Today went nothing like I spontaneously decided it should go. I drove my husband to his first day at work at his new line cook job at this very cool new restaurant. I had my favorite company, Lotus, the long haired chihuahua/cocker spaniel and reason for the smile on my face everyday, riding along. After Billy exited the car, I decided on a whim to go for a hike. I chose one that I'd been on before because I thought it would be fun to find a trail there I hadn't yet tried. Then, halfway there, I decided it was a perfect day to explore the Columbia River Gorge field of flowers. I talked to my brilliant phone about which hike to go on for the best flower fields and it replied with McCoy Point Trail. I headed there even though it was now another hour away. When I was 1 mile away, the road I was suppose to take was closed. I turned around and my gps started taking me to the other side of this trail. Or so I thought. I ended up making the longest u-turn of my life and decided to try a different trail instead. My phone responded that the next best flower fields were at Dog Mountain Trail. I headed that way now, 30 minutes back from where I came. On my way back, I noticed an off-ramp with a very cool looking area to explore called Mozier. I decided to go straight to Dog Mountain. Then about 3 miles away from Dog Mountain, I realized I had to cross the Columbia River and pay a toll at the bridge. I also noticed I was very close to out of gas. I decided to get gas, some fast food, and turn back to Mozier to avoid the toll. The Mozier exit was promising and pretty easy to find a place to hang out. The pictures here are from that off-ramp, though I couldn't tell you an exact location. I didn't quite get the fields of flowers I'd hoped for, but as you can see, I wouldn't call it such a loss either. We spent a short total time wandering in these spaces, since it was 90 degrees outside and my cute pup was panting like never before. We left and I thought we'd go on the original hike I'd planned on since the start. Unfortunately, I missed my exit and my phone died. I ended up just driving home and was out for about 6 hours for this entire journey, almost entirely in the air-conditioned car. Nothing went as expected, but I think we both still had a blast. To a day of spontaneous adventure and one-on-one with my favorite companion! -Please enjoy the scenery!
