over. So we are riding out on the salt flats trying to find the shoreline. Guess what, there's NOT a shoreline. There is flat, dried up earth where a lake used to be, and we kept thinking we could see the lake, so we would drive...no lake. We would look on the GPS, sure enough, we were heading right to it...we thought we could see it...but no lake. It was one mirage after another. Thank heavens for the GPS, or we wouldn't have found our way back over all that empty lake bottom and mirages. Anyways, as we kept pushing forward, we began to realize that our bikes were starting to sink just a little bit. Our dry lake bottom was becoming wet, without us even realizing it. So Ira commented that we were in "quick sand", (just a phrase he chose to use to describe how the wet sand snuck up on us without us knowing), and that we needed to turn around and get out of it. Next thing we know, we are wondering where Emilie was. She had heard the words "quicksand", and "get out of here", and she was gone! She was going faster on her little bike then I have ever dared drive the 4-wheeler, and she kept going and going. She was a little speck in the middle of the mirages all around. At the time, we didn't know what possessed her to just take off without the rest of us, and we were getting mad at this child who wasn't obeying the rules to stay together. After the little speck of Emi became full-sized, and we could stop her, we gave her a piece of our minds and told her all the horrible things that could have happened to her if we couldn't find her. Then we take a step back and ask her "WHY"? Her answer made a lot of sense...IF your an EIGHT YEAR OLD! She was scared. She thought we were in quicksand and needed to get out of there fast. After our anger cooled down a bit, and we knew she was safe, then the laughter began...and hasn't stopped. I still laugh when I think about that little girl high-tailing it out of there as fast as she did.
Ira and I have come up with our "deep thought" surrounding that experience, ready for this? (it's really deep)... Driving into that "quicksand" is the way the adversary works. He catches us so slowly before we even realize we are in trouble. Then we have a choice to keep going on the path we're on, or high-tail it out of there. Had we kept going, we all would have been stuck. Turning around, and getting as far away from there without looking back was the right thing. (However in Emi's case, I do wish she had looked back to notice she was alone, and not tried to get out SO DANG FAST!)
It was a fun day, which left us with a memory that we will chuckle at forever!
I took lots of pictures, (what's new?), so happy viewing.

This isn't the time Emi was cruisin', but another time she got ahead of me. Can't you see the lake ahead? It looks like we're almost there...but NO LAKE!

We found this quaint little place for lunch, equipped with palm trees and all. Oh wait, that was a mirage too. It was sagebrush, not palm trees. But we were happy for at least that much in the middle of nowhere. Yes, we had salty sand in EVERYTHING!

Cruizin' along

Ira and Jarin over one of the original bridges of the original train that went from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Me and my baby.

Kamden didn't like our adventure so much. We may be in trouble if we have a child who doesn't like riding as much as the rest of us.

Brayden

Ira and Jarin