Most plans are just inaccurate predictions...

A plan is a list of actions arranged in whatever sequence is thought likely to achieve an objective.
- John Argenti, author and founder of the Strategic Planning Society

What if the objective is making you feel like you are young and free and spontaneous?

Fall, my favorite season, often comes swift and quick in this fair state. After checking the weather forecast for the week and seeing that the temperature would start at 88 degrees and then in one day's time, dip to 46 degrees, I started to feel the first "winter is long and depressing and I will never make it through another one" pangs of panic that attack me each year. With William and Romney both out of school and soccer not happening this week (all due to UEA), it seemed like common sense to take a quick unplanned trip to chase the sunshine down in Dixie. I jumped online and booked a hotel for the next night. I picked the one with the best outdoor pool. Then I bribed Bill into joining in my spontaneous fall-induced madness by telling him we could take all our bikes and get some fun family rides in. With Bill on board, and the kids up for anything we headed towards 75 degree weather with our swimsuits packed and the bike rack full.


We arrived in Mesquite and immediately found a bike path to start our first ride. It started out wonderful, but short. We rode to the end of the path, played on the playground that was located there, and turned around to head to the car, when William discovered his first flat tire. Due to not having planned for this trip, we did not have any extra bike tubes, so William and I walked back, while Romney and Bill rode back to the car.

We checked into the hotel and raced to change into our suits for a swim in the amazing pool (complete with slide and waterfall). We got to the pool to find they closed the slide in the time it took for us to leave our room and get to the pool and that the heater on the pool had broken that morning, so it was like swimming in a giant glass of ice water. No problem-- back up plan is always the hot tub. However, when a little black curly hair was found in my watch band, that was no longer an option, either.

We had a wonderful "breakfast for dinner" meal and curled up in the room to watch a great kids' movie we had never seen (The Sandlot, if you are interested), had a great nights' sleep and headed off to St. George first thing in the morning.

St. George was windy, but we decided to brave the wind and ride one of our favorite trails in Snow Canyon. Bill spent at least 40 minutes trying to change the tube in William's tire ( It takes a long time when one is minus good tools) during which time the boys had a blast playing in the sand dunes. Until. . . the wind picked up intensity the moment Bill's finished the tire. Romney took a lot of sand to the face and eyes, and was ready to get back in the car for protection. We decided to wait out the gusts and head to the Outlets for some children's clothes shopping fun. We scored great stuff and noticed the wind was slower and raced to our second favorite trail and got about 7 miles in before the wind took off again and rendered us almost motionless as we tried to make it to our car (We didn't, Bill had to grab it and bring it back to the 3 weaker bikers).

We have decided it was easier to take a spontaneous trip South 17 years ago-- without 2 boys and a place to stay that NEVER had pubic hairs in the pool (Lizards, yes, pubic hairs, ewwww, no!) I guess that proves that:

You can never plan for the future by the past.
- Edmund Burke

But is was sure fun trying!