Las Exploradoras!

For those of you that don't know what that means, it's Spanish for explorers.  That is what the family and I did today.  It was a sandstone exploration adventure and those of you that are true Oklahomans know what that means.  For those of you that aren't, I'll provide a short description.  You hop in a truck or SUV with gloves, shovels, and water (it's hot here now) and set out driving away from civilization.  Once you find a dirt road, you turn on that and then turn on another dirt road, and then maybe one more dirt road.  From there you start exploring for sandstone.

Sandstone exploration is an in-depth and high-tech process that really requires multiple people.  One person has to drive while at least one other person is watching the gullies on the side of the road for sandstone.  Once the sandstone is spotted, the driver must slow almost to a creep so that the spotters can determine whether the sandstone is loose and can be picked up or if it is stuck in the ground.  Why look in the gullies you might ask?  The rushing water in the gullies sometimes causes the very brittle sandstone shelves to break off.  These broken pieces are just the ones you're looking for to create whatever sandstone landscaping you might want.

Today was the first time we took a child with us that could actually help.  It was a fabulous experience and The Little Man had a blast.  We found a few pieces early on that were extra brittle due to the extreme dry weather we've had recently.  Then we happened on a hub of sandstone rocks.  Mr. Man was loading them up when The Little Man decided he wanted to help.  As The Little Man ran around the truck to help his dad, I noticed some dense foliage by the hub and reminded The Little Man not to touch it because we don't know if he's allergic to poison ivy and while I have no idea what poison ivy looks like, I really don't want to have a miserable Little Man.  Mr. Man froze, slowly looked towards the foliage and regretfully announced that it was all poison ivy and he was pretty sure he had gotten into it.  Now, those of you that know Mr. Man know that he is extremely allergic to poison ivy...thus, I expect the steroid shot bill to come in about five days from now.

That ended the sandstone exploration.  It was a sad way to end it but did encounter another adventure of the awe inspiring kind on our way home, but, that's for another post.