As my daddy pulled the car up on the dirt road, the road behind us trailed with dust. I jumped off the car and grabbed my camera as I landed. Jaimie, my younger sister, watched as I waved through my window. 

          “I don’t want to go hiking!” she groaned.

          “C’mon, this will be the last one,” Mommy assured her.

          “No!” Jaimie said crossing her arms.

          “Daddy and Laura are going too! Even I’m going!” Mommy pretended to walk away toward the trail with Daddy and I. Jaimie quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and rushed out the car. We slowly climbed the hill jumping from rock to rock when all of a sudden, Jaimie whined,

          “Daddy, I want to go to the bathroom!” Daddy let out a breath of frustration and said,

“I asked if anyone wanted to go to the bathroom before we came to the Bubbles Trails!”   

“I didn’t have to go that time!” Jaimie scrunched up her nose and put her hands on the sides of her hips.

“If I take you to the restrooms then you’ll have to carry me on your back!” Daddy joked and declared at the same time. I rolled my eyes, he can be so funny sometimes.We slowly walked back down the trail and walked towards the restrooms.

 “ I think she just used that as an excuse to not walk the trail,” I whispered to Mommy. Mommy smiled.”I  think I saw her sly smile.” I continued to say.

          “I heard that!” Jaimie shouted turning her head to Mommy and I. “I really do have to go!”

When we came back to where we started we began to climb the steep mountain once more when daddy started to examine each one of us,

“I remember I made a deal to one of you guys and she promised to carry me !”  Jaimie laughed and said,

“Okay, get on my back!” so he pretended to climb onto her back and

they began to walk side by side until  we reached a sign that pointed both left and right. It said, BUBBLE ROCK, NORTH BUBBLE, and SOUTH BUBBLE.

 “Okay, you made your deal and you’re good to go!” Daddy said, so

he pretended once more to get off her back.

          “Which way should we go?” I asked Daddy. He looked at the sign and said,

“Let’s go left so we can go to Bubble Rock and North Bubble.” I  walked ahead of Mommy, Daddy, and Jaimie and shouted back to them, with my hands to my mouth,

“I’m going to be your tour guide today so please follow close

behind me!”  Jaimie skipped forward and said to Mommy and Daddy,

“Me too!” So we both marched the line to Bubble Rock. Along

the way we pointed to giant rocks that we thought were Bubble Rock , although we knew that we had to keep following the trail until we did reach it.  We jumped over big puddles of water, dodged medium rocks, and slipped on small piles of mud. Eventually, we did reach a small lookout view and we turned to take a look.

“Do you think Bubble Rock will be here?” I asked mommy. 

“It probably wouldn’t be here,” mommy told me,”It should be

straight ahead.”Mommy was right, the lookout view was very foggy and I could barely see  the mountains on the other side. The sun hid behind the clouds like it was hiding and the wind blew my ponytail side by side as I stood with my hand on my forehead trying to get a glimpse of the scenery.

“C’mon!” Daddy gestured, motioning that it was time to go. I hopped off the rock I was standing on and stumbled to where we came in from. Jaimie dragged her hands and feet off of the rock she was resting on and walked very slowly putting on a frowning face. Mommy, Daddy,and I pretended not to notice. We continued to hike and I held Mommy’s hand to keep my energy going. Daddy stood at the front of the line and when he reached the top of the giant boulders he squinted his eyes real small and said,         

“Look at that! I think it’s the real Bubble Rock!” Jaimie hurried

to the giant boulders and Daddy pulled her up. I climbed the big boulders holding onto ledges sticking out. When I stood at the top, I peered down at the hole right down the middle separating the two boulders.

“Wow!” I breathed,”It’s just like a mini canyon.” Mommy stood

behind me and whispered,

“Let’s go! ”So we both ran to meet with Daddy and Jaimie. Daddy was taking pictures of Jaimie with Bubble Rock.

          “Look at that rock!” I shouted pointing to the rock. It stood on its tip and balanced on a small rock that was about the size of a microwave.The rock stood at the end of the cliff with half of the bottom part hanging in mid air. We rested for about ten more minutes and started up the trail to North Bubble. We walked for what was like 3 hours going in and out from forest to cleared places with red rocks.Then we finally saw a sign that said North Bubble.

            “Okay, we made now let’s turn back my legs are like jelly!” I complained.         

          ”This is North Bubble! There’s even a sign that says it’s North Bubble!” Jaimie cried hitting Daddy.

          “There’s no point in fighting with him.” Mommy whispered to Jaimie.

          “Hey!” Mommy shouted to everyone,”I found another path, maybe this path leads to the real North Bubble!” There was a hidden path within the trees and bushes hiding it from view, so we kept going. The sun began to set and it started to get chilly so I took my sweater off of my waist and put it on. Every time Jaimie or I started to get worried Daddy would keep insisting that we were on the right trail because we were following the blue sign. So we continued to walk for hours and hours when we saw a clearing ahead.

          “Daddy, look, It’s getting so dark are we ever going to make it back to our car?” Jaimie asked tugging Daddy’s shirt.

          “We’re going to be okay,” he answered every time. The clearing ended up to be a horse’s trail and we cut across it  because there was a sign that said in Bold Print, CONNER’S NUBBLE. We began climbing the mountain as we used our hands and feet to reach the top,

“Daddy, are you sure this leads back to the parking lot, because I don’t remember climbing this!” I asked, my heart began pounding and my eyes felt like they would water with tears.

          “It’s a big workout! That’s for sure!” Mommy answered sarcastically trying to cheer us up. We reached the top but it did not lead us right back to the parking lot, instead it was another mountain peak with no other paths so we made another rough journey back down until we reached the horse’s trail again.

          “Which way should we go?” Mommy asked Daddy. They seemed like the only ones who could talk. I noticed the expression on Jaimie’s face.

          “Let’s go this way,” Daddy said pointing right. We started up the path and I wondered if we were going the right way or we should have gone left.  The path was very wide and the floor was covered with gravel. Once in awhile we would spot a line of horse poop on the gravel floor but other than that we were completely surrounded by trees, high up in the cold mountains, lost, alone.  We saw a lot of signs that pointed in all different directions but they were no use at all to us so we tried our best guessing and relied on our senses.

“Are you tired? You can ride on my back or you can ask Daddy if he can carry you? “ Mommy asked multiple times to Jaimie but every time she would just return the answer no. Mommy, Daddy,Jaimie, and I held hands, and Jaimie began to cry. Her tears fell down her cheeks and landed on her shirt. Mommy hugged her like a baby and said in a soothing voice,

“We’re all here with you so you don’t have to worry.”

 When we still didn’t reach anywhere we noticed a biker up ahead. Our hopes were high and our spirits soared when we were relieved to see another human being. We stopped the biker and asked for directions,

“Do you know where the Bubbles Parking Lot is?” Daddy asked. The biker paused and took out his map,

“It’s the other way and you'll have to go for about 2 miles until you reach the car road and It’ll be right there.”

“Thank you very much,” Daddy said thankfully.

“No problem,” the biker said and he rode off. We continued walking feeling a lot more confident when mommy said,

“How about we pass the time by playing a game?!”

“Ooh I know! Let’s play 21!” I shouted excitedly. So I asked Jaimie,

“Do you want to play?” She shook her head no. I began to explain to  Mommy, and Daddy on how to play the game.

          “First you choose a person to start. Oh, and the object of the game is to not say the number 21. So the first person has to say 1 number, 2 numbers, or 3 numbers, for example, If I was the first person to start I would either say 1; 1,2; or 1,2,3; Got it?” Mommy and daddy both nodded so we began to play. After about  5 rounds of the game I started to get bored and we still didn’t reach the road. My stomach started to get that bad feeling again. I started to doubt what the biker said.

          “I’m tired.” Jaimie said glumly. So Daddy bent down and Jaimie got onto his back and she hung on to his neck.

          “Hold onto my shoulders,” Daddy squeaked, “Not my neck please.” Jaimie quickly moved her hands onto Daddy’s shoulders. As Daddy walked slowly I held Mommy’s hand walking faster to see if anything was ahead so I could give Daddy the heads up. After a while Daddy got tired so he put Jaimie down and they started walking. A few minutes later we saw a runner and mommy told me,

“We must be close to the road because that girl is just running out into the night alone so she must just came out of the road. I walked faster than ever and then a light  flashed up ahead and I saw the road up front.

          “ Mommy, Daddy, Jaimie, the road’s ahead I can see it !” So I  ran forward and waited for them at the end.

“This is not the right parking lot,” Mommy said.  “When Daddy asked the biker he only said the Bubble Parking Lot not the Bubble Rock Parking Lot so the biker led us to the Bubble Parking Lot.” I looked across the street and saw the sign that said,  BUBBLE  PARKING LOT. My heart sank. We walked alongside the road and Mommy suggested we ask one of the cars which way the Bubble Rock Parking lot. When a car passed mommy and daddy waved their arms around  like they were swatting mosquitos. Several cars just passed right by until one red car stopped and a young lady and a young man opened their window. Daddy asked them,

“Do you know if the Bubble Rock Parking Lot is that way? “ Daddy pointed in the direction we were going.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s that way. We’re fairly certain. Do you need a ride?” The young lady asked.

“ Yes, please.” Daddy answered.

   The girl said, “We have room for one or two people. “ So Daddy got inside their car and they drove away. I began to cry and when Jaimie saw she began to cry. We were both scared that Daddy could have gone the wrong way and we would never make it back to our campsite. Mommy bent down to hug us both. We started walking when a car stopped immediately and asked if we needed a ride so mommy said,

“Okay.” We got to the car and I hugged Mommy and cried.

“So how long have you’ve been walking? “ The man asked.

“Uh... I don’t know, probably about 2,3, hours?”  When Daddy  passed the car I said,

“Mommy! That’s our car!” so Mommy told the women and man that we needed to turn around so the man drove the car to the Bubble Rock Parking Lot and turned there and he told us,

“When you see your car just tell me and I will flash the lights.” So when we saw Daddy driving the car in the opposite direction Mommy said,

“That’s the car!” So the man flashed the lights and Daddy stopped the car. The man opened his window and said,

 “I have your kids!” We got off the car and thanked them and climbed into our car. We made It! I thought to myself. On the ride back to the campsite, Mommy looked at the map in the little pocket and said,

“If it weren’t for the biker we would have had to walk a big circle which would have taken an extra 2 hours!” I wiped off my tears and said,

“You're right! It would have been a crazy day! Today we already had an adventure I’d have never imagined!” And we all laughed together.