"Let's go to the desert."
Trip Start
Nov 30, 2007
1
22
34
Trip End
Jan 17, 2008
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Monday, December 24, 2007
The four vehicles took off into the dunes; we bounced around a little bit, turned through some soft sand, and then down a steep sand dune into... a soft patch of sand, and promptly got stuck to the axles. The leading vehicle also bogged down, and the third vehicle appeared, then took a different path... but still got stuck. The fourth vehicle failed to appear for a couple of minutes, until one member of the family appeared at the top of the dune to announce that they, too had gotten stuck.
Thence followed an hour and a half of getting the vehicles out; unsticking one to pull the next, using sand boards to provide traction under the tires, and ten people pushing one vehicle out of the sand. Apparently this is a little worse than a typical trip to the desert, but not by a lot.
Once all of the vehicles unstuck themselves, they were parked up on a dune, and a little day-camp type of situation broke out. A table, snacks and drinks appeared as if by magic, and a couple of games started up -- I made a couple of nice takeouts in the desert bocce, but in the end the other side was victorious. By the time the bocce was done, there was a roaring fired comprised of wood and wood-like materials (I saw a pet door in there), and general chatter and joking around commenced. As the sun set and a gigantic full moon rose, we packed up, drove out to the electrical pylon we'd entered the dunes from and reinflated the tires, as some of the boys shot off fireworks -- impressive ones, not the crap you can get in Canada.
As my uncle explained, sometimes you just need to get away from the city for a while.
