For the past several weekends, we have gone on adventures. Many are just visiting a site or taking a tour. For the littlest one in the family, they are all adventures. Something new, away from home, exploring, hiking, having fun, all elements of adventure. However,yesterday, we actually did a true adventure - for all of us. So, let me give you some back story.
Little Missy Pants loves to watch youtube.com, different videos of kids' toys. So, although I am not sure how this happened, she got onto a bridges string of videos and I heard the first one - the gentlemen in the video sounded very excited about their find. So I looked. They did find something cool. But, when the video was done, the next one that buffered was even better. And, it was in Pennsylvania. And, it was only an hour away. So with my trusty sidekick, my husband, and his AMAZING mapping skills, we figured out the location and a rough route of how to get to this bridge. It did not look easy, but it looked doable.
So, yesterday, we set out. We had to stop in McDonald, PA to see wizard of Oz statues. They are made of pipes and tubes and electrical parts. Very upcycled, our thing, and well, our curly haired princess is OBSESSED with the WOO, so it was a no brainer. We came, we talked to the characters, we even introduced them to the dolls (their younger siblings), and we took pictures and then we were on our way.
Finding the town of Mather was not that hard. It was finding the location of the bridge and how to get to it. So, literally, as we drove up and down the same stretch of road, parked, got out, decided, hmmm, this isn't it either, I kept asking,"Should we just give up?" Hubs is a go getter, so the answer was always no. Finally, after making a u turn twice within a 500 foot span, we turned onto this tiny dirt road. Was this really the road we were taking? Yes, it was. We drove a while on this road until it forked. Now let me tell you, we have a Pilot, so it can do these roads, but we really have not used the truck in this way before. We took the fork, going down, way down this tiny, half dirt, half gress road. I actually had to walk to first to make sure it was passable.
At the bottom was a small clearing and this bright orange, yuck, pool of wash water. Again...are you sure about this???? He said yes. All accountability was off me! Let's do it. And so we started out. We used the GPS on the phone and my husband's amazing sense of direction and started. We were really off the grid. There were no trails, no signs, no nothing. We hiked through some seriously dense woods and then came upon train tracks. We climbed, admired, and quickly crossed. we traversed down a steep hill and then we saw the water. We hiked along the water's edge until we found a spot that didn't look too steep in order to get down to the water's level. Once down, we walked through the creek/river (I don't know the body of water), and along the banks when it got too deep. We found rocks and actual seashells. We saw tons of tadpoles in different stages of development and that was really cool. The super soaker was a great idea to bring, and so while we kept forging ahead, little girl squirted and explored the fantastic, undisturbed waters and banks of this area...until, holy crap...there it was. This bridge was half up/half down. It was magnificent. The pictures are great, the view was better. While we ventured up to see the wood pilings, our little Magellan played in the water, looked for rocks, picked wildflowers. She joined us up the hill and we admired the architectural beauty of the bridge. How did it fall? A storm? Age? Man's hand?
After an hour of exploring, we all walked the river back to the trees we had marked and retraced our path back to the tracks. Hubby and I had to do a STAND BY ME moment...it was an adventorer's must. We finally found the car...changed out of our soaking wet clothes, crossed our fingers and prayed the Pilot could make it up. Piece of cake. All the while, the three of us could not stop chatting, laughing and yucking it up about this adventure. A gigantic thank you to my MCE (man crush everyday)...you found it, we conquered it!!! And the best part about this trek... we all had am amazing time - me seeing this decay and abandonment, my husband off roading, exploring mapping, and our sweet girl, exploring, playing and doing the four year thing. . Want details on the location, let me know. You will love it too.
Little Missy Pants loves to watch youtube.com, different videos of kids' toys. So, although I am not sure how this happened, she got onto a bridges string of videos and I heard the first one - the gentlemen in the video sounded very excited about their find. So I looked. They did find something cool. But, when the video was done, the next one that buffered was even better. And, it was in Pennsylvania. And, it was only an hour away. So with my trusty sidekick, my husband, and his AMAZING mapping skills, we figured out the location and a rough route of how to get to this bridge. It did not look easy, but it looked doable.
So, yesterday, we set out. We had to stop in McDonald, PA to see wizard of Oz statues. They are made of pipes and tubes and electrical parts. Very upcycled, our thing, and well, our curly haired princess is OBSESSED with the WOO, so it was a no brainer. We came, we talked to the characters, we even introduced them to the dolls (their younger siblings), and we took pictures and then we were on our way.
Finding the town of Mather was not that hard. It was finding the location of the bridge and how to get to it. So, literally, as we drove up and down the same stretch of road, parked, got out, decided, hmmm, this isn't it either, I kept asking,"Should we just give up?" Hubs is a go getter, so the answer was always no. Finally, after making a u turn twice within a 500 foot span, we turned onto this tiny dirt road. Was this really the road we were taking? Yes, it was. We drove a while on this road until it forked. Now let me tell you, we have a Pilot, so it can do these roads, but we really have not used the truck in this way before. We took the fork, going down, way down this tiny, half dirt, half gress road. I actually had to walk to first to make sure it was passable.
At the bottom was a small clearing and this bright orange, yuck, pool of wash water. Again...are you sure about this???? He said yes. All accountability was off me! Let's do it. And so we started out. We used the GPS on the phone and my husband's amazing sense of direction and started. We were really off the grid. There were no trails, no signs, no nothing. We hiked through some seriously dense woods and then came upon train tracks. We climbed, admired, and quickly crossed. we traversed down a steep hill and then we saw the water. We hiked along the water's edge until we found a spot that didn't look too steep in order to get down to the water's level. Once down, we walked through the creek/river (I don't know the body of water), and along the banks when it got too deep. We found rocks and actual seashells. We saw tons of tadpoles in different stages of development and that was really cool. The super soaker was a great idea to bring, and so while we kept forging ahead, little girl squirted and explored the fantastic, undisturbed waters and banks of this area...until, holy crap...there it was. This bridge was half up/half down. It was magnificent. The pictures are great, the view was better. While we ventured up to see the wood pilings, our little Magellan played in the water, looked for rocks, picked wildflowers. She joined us up the hill and we admired the architectural beauty of the bridge. How did it fall? A storm? Age? Man's hand?
After an hour of exploring, we all walked the river back to the trees we had marked and retraced our path back to the tracks. Hubby and I had to do a STAND BY ME moment...it was an adventorer's must. We finally found the car...changed out of our soaking wet clothes, crossed our fingers and prayed the Pilot could make it up. Piece of cake. All the while, the three of us could not stop chatting, laughing and yucking it up about this adventure. A gigantic thank you to my MCE (man crush everyday)...you found it, we conquered it!!! And the best part about this trek... we all had am amazing time - me seeing this decay and abandonment, my husband off roading, exploring mapping, and our sweet girl, exploring, playing and doing the four year thing. . Want details on the location, let me know. You will love it too.