Day 8: When I was lost

Working in Tooele brings some adventures and challenges that I never experienced in Salt Lake. Since Tooele County is so large, we sometimes have to drive many hours to our client's homes. The farthest locale is Ibapah, which is basically in the opposite corner of the county. You have to drive 90 minutes to Wendover and then south through Nevada and Utah for another 90 minutes to get there.



Ibapah is located on the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Indian Reservation. I was asked by the Tribe to come out and give a presentation about child welfare and to meet the ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) specialists that we work with on the reservation.

Remember that scene in the Hangover when they show up late to Doug's wedding and Stu says, "Sorry, Mapquest took us a on really crazy route." That was my life last Tuesday when my coworker and I drove to Ibapah.

Things were fine until about an hour south of Wendover, when my GPS said to take a left. You would think the fact that it was a gravel road would cue me in, but I was oblivious. We drove higher and higher into the hills for nearly 30 minutes before we realized how lost we were. We drove through a little abandoned mining town called Gold Hill. Then the GPS conveniently lost its signal. The higher we got, the wetter the roads became. It got so slick and muddy at one point that I didn't dare stop the car for fear that we would sink and never get started again. We wouldn't have been found for days.

I bet I am the first person to go 4-wheeling in the State's Civic. Bet you didn't know that your tax dollars got spent on things like that!

On top of being lost and pumped on adrenaline, I had to pee like a race horse. I nearly had to pull over and pee on the side of the road in front of my male coworker. There aren't even trees or bushes to squat behind!

After being lost for over an hour, we decided to give up on the presentation and make our way back to the highway. Turns out if we had stayed on the highway rather than taken that left, we would have made it to Ibapah about 20 minutes later. We eventually made it, and were still able to give the presentation. Lucky for us, Native Americans have a very fluid sense of time, so they really didn't care that we were late. They were even gracious enough to enter us in their drawing in which my coworker and I both won a prize! Where else can you win a prize for being late?

There are many other funny tidbits from that day, including the police officer who bullied me during my presentation and the embarrassing sex scene in my book on tape, but I'll save those stories for another day :)