Just a Sunday Drive

It was March 28th of 2020 when we saw Rover.

My husband likes to surprise me with adventures. Sometimes we end up getting coffee and going to thrift stores and other times we just go for a drive. It had been a cloudy few days with scattered showers so it still smelled like rain when we woke up. My husband told me to get ready for adventure. So the boots came out, hair went up, and the adventure began.

Since the weather was perfect, according to me, the last few days he decided to take me off roading. Now we live in Arizona so we have plenty of desert to explore. We to the outer edges of town and picked a direction.

We went up some roads, down others, and across some desert that had no road. We stopped a few times to see if there were any hidden treasures in the abandoned piles of stuff. (Side note: People leave a lot of stuff in the desert.) We found no good treasure, only a few really pretty rocks and we had been out exploring for a few hours.

We decided to head back into town for some lunch. We went to Culver’s because, well, they have the best onion rings in fast food. (I have a little addiction to onion rings.) Then we stopped at the Human Bean for coffee and headed back to the desert. I was excited because we decided to go off in a whole different direction than we had the first time out.

After a few dirt roads towards the “hills,” if you can call them that, we found a trail. When I say a trail, I mean a sketchy windy little trail, that was way too small for the car, so I thought. My husband didn’t freak out at all, like usual, he just laughed and put the car in 4-wheel drive. Up the trail we went!

The trail went up a fair way. It got bumpy a few times but the car did good. I got all anxious a few times but I do that in any car on any road, so nothing new. Eventually we reached the end of the trail. It was really pretty, for the desert. I have a few pictures of the spot from the roughly forty-five minutes we explored there.

On the way back down the trail we were rocking out to Guns’ n’ Roses having a good time when the road moved! Wait, it’s a rock! My husband stopped the car and I turned down the radio. When we got out and came around the front of the car we saw him… Rover!!!

*I walked up to him, looked down and said, “Awe, he’s just rovin’ along singing his song.” And he stopped looked at me and kept going. So I said, “Rover is a rollin’ stone.” He stopped again. So I called him Rover.

There in the middle of the trail was a good sized tortoise. He was just taking a nice stroll through the desert on a Sunday afternoon, like me. We were able to walk right up to him and take a few pictures. I also helped him the rest of the way across the road, in the same direction he was already heading. It is important to respect and follow the rules of interacting with desert tortoises in the wild. Here are the five rules for tortoises crossing the road from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

I raised a few tortoises over the years so I am very familiar with how to care for them and treat them in general. I was very excited to see a tortoise in the wild. I had yet to see one here in Arizona. It made my day to help this tortoise and I am so glad I did because as we were getting ready to leave a truck was on its way up the trail.

I made sure that Rover was completely clear of the road and the truck was passed before we left. I watched Rover head off into the desert as we drove off. It was the best adventure I’ve had in three years.