A True Desert Experience

Let's see, how can I sum up day four? In three words, OH MY GOSH!!! I think it was the most fun day that I have EVER had. It was the first day that I got up before the kids, but as I was walking down the stairs at 6:45am, Dustin was following behind me and then Kayla. No quiet morning coffee time since they've been here. Actually, I quite enjoy watching Dustin through the patio doors as he perform his Tai Chi. He does it to the chirping of the birds, which seems quite peaceful. We started the day at the pool. The weather was beautiful, but the water was freezing. That didn't deter Dustin, he had a nice swim claiming that the cold water was providing an excellent cardio workout. So, Kayla jumped in and didn't have quite the same sentiment as she was out of the pool faster than it took her to jump in. Ok, on with the fun stuff. My friend, Kim, also had a son coming in for spring break, so she thought it would be a great idea to have a "dune adventure" where drivers take you through the desert for the afternoon. Since we do live in the desert, I guessed it was a better time than ever to experience the land. When we drove up to our meeting point for our outing, I immediately panicked. Before me were three Qatari men ready to whisk us away. OMG, the reputation of Qataris is well known in this country, and I have witnessed it first hand. They have absolutely no fear...Allah will protect them. Well, Allah better be hanging around for this adventure, because I knew we definitely needed Him. We loaded up in the Land Cruisers and the kids wanted to throw me in the back seat, because they knew I'd be screaming the whole time. My fears were soon compounded as our 23 year old driver jumped in. Yes, 23...I knew the young Qatari testosterone would be in full force competing with the other two drivers. As predicted, I did come through for the kids, screaming after just going through a few little dips. I was really just caught off guard I tried to explain to them, as I was messing around with my camera. So now, the first BIG dune is coming up and good for me I have no clue what's really happening, but the girls did because they had been paying attention to the Land Cruiser in front of us. Kayla and Kristi both grab me and start screaming, it was awesome. I was so tickled that they were the first real screamers that I started laughing. Well, that lasted for a microsecond and my screaming began. We were riding the edge of the dune and I'm not talking about a ten foot high dune, probably at least 100 feet. Our guide, Mosud, looks back at us and gives a big thumbs up and says, "You like?". A double edged sword question, if you know what I mean. This went on dune after dune. I'm surprised our vocal cords and skin are intact this morning. There was quite of bit of hand clinching going on (and whatever other body parts we could dig our nails into). We were very relieved when we stopped for a playbreak on the dunes, which let our heart rates return to normal rates and rhythms. Back into the Cruiser for more dunes as we made our way to the Inland Sea for another break. That's us posing in front of the sea with Saudi Arabia in the background. Back to the dunes again, only to stop at a campsite in the desert that had camels in abundance ready to accommodate any wannabe camel jockeys. I'm not sure who was taking over my mind and soul (Linda Blair, perhaps?), but I blurted out, "I wanna ride!". This desert air must really be getting to my head! Since, I have full control over this blog, you would think I wouldn't post such awful pictures of myself, but to give you the true essence of mounting a camel, I felt that I must. After all, I have to be as "Fair & Balanced" as Fox News. After the camel rides (and finishing up the camel milk, yes we drank camel's milk!) we loaded back up to head back home and could see the sun setting over the dunes behind us. I wanted to tell our guide that I wanted to stop and take a picture, but we were in a caravan with three other cars. All of a sudden all of our cruisers took a quick spin around to the left only to see directly in front of us a beautiful setting sun in the distance over the dunes. A site to behold. Wow, talk about impeccable timing. These guys had everything planned to a T. At this point, my camera battery was dead and I was having to erase pictures from my memory card to try and squeeze out one more pic. As the trip now was truly complete, we headed out of the flat desert only to race with everyone leaving. They don't call them Land Cruisers for nothing. The whole day was unforgettable...one I know that will be embedded in Kayla and Dustin's memory, as well as mine and Kristi's, highlighting their visit to our world.