'The Journey' Adventure

or (The day we Almost Landed on a Milk Carton!)

On the morning of November 20th, I met up with Candace and Jim at the Fiesta Casino in Henderson as planned, (well technically it was outside of the property – seeing as I forgot that all the Fiestas are closed until further notice). We weren’t waiting on anyone else from Vegas, so we hit the road about 15 minutes early. It was probably around then that I apparently picked up ‘Murphy’ – who ended up spending most of the day with us.

Issue number 1 became apparent right before we got to the Chloride turn off. GPS estimated about 1.5 hours driving time, however I noticed the time said it was already 11:45! Didn’t make any sense when we left early – of course then I realized I forgot to account for the time change in Arizona.

Luckily, we were the first ones to arrive, (an assumption). We pulled up to the little park in the middle of town and claimed a picnic table. We were still looking for two other friends to join us, so I posted to the event page where we were. Then we sat down to enjoy our lunch.

This leads me to issue number 2.

Even though we were meeting with someone who we hadn’t met in person before – it didn’t occur to me to give her my phone number to call or text should a problem arise – such as arriving in town and can’t seem to find us….sigh, (I apologize again Irma, although from your reply – it seems you made more responsible decisions!). This was a total party foul on my part, and I assure everyone I have learned my lesson!

After lunch we decided to wander through the ghost town while waiting for the last of our little party to arrive. Cyanide Springs is fun to explore – we all give it a ‘thumbs up’ and highly recommend a day trip with the kiddos! While most of the building are facade replicas, there is the Melodramas Playhouse, which is still the original building built by the players who often came to town. Another is one of the first homes ever built in Chloride, which is located next door. There is a nice local man and wife team who will relay all sorts of fun facts about the town to any who want to learn more. Those two buildings are accessible to the public and are full of old photos and memorabilia collected from those who lived there. The rest of the ghost town is more like a movie set, but they make for fun photo ops.

The last of our party, Cassandra, arrived shortly after the tour and we were ready to head out to see the murals. We stopped at the local mini-mart/souvenir shop to see if we could get some directions.

This led to the final issue of the day…

In the store, we were given lots of directions. First they said the road was pretty rough, then another guy told us as long as our cars weren’t low to the ground we’d be fine – he’d seen people go out and back in a mustang. Finally an older guy said to just make sure we kept following the road to the right, because there was an area that branched off to the left, but it was an old mining road that definitely wasn’t passable without a 4x4. In hindsight it wouldn’t surprise me to find out they had a whole routine worked out for out-of-towners.

Anyway, with way too much confidence, I took lead followed by Cassandra, then Jim and Candace. (This is where the soundtrack music would start playing, initially it would be a fun jaunty little tune….)

So we followed the pavement to the end and came to the dirt road; sure enough there was a sign painted on a rock “Murals 1.3 Miles”, and we were off. The first part of the road was bumpy, but I had driven over lots worse up in Cold Creek (this gave me a brief period of over-confidence). Then we came to the fork in the road, and following our directions I lead us down the road to the right (now the music takes on a dark tone). We came to a rise that had some run-off damage, but I drove right over the top and down into the beginning of the road to hell!

I looked back and so far, everyone was still there, assuming (there’s that word again) everyone was good, I kept going. The further I went, the worse the road (I use that word begrudgingly). I kept looking back and the others were still with me, so I kept telling myself, it’s fine. The track circled around and then headed up a steeper incline, full of ruts and large rocks. By the time I managed to get my poor little Soul up that hill, my heart was going a mile a minute and my hands were shaking with all the adrenalin running through me. I looked back again and could see the others had stopped at the bottom. FINALLY, the voice of reason kicked in and said let's get turned around and go back, we’re done.

That’s about the time ‘Murphy’ left, because I actually managed to find an area just big enough to turn around. When I got back to the others, Jim had gotten their car turned around, but Cassandra’s van was having problems.

Out of nowhere, two guys in a truck showed up. They are the heroes of our story, Tom and Doug! To their credit, after hearing our story they were trying very hard to not bust out laughing. They said we went the wrong way – we were supposed to take the road to the left, (I was NOT amused). Tom helped Cassandra turn her van around, then he and Doug showed us the way to the murals.

The other road was rough, but it was definitely nothing like the one we had been on, and all of our vehicles were able to reach our destination. By now my heart had finally returned to its usual rhythm – I checked my tracker later and it showed my heartrate hit as high as if I had been doing extreme cardio!

After all the craziness, we were finally there – and the paintings did not disappoint! The details were amazing; I kept trying to get just the right picture; but as is often the case, the pictures do not do them justice. I think it's because when you are standing before them, you can feel the energy of the Earth – I know Roy Purcell must have felt it too, because she’s reflected in the images he painted.

I was grateful for the day. Grateful no one was hurt (it was really scary for a little while); grateful to have experienced it with good friends; and most of all grateful for having the opportunity to be there and feel the energy of Mother Earth. To witness how an amazing artist had once stood in the same place, feeling that same power and then turned it into the moving images before me. Bright Blessings to you all, and Happy Holidays! ~L