except my guardian angel who - most of the time - kept me out of trouble.

I made casual mention the other day about taking "roads" more similar to two parallel walking paths. I thought I'd demonstrate:

or if I thought there might be something interesting ... or the urge just struck my fancy ... something like this:

Those trails didn't just happen - what's down there?

Most of the time, nothing. Every once in a while though, I'd come across "something" of interest. Often enough to keep me poking down those trails.

I don't do too much exploring down "roads" like this anymore.
Once upon a time, I was young enough and in good enough shape to get out - most often by walking - if need be even in bad weather. Probably not a good idea now that I'm in the late-youth stage of life.

The itch still strikes now and then though. Nowadays wisdom - combined with a bit of trepidation ... usually keeps the steering wheel pointed in the proper direction.

Then again, there was that time earlier this year ... a simple flat tire on a road similar to the first pic. 8-lug pickup tires are heavy. They've gained weight over the past 40 years.

You know - one has to bend in all sorts of unnatural poses to get the spare out, the jack set (on soft sand), and the crank turned. Then re-do it because the jack didn't set right. I'm lucky that I have enough experience to have developed the proper flat-tire-in-the-boonies language skills to get the job done.

That was the same trip where a rock flipped up and busted my rear window. I was lucky though - the second flat didn't happen until I was in a town on a back street. Had the truck towed to a tire store - arriving 15 minutes after it closed.

Spent the night in the truck. Too much crap inside to let it sit unattended.
Remember the rear window was busted out? It rained that night.

An adventure is something you don't want to be doing at the time you're doing it ...

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