High Priced Geodes

High Priced Geodes are ours for the keeping.  Our grandchildren from Virginia were visiting us last week. We planned a Geode hunting trip on the west desert of Utah, and rented two Suburban’s so the whole family could ride together. We took the same trail the pony express riders used to ride out past Simpson Springs (a pony express station) to a geode quarry where we spent the day digging for geodes. The temperature was 104 degrees and when a cloud blew over the sun we all thought we had died and gone to heaven.

We were well prepared for the heat. We even brought an extra five gallons of ice water in addition to our bottles of water. Just in case! Right after lunch one of the children accidentally knocked the Igloo out of the car and the lid popped off and the water spilt all over the ground. We figured we were OK, we still had some water bottles. Lee just kept feeling bad he didn’t think to tape the lid on. I don’t know whether it is the Boy Scout or the lawyer in him. There is a reality that no matter how well prepared you are, strange things can happen. You are never too prepared. It is part of lawyer’s job to think of every contingency and prepare you for it. That is one reason that Lee keeps trying to get everyone to get their legal work done now.  But back to our high priced geodes.

On our way back from the quarry we blew two tires. We changed them. (We actually had two identical vehicles, so we had two spares.) Lee decreased his speed on the road, and we tried to figure out what happened to the tires, our guide told us how many times he had been on this road with no problems. All was well, but I admit I was a little nervous. We had eight small children, very little water and we were out of cell phone range and there were no more spare tires. Twenty miles further and the last two tires on the same car blew. We still were out of cell phone range, and we had no more tires. We had no water and it was hot. I was thinking I would stay in the desert with the car, but Lee wouldn’t think of it. We piled all 16 of us into the other car, sans car seats for the kids, and made our way to civilization. When we got into cell phone range the rental car company arranged for a tow truck to go get the car with the flat tires. I called some friends to pick us up. We made it home safely thank goodness. We have some very high priced geodes to remember our trip.

By Kristy Phillips