Free time

Last week, due to decisions made by others, my husband had the week off. When he told me about having this unplanned vacation, I was excited because I thought of all sorts of “date” scenarios that could fill up our free time. I was thinking movies and unaccompanied lunches and he was thinking hiking and playing video games. Amazing how two people together for over 11 years and married for 10 ½ can still have such varying degrees of expectations. On Monday, we hiked to the highest peak in the Franklin Mountains, had a picnic (or as much of one as you can have dining on MREs) and finished up in time to pick up the kids from school. Not too bad if you know that I’m the turtle and he’s the hare when it comes to hiking. On Tuesday, we went jeeping in the desert to scope out an extreme hiking trail for him to conquer a line of mountains that could be likened to walking on a razor. Luckily, he didn’t scare me too much with his driving. Although, the boy in him surfaced when he stopped to track a snake that crossed the trail so he could take a picture of it. I’m in the Jeep telling him to stop being an idiot and he kept telling me he wasn’t in striking distance. Not the kind of logic I would use in my life, but then again I stand firm in my belief that two X’s are better than one. The rest of the week was filled with video games and a solo hiking adventure that lasted 15 hours. However, I successfully talked him into taking me to Barnes & Noble on Friday and having lunch at the café there. Not quite my dream week, but at least we had an adventure or two.

View from a saddle along the trail

You know you are high up (7, 191 ft.) when the clouds are lower than you.

Top of North Franklin Mountain

Little lizard (I love these guys.)

The snake that's not within striking distance.