While the kids were off track in May we went to Topaz Mountain and Trilobite digging near Delta, Utah. It's about a 3-4 hour drive from here. Our itinerary was something like this: Leave Friday morning, meet up with Jon's parents in Salt Lake and head straight to Topaz Mtn. Do as much hunting as we could, retire for the night at a Delta motel and the next day go dig for Trilobites at a family run dig site before heading home on Saturday.
Our drive down there was very windy. Almost the whole time we were at Topaz mtn, it was pretty miserable. It was very warm and the wind was almost unbearable. It was "knock-you-over" kind of wind and being in the desert you would get pelted by all the sand/dust. The first couple hours we had no luck whatsoever but then a scout leader showed up where we were about to leave and asked if we were staying there and if we had found any topaz. We answered No to both and he said he's found topaz there before. He drove off and a little while later, so did we. We were going to try a different spot and then noticed him directing another part of his group around the mtn. 
Becky (Jon's mom), Jon, and Ethan making their way up the mountain at our second location.
After spending another unsuccessful 1/2 hour or so in a new location, we decided to go hunt the scout leader out. It turned out to be a good choice since we found several tiny bits of topaz. The biggest piece was the size of a small pea. To give you an idea of how small the pieces were and how windy it was Savannah found a pretty good piece (still tiny) and while Jon's mom was trying to take a picture of it, it blew away. (Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the successful part of the mountain.) By this time, we were all tired and the sun (that was reflecting any small pieces) was being hidden by a few clouds and the mountain so we decided to head to the motel.
Becky (Jon's mom), Jon, and Ethan making their way up the mountain at our second location.After spending another unsuccessful 1/2 hour or so in a new location, we decided to go hunt the scout leader out. It turned out to be a good choice since we found several tiny bits of topaz. The biggest piece was the size of a small pea. To give you an idea of how small the pieces were and how windy it was Savannah found a pretty good piece (still tiny) and while Jon's mom was trying to take a picture of it, it blew away. (Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the successful part of the mountain.) By this time, we were all tired and the sun (that was reflecting any small pieces) was being hidden by a few clouds and the mountain so we decided to head to the motel. After we ate dinner at a mexican restaurant across from the motel it was about 9:30 so we retired to our room and tried to get the kids to bed as quickly as we could. This is always an adventure. I hardly slept. Tanner woke up once around 5'ish to get a drink. About an hour later he ended up in the bathroom and threw up. He threw up once more about 1/2 hour later and shortly after that you would never have guessed he was sick. This was all weird to me since this was the 3rd time in as many weeks that he had thrown up. The two other times, however was only once and then he was good. He hasn't done it since. Anyway, that was how my day started and since I had only gotten what seemed like three 1-2 hour naps through the night I knew it was going to be a long day.
Jon went for a run and came back while I was showering which woke Garrett up. He was the only one still sleeping at that point. Apparently he only came back long enough to wake him up and then decided to do a cool-down stretch outside which then he spotted his parents and talked with them for a while. (I didn't know this until after he finally came back.) Meanwhile, I was stuck in the room, trying to get myself and the kids dressed and fed bkfst wondering what the heck happened to him. He finally came back and took the kids to get some of the bkfst from the lobby while I finished getting ready and started packing back up. Jon and the kids said goodbye to his parents as they had their own places they wanted to see. It was about 10:30 before we were checking out.
So we were finally on our way to dig for trilobite fossils. It was about an hour drive and half of it was on a dirt road. Once we arrived to the location I was a little taken aback at the steepness of the road into the pit. I was a little scared we would slide down instead of drive down. Anyway, we found a parking place and was glad to see they had some picnic benches under a carport covering so we could eat our lunch there. After a couple of potty trips to the port-o-potties, wind-gusts that almost took our plates and wrappers away, we finally got our hammers and shovels and went to dig. If I wasn't pregnant, and if Garrett wasn't tired and 2 yrs old, with the attention span of a gnat, it could have been more fun for the two of us. I spent more time dealing with him than hammering away at the shale. Even the few minutes when I did get to hammer I got frustrated and impatient quite quickly when I had no luck finding anything. I don't know if I would have been more patient with it all if I felt more relaxed but it wasn't very fun for me.
It did get a little more exciting when we found a spot that had many trilobite, even if they were fragmented and tiny. It was finally about 3 pm when we were done and I was plenty ready to head home. 
Even though it wasn't our intention, we ended up taking the scenic route home which took forever it seemed. (Out of curiosity I just looked it up on mapquest to see what the difference in time is and it claims it was only an extra 6 minutes to go the way we did. I don't believe it. Maybe it was the fact that we were starting so much farther west but that was the longest 6 minutes of my life. :P ) After unloading the van (but not unpacking) Jon and I still had chores to do, mostly mowing the lawn for him and bathing kids for me. I was glad we were able to go do something different but I was very glad to be back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment