I haven’t stopped laughing since it happened.  By the time we got back down the mountain and found a place to eat (and relieve ourselves), I could not contain my giggles.  The poor waiter must have thought I’d lost my mind. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you happened to catch yesterday’s post, you’ll know that we are currently in New Mexico and the goal for this day was to find a tapestry that we can hang over our bed. As planned, we rose early and went for breakfast to a nearby restaurant:  Salud!

We picked Salud! out of convenience and were surprised to find that it offers a number of gluten-free and vegan options, which made my day.  Speaking with the owner, we mentioned that we wanted to explore and had hoped to go birding at Dripping Springs, a state park nearby.  He informed us that because the government had closed down on Friday, all state parks would be closed, but he did suggest that if we were willing to drive a couple of hours out, we might consider Silver City.  I googled it and it looked amazing – well worth the drive.

“Take the back roads, if you want to see wildlife,” he advised.

So we set the GPS for Silver City and thought we’d make it a day.  Silver City has shops, restaurants, and spectacular views.  I was excited.

We stopped for gas, then looked for the exit the man had told us about, passing the one recommended by GPS.

“The next exit is 52 km,” I noted. “This can’t be right.”  I entered our intended destination into my phone and a different route popped up.  “Let’s try this one.”

So we did.  Drove two hours, through a military missile testing area, past small towns and up into the mountains where snow had fallen and it was beginning to look a bit like Northern Ontario.  Two kilometers from town, GPS announced:

“In two kilometers park your car at the side of the highway.  You will have to walk the rest of the way to your destination on the left.”

“What?” Ric and I both said in unison.  “That’s not right.”

I looked at my phone.  I had mistakenly typed in Silver Springs, not Silver City.  I had brought us two hours in the complete opposite direction of the quaint and scenic town we had planned on visiting.  Hungry, desperately needing to find a washroom, we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of wilderness, on top of a snowy mountain, very much alone.

All the way down the mountain he made me take pics of the signs that said “Icy” and “Watch for snowplows”.  He made me take a picture of the blowing snow and pine trees.  I took some lovely shots of the mountains.

Ric did not laugh.  He did not get mad either, surprisingly.

“Well,” I offered.  “You did say you wanted adventure.”

“Yes, but not miss ….”

We did share the story with the waiter, who joined in on the joke.

As I said at the beginning, I’m still laughing.  Oh, and when I got home to process my photos – the camera hadn’t worked.  No photographic evidence of our misadventure.

So, really, we can just say it never happened.