welcomed happenstance!!!

a couple weeks ago Jael the Sleepy /Stud-ious, Eri the Grand and Jamila the Navigator set out on a little trip to Carlsbad State beach about 80 miles east from where we live. two hours later we ended up about an hour from the arizona state boarder! I mean, how can you not love it? its the grand because some greater adventure always comes out of the fun we've already planned!

i believe Jae, in the front passenger seat, was in and out of consciousness and conversation. i was... in my own world i guess cuz i could barely hear the convos in the land before me, aka the front.
Eri always the cautious and attentive driver, proceeded as necessary from 10W to 215S to 60? ... and where ever else...
one hour later she realized that we had been on 10E She stopped at the nearest exit to figure out how this could have happened.

with no one to really help navigate, though i am usually the said navigator, we drove a good 50 to 70 miles out of our way. something had gone funky with the 215/10/60 junction and we found ourselves east of cathedral city!!! that is ont he right side of this map and we wanted to be towards the middle left part of the map on the ocean.

thanks to our cautious and always prepared driver Eri, we used our varying levels of pathfinder skills to map our way back towards carlsbad. This experience in itself was hilarious, being able to say we used our "tracking" skills was awesome whether trumped-up or not. we reveled in it along with the new sights we would see on the road back to continued uncertainty, we took a grip of little state routes/roads back to a familiar route 15S This time we were at least paying much more attention.

I began thinking of how much better things turned though we may not have planned it so. we all enjoyed the beautiful open lands and alternating rolling hills. Jael got some very well-needed relaxation away from home, Eri got a therapeutic drive along with good convos, and I was reminded of yet another way my God is dealing with me on a daily basis... according to his plans not mine.

my camera died early on but here are some pics of what the day entailed.


√ lots of driving and singing






√ beautiful landscapes


√ and an awesome sunset