Dirt Roads, Paper Plates, and Motorcycles

For the 4th of July we thought it would be fun to go camping with some of my family. The plan was to meet up on the 3rd and build a nice fire, roast marshmellows, and eat dough boys (thanks Jenni!). Well, it didn't quite work out that way. You see, John got off work later than everyone else, so they gave us directions. Now, anyone who has ever camped with us knows that we usually get lost once, but we always find it in the end. Not this time. The directions we were given we to go up the canyon, turn off on a dirt road right before the road goes up a big hill, and if you get to Mill Hollow you have gone too far. Now that last instruction we were given by 4 different people, at least 2 times each. We got that one down. So, drove up the canyon and ruled out a few dirt roads, never saw this giant hill, and got to Mill Hollow. Too far, so we turned off on a dirt road about 5-10 miles after the sign to turn around. We were also supposed to be looking for our name on a paper plate once we turned off onto the dirt road. Well, even though this road was "too far" we saw some paper plates and read them anyway. Not a single one had our name on it, so we turned around. We spent the next 4 hours, yes 4 hours going back and forth on that canyon road and went up every dirt road we found so we could rule it out. Of course there was no cell phone service. When we decided to turn back at 11 pm, we got a call, but could we find the stinking phone in time, NO! It was my brother, but he didn't leave a message and we couldn't get back through to him. Well, we decided to give the canyon one more run and we drove all the way back up to Mill Hollow (it now being pitch dark), found nothing and drove back 45 minutes to find a hotel (it was 2 hours back home). So this is how we camped that night:
Oh, and I forgot to mention that we had all of my parents stuff, like sleeping bags, food, etc. So, my mom finally calls us at 1:30 in the morning (they got lost trying to get out of the canyon) and tells us that we were supposed to go past Mill Hollow. Right. They put paper plate signs on the Mill Hollow sign telling us to keep going. Who in there right mind is going to look for signs with their name on it on a sign that was "too far", especially in the dark? Also, they said once on the dirt road to follow someone elses signs because they were better. Thank you Wright family, whoever you are. So, the next morning we gave it one more try. There were signs and I just had to take a picture of the signs "we just couldn't miss".
Yep, those little white plates were our salvation. They say "Mandie Keep Going." Should've had my night vision goggles on. So it turns out that the dirt road we turned around in very first was the right spot. Good things to come out of this: 1) John and I have the whole mountain memorized all the way down to the dead dear carcass, 2) we will have a contigency plan next time, like if I am not there 2 hours after I am supposed to be, someone meet me in town!, 3) we are all going to buy bright colored signs in one color, and the best one 4) we still made it in time to go motorcycle riding!!

Me and Sydney tearin' it up

Thanks to my brother, we were covered in mud

This is the view from the ridge we rode up to (taken with a phone, so not great, but you get the idea)

As John was going down a crazy steep hill, the chain brock on him and my uncle had to tow him with his jeep. Welcome to motorcycle riding John!

As we were packing up, the kids thought they would bond with Chleo with Doritos

After everything, we still had a great time and we were very glad we went back up the next morning. We can't wait to do it again!