Love, Brittney: November 2011

First off, disclaimer. I don't actually own a working camera. This trip was so last minute, I didn't have time to buy a real camera before I left (well, before I realized I needed one). So all these photos are from my I-Phone. I was dying the entire time that I couldn't really capture the incredible sights I was lucky enough to see.

Also, this is a very lengthy post with pictures and text, but I didn't want to forget a moment of the trip.

The purpose of my trip to Saudi was to go on a 10 day camping trip to the Rub Al Khali (Empty Quarter) with my Dad. This is his 3rd time going. My Brother went with him the first year and hated it. My Mom and McKenzie went with him the second year (Taylor wouldn't go) and (mostly) hated it. Every year they've gone I've been completely jealous I couldn't go.

This year, I had budgeted out a week to go to Cozumel and Cancun with friends. The trip had to be postponed last minute to the summer, leaving me with a budgeted week off in November. Dad emailed and asked if I wanted to go on the trip with him? And yes, YES I DID!

It was an ordeal to get home, but one we managed beautifully. Dad, this year, officially took us kids off his Iqama, so for the first time I had to apply for a 5 year multiple exit/reentry visa.

But first, I had to re-new my passport. My passport expired in 3 years, and they will not give a 5 year visa on a passport that expires in less than 5 years. I had to run through lots of hoops, pay way too much money, but I ended up getting it in under a month. Woo hoo! (At this point I didn't know about the Rub trip - I needed to get my passport renewed and my Saudi visa issued before I could send it to the Pakistani consulate to get a Pakistani visa, all before Christmas.)

As soon as I got my passport, I sent it to Texas to get my Saudi visa. The guy who handles these issues is basically incompetent. Actually - he's officially and undoubtedly incompetent. But, Dad wrote a well directed and potent email to the guys' bosses boss. It included lots of facts, pleasantries - but the real persuading point was where he described the love of a parent for a child, the joy upon seeing the child, the sadness at so few times together, and the emotional toil of incompetency preventing said parent from seeing said child.

I was moved. And apparently so was mr. Head Honcho Visa man, because I got my Visa in 2 weeks (usually takes anywhere from a month to a year - depending on the level of Mr. Incompetency's incompetentness).

Brand new passport in hand with visa security attached (received it days before I left - hence the last minute official departure and no time to purchase a camera) I embarked to my much beloved home, Dhahran Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this Rub trip is primarily to search for ancient artifacts. Arrowheads, grinding stones, hand axes, knives, etc. You can't find any pottery or cups or plates or anything - the people were too primitive for those types of remains (much to my sadness).

I got home and worked from home for 3 days, we ((mostly Mom and Dad)) packed and loaded the FJ ((McKenzie and my contribution here)) and then Dad and I left for the greatest adventure of a lifetime! (Disclaimer - at this point, I was getting more than a little nervous about the trip. Taylor hated it so much he wouldn't go the second year. He said it was boring and long, among other things. Mom said it was fun sometimes, but waaay too long, and boring a lot of the time. McKenzie had little positive to say at all. I started to doubt my enthusiasm. I'd never camped for 10 days before. No showers. And the bathroom situation... I really hate the camping bathroom situation (see here on an effort to resolve said issue). What if it was that boring? What if I don't "click" with the people there? Especially the women - who my Mom warned me to bond with quickly so I didn't have to go on bathroom runs alone) What if......

I'm happy to report I needn't have worried. I had SO MUCH FUN. It was quite seriously one of my most favorite adventures (if you know me, you know I'm always in a search for a good adventure).

We left Thursday morning at 7am (the weekend in Saudi is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and met at the group leaders' house, Tim Cooper (Timbo).

Official Rub group list:

The Coopers - Land Cruiser

Tim and Mary Katherine - 2 kids, Emily and Fleet

The Crissi's - Land Cruiser

Pete and Jenny - 4 kids, ((no, not Mormon!)) Jackson, Julia, Anne, Elise

The Bowe's - Land Cruiser

Andy and Madeline - 2 kids, Robin and Katherine

The Bachelor's - Land Cruiser

Marek Wiechula, Glenn Jones- Both single, in their late 50's

Johnson's - FJ Cruiser

Jerry and Brittney

Gallaf's- Unimog

Yousif - 2 kids, Adam and Hamoody

Group Photo. I realize this is out of order - but here is a shot of everyone, minus our photographer, Fleet.

The Rub is located in Saudi, as well as in Oman and Yemen. The really good artifacts are located closer to Yemen. However, the whole turmoil in Yemen thing posed a big barrier. There is a lot of drug and arms trafficking that goes on between the borders (Yemen into Saudi), via the Rub (there was a recent article published about two 8 year old Yemenite boys having drugs strapped to their chests, and told to walk over the border and deliver the drugs into Saudi Arabia. They were paid something like $1.00, and had no idea what they were carrying or why. They were caught by the Saudi police).

Since things are really tense with Yemen, and the whole arms/drug smuggling thing, the Saudi police are on high alert in the area we were heading. If an American was captured in Saudi by Yemen arms dealers and held for ransom or killed, it would make major headlines and put Saudi in a really bad light. Therefore, Americans in the Rub is not ok according to the Police. All our Rub exploring friends have, at one point or another, accidentally encountered police and were escorted home, cutting their trip short.

As such, instead of taking the highways to the part of the Rub we wanted to enter (12 hr drive), we entered the Rub close to home and basically crossed the entire thing.

See the pinpoint on the Persian Gulf? It's on Dhahran. Sadly, I wasn't paying super close attention on the way there, to see where we entered the Rub. I think we headed down right into the Rub, because it only took us 3 or 4 hours to get to where we entered. It took us 3 days driving all day to reach where we started to look for artifacts (which I loved! Driving in the dunes is the most incredible thing ever!)

So the 5 cars left, with the intention to meet Yousif along the way. He had left earlier than us, to get a head start, since he was in the Unimog, which only gets max 50mph.

November 3rd

First gas station we stopped at:

These were for sale at the gas station. The slides are so old and full of rust/dust/gross stuff. Also - there is a circular thing with a weird looking sewn animal thing inside. I had to take a picture.

2nd gas station we went to, to fill up all the cans of gas we had before entering the Rub (There is no water, no stores, no gas stations ((well, there are a couple little gas spots for the Bedouins, but they have gas only at certain days/times)) so you have to bring everything into the Rub you will need for 10 days of driving/living. All your gas, water, food.

Here we got some awesome Cupsa (traditional rice dish. You can have it with camel or chicken or lamb. We chose chicken) as our last real meal for 10 days. It was awesome!

I didn't drink all day on the drive, and that night I was basically dying. I waited until dark, and hiked far out, just to make sure no kids found me... and I couldn't go. I tried. I just - had this intense mental block, and couldn't bring myself to pee in the dunes. After about 30 minutes (I wish I was exaggerating) I finally was able to conquer my head block and go! Good moment for me.

(((While I'm on the subject, I'll just jump ahead and regale my 2 other noteworthy bathroom experiences. The second night, I didn't go all day. At night, I again climbed to the top of a dune and over, about dying I had to go so bad. You know, the barely can walk stage. I didn't want to go too far though, because I was a little scared. Lame, yes. But - there are random people out there! And animals! And Jinns!

So As I was trying to convince myself I can do this, I can pee in the dunes, I saw movement on my right. I clammed up. I stayed there for a while, trying to convince myself it was nothing. I finally thought I saw eyes in the darkness, and I booked it back to camp - passing a fellow camper on her way. I sat on my cot for a while convincing myself nothing was out there. Madeline was out there - she's ok! She comes walking back quickly, safe and sound and without a dangerously full bladder. So I began to walk up, and said I thought I had seen something when I passed her. She said the same, seen eyes - but then began to say she realized they were mine. YET - She thought I had walked around to where I thought I saw something, but I hadn't! I'd gone back to camp. Which means she'd seen something else. I tried to talk myself out of it, went back, and thought I saw something again. I began to picture myself being abducted by drug smugglers or being possessed by a jinn. I nearly died of fright and ran back to my cot and had to pee ALL NIGHT LONG. In the morning, I took the FJ further from camp, found a dune that formed a wall, pulled the FJ in and made an almost complete room.

After that, I had much better experiences. I got pretty brazen and speedy at the end. However, there was one last poor potty attempt...

We had camped in place that really offered very low privacy. There was on set of dunes behind us, and I climbed to the top. However, it was just up and over - no shielding offered at all. I figured if I was incredibly speedy, I could make it. I was about to go, when I saw a Bedouin truck coming towards me! I regained composure and turned, and saw Fleet (13) on dune just over. He was in the same spot I was. So awkward - could have been much more awkward. It took 10 minutes before they were out of site (I was hiding from them too at this point) and then I walked and walked till I found a more secluded spot. But I was afraid the Bedouins would come back, so I was trying so hard to hurry and ended up falling over and being covered in sand. I couldn't get all the sand off for fear of being exposed too long so I just had a very sandy day.)))

First camping spot after driving all day. Every night, we slept under the stars. It was incredible. The stars were to die for - so bright and so many! Sleeping under the stars was one of my favorite parts of the trip. When we stopped for the night, we'd lay down a tarp and set up our cots and sleeping bags, the table, and 2 chairs. Then the next morning we'd put it all back in (doesn't seem like much, but it was a lot of work!). We were driving every day, so we camped somewhere new every night but one night. We'd drive until we found somewhere that was lower, and surrounded by dunes. We needed to be "hidden". Again - didn't want to be caught by guns or arms smugglers, or by the police. Also - provided bathroom privacy.

Looking away from the camp.

This is the top of the dune, looking down to our camp. One car is missing. The kids sand sledded and played all night long. They had so much fun - I wish we'd taken a trip like this when I was small. The oldest kid was 13, and youngest was 4.

Also note - going to the bathroom entailed hiking to the top of this dune, down the other side, repeating until you find a secluded spot there were no kids playing at.

We took turns cooking for everyone. The first night was Yousif's night. He cooked fish in the fire and we all peeled garlic and cooked onions, rice, garlic, salad and fish. It was so fun, everyone sitting around preparing food and talking, with music going.

Who ever cooked played music from their vehicle, it just added a fun touch.

We also made fires every night. It got pretty chilly!

2nd day, November 4th:

Driving. We drove so much! I wish I knew exactly how many miles we did. Maybe Dad knows, i'll have to ask. I'd say over 1,000 miles of driving. Before I left, I put some audio book on my iphone, so we could listen. I picked books I thought Dad would like. First we listened to The Blind Side - which Dad loved, and I liked too - it was a great choice. So we'd just cruise through the desert, enjoying the beauties, listening to audio books. We ended up listening to two and half audio books - the first two were 20 ish hours each - giving you some idea of just how much time we spent in the car.

Guys congregated around the map (also everyone had GPS's with points plugged in ((also, hidden police stations to avoid, Bedouin camps to avoid, spots prone to loose sand to avoid, etc).

We'd drive around, up dunes - looking for a good place to go down the other side "slip face". This one was relatively short, but still pretty long and steep - you can't really tell by the picture, which is really disappointing.

Here the Unimog is, coming down. We all stopped, since the other side was really steep and the sand was really lose - Yousif kept getting stuck and the Bachelors ((Marek is the best desert driver in the group - so he headed up last to make sure everyone made it through all the slip faces, climbs, etc, ok) had to dig him out a little bit.

Marek's car is missing here, he's behind the Unimog.

Our first stuck! No fear though, the Unimog pulled us out beautifully!

November 5th

More driving. We all had walkie talkies, so we could contact each other. Warn of upcoming slip faces, sandy spots, bumps, camels, etc.

One of our steeper slip faces. We'd just cruise along, and suddenly the car in front of us would tip vertically, and be gone. Tim (he lead) would occassionaly stop at the top of a dune to look down, ensuring the other side was safe - but most of the time, he'd just cruise straight up and over. I would have been way too freaked out as the driver to do that! The slip faces made me nervous enough, even knowing the car before made it ok! Once we were going down, I wasn't nervous at all. It was just the drive over the top and straight down. Most of the time, the top of the dune had a steep bump before you went over. Which meant you had to accelerate rapidly to make it to the top and over, before sliding down the other side. That is what made me nervous.

Once the person was over the dune on the other side, they would walkie "clear" so the next person in the train would go over.

One of my favorite pictures. I wish so badly I'd had a real camera!

November 6th

More driving. This is the last day of all day driving, until we reached some of the artifact points.

One of the longest slip faces. Over 300 feet high. You had to be careful on slip faces this high. You can't use the breaks at all - you'll fish tail and tip. You fish tail as it is - the breaks make it worse.

And yes, I did a fair share of the driving on the trip ((once we were in the Rub, that is. Women can't drive in Saudi so I couldn't drive on the main roads)) which included slip faces.

Desert driving is one of my favorite things. It is so much fun. and so beautiful!

We reached our first artifact place that night, after dark. We made camp, and Dad wanted to go searching in the dark for artifacts. You head a head lamp and a flashlight, and comb through the area looking for artifacts.

It was fun! Dad, Marek, Glenn, Pete and his 13 yr old son Jackson came with us. It was great because it was cool! The days had been in the upper 90's - full force sunshine as well.

We also determined that since we'd spent the last 3 days driving all day just to get where we're going, we didn't have enough gas. So Tim and Yousif were appointed to go to the nearest gas station and fill all our cans up with the Unimog (we were closer to our exit point now, so they could make the trip in a day).

November 7th

First day artifact searching! After searching (I found some good stuff!) we did a little sigh seeing. Since Yousif and Tim were getting gas, we were staying in the same camp spot that night. So we just looked around for artifacts, did some sightseeing during the day.

The other side of these rocky dunes is where the artifact spot was. When you climbed to the top of these rocky dunes, you found:

Hieroglyphics!

View at the top! See the darker spots in the sand? Thats where we were searching for artifacts.

This is cool sight to see. You climb to the top of another small, flat dune, and find this:

This last one is more clear. There are just tons of circles! Circles formed by rocks. The people who lived in this region during this time period probably would have been pagans. So I'm sure it's some type of pagan ritual spot. It would be so interesting to learn more. Since Saudi doesn't let archaeologists and scientists into the Rub to explore (besides oil expeditions) not much is really known about the Rub and this type of thing.

Same dunes as where the hieroglyphics are. This picture is taken from our camping spot.

Camel bones!

That night, hell broke loose! In the form of a shamal (sand storm). On a scale of shamals, it wasn't too bad. But - being in the middle of it is much different that running to the school bus in it and staying home all night.

Since it was so windy/sandy, we put up our tent. The only night we did this. Putting it up was hysterical. Try putting up a tent in intense winds, with sand blowing so hard it's in your eyes, nose, mouth - and you can't see to put up the tent.

November 8th

The next morning. We had the tent flaps closed, door closed. The sand is so fine and wind so strong, it blew through holes. I woke up to sand covering my face, in my eyes, in my hair (well - ok - sand was already embedded in my scalp from the last however many days. There was just a new layer). Sand covering my pillow, and in my sleeping bag. Like, in to my toes in.

All of this sand was blown in, none of it trekked in through shoes.

The good part about the shamal is that it brought cooler wheather. The rest of the trip bordered more cold than hot. Which made searching all day for artifacts must nicer!

One day it actually got in the 70's and I only had shorts, and I ended up looking for artifacts with a blanket wrapped around me, while thinking, "I can't go back to Utah. I'll die".

I didn't get pictures, but there are lots of places you can find petrified wood. One place, you can actually see the petrified tree. Lying there like it fell. It was so cool! Amazing to think how there were so many trees back in the day, where now there is just sand and no water and nothing else.

November 9th

More searching for artifacts and driving.

This is us searching for artifacts. There are certain spots that are known to have artifacts. We had probably 10 or more sites in the GPS to check out. We'd drive to a point (sometimes points were 5 kilometers apart, some 100) and get out and look. We had the 5 minute rule. We'd get out and look, and if no one found something within 5 minutes, we'd leave (with 22 people looking, odds are someone would have found something if there was much there to be found).

We'd park somewhat apart, and then just walk through the area. We'd do this for hours. And hours and hours. And yet - it was fun! I really am a nerd... the kids really enjoyed it too. If they got bored, they'd just play.

We would look for spots that had lots of flint. Pieces of formed material that was chipped off. If there was flit, chances are there will be the completed materials as well. That made it tricky. You'd have to go through and look at all the flint to decide whether it was an artifact or not.

Our camping spot that night. This dune was HUGE. You can't tell though. This is what you had to climb to go to the bathroom. Oh, man - the bathroom thing was bad. The figure on the dune is a lady, hiking up to go to the bathroom. I'm standing at the bottom of the dune. It just looks far away - but really it's just high.

Dad was really nice and would let me take the car after we had camped and unloaded everything, and drive somewhere remote to go to the bathroom. I'd try to drink as little as possible and go to the bathroom 2 times - in the morning and before bed.

This was also our night to cook. We took turns, someone cooking every night for everyone. It was the best! We only had to cook one night, meaning only had to clean up one night (we ate cold foods for lunch and for the dinners we didn't have someone else cooking).

Mom made jumbalaya and froze it. So we just warmed it up. Sound simple, but wasn't so much. It took about an hour to get warm. Dad wanted to add water - he was certain we needed water to cook it. So we cooked in the dark on burners while people hung around and talked, it was really fun. Yousif provided music. He put on some Jazz, and then I switched it to Reggae. It was so fun to cook with Dad, talk with Yousif and others, listening to Reggae underneath the stars with the kids playing around the fire.

November 10th

This was our last day as a group (Marek and Glenn had actually left a couple days prior, so we were down to 5 cars). 3 of the cars wanted to do the drive home in 2 parts. When we exited the Rub, it would be a 12 hr drive home, and we were about 3 hours from the exit point. They wanted to do half the drive one day, camp and do the rest of the drive the next.

We and the Coopers wanted to have one more glorious day in the Rub, exploring and driving, so we decided to spend this day driving to the Triangle, then would do all 12 hours the next day.

This was actually probably one of my very favorite days.

So before, we'd drive to specific locations we knew people had found artifacts. Then we'd stay there till we'd exhausted the site. See below for an example of us searching:

This day, though, was very different.

Thousands of years ago, they say places in the Rub were like the Serengeti plains in Africa. Thats why we drove all the way to the South West of the Rub - it's where all the lake beds used to be, hence where the people lived (When we entered the rub close to home, it was just straight dunes. When we got closer to the artifact places, they were rockier dunes).

So we'd drive along, heading towards the highway where we'd exit, in the flatter areas, paralleling the irks (what we call the large range of dunes. Irk in Arabic means veins, as in veins in our bodies - since the ranges kind of resemble veins from an ariel view).

In these areas were ancient lake beds! Again, boo for not having a real camera! Can you see the dark areas by the dunes in the picture above? Ancient lake bed. They've found hippopotamus bones in these lake beds, as well as other animals. There were ostriches (you can find petrified ostrich eggs. It's really cool - they reflect the sun, so you'd see patches of shiny stuff, and it'd be just shells, all over the area. Like 4 or 5 eggs cracked and the shells were just lying on the sand, perfect. I wish I'd taken a picture) and other Serengeti plains type animals.

So, we'd drive through these areas, and just stop at areas we thought might have arrowheads and other artifacts. The hunters would sit in areas above the lake beds to make arrowheads and knives and hunt. In these areas, you could sometimes find things. I found quite a few arrowheads this way, and a cool knife. These were my favorite things to find, because we found them at lakes, which meant the tools were used to actually kill the animals, Maybe they even were embedded in a carcass at some point. It's just way cool.

So we'd drive along, and I'd hang on the side of the FJ and yell for Dad to stop anytime I thought I saw something. We were all still heading to the road, but we did our own thing, stopping at different lake beds. I had a blast doing this. And seeing the lake beds and envisioning how it must have looked thousands of years ago - SO COOL!

We finally made it to the Highway (goes through the Rub - so we never actually exited the Rub, just got to where there was the Highway and villages).

We said goodbye to everyone, and the Coopers and us headed on to the Triangle!! See in the Southwest corner of the Rub - where I conveniently added an arrow and a label - Triangle?

Getting to the Triangle is quite the perilous feat, which is why most people don't do it. We were 15ish miles from Yemen in the Triangle. Police were more prevalent. And we had to cross the highway to enter it, where there is traffic - aka - people and police.

But, some of the best sites are in this area (some awesome sites are also in the Oryx Preserve - which is unpenatrable. Drat).

Yousif knows a place he found 30 something years ago in the Triangle, what he called "Happy Valley". He said he doesn't think anyone has been there since then, and gave us the GPS coordinates. This was the destination we had in mind.

So we braved the dangers and police and headed onward! I'm so glad we did - it was one of my favorite driving days ever! The dunes were different in this area, and it was just beautiful. So much fun to drive in!

In this area, we saw a kangaroo mouse or rat. I'm not such which. I think it was a mouse. I looked them both up and couldn't decide which it was. They jump like kangaroos. We chased it, going 60 clicks and we were going a tad slower than the kangaroo mouse/rat. They can book it!!! It was actually really cool.

While I'm on the subject, here are the animals we saw in the Rub:

Kangaroo rat/mouse

Camels

Owl

Hawk

Snake

Birds

Coopers' first stuck of the trip. And on the last full day of the trip. We dug him out and Dad was able to pull him pretty easily.

We found this - Mosque foundation. I have no idea how you would know this, but Yousif said so, and he's the closest to a Saudi archeologist I've ever seen - so I'm going with it.

It was so fun to just drive, and see what random things we came across.

Our first destination - ancient burial ground! Yes, these are human bones. We were told 3 human skeletons could be seen on the surface - and I was dying to come to this loction. The coordinates were given about 20 years ago or so, and this is all that was left.

Can you see the dark mounds? Graves.

This was a really cool geological feature we happened accross. I wish you could see it better. We're on top of dunes, and then randomly on the other side of the irk, is a big camelish looking rock, with irks on the other side. It was soo cool!

This view is from between the irks, on the bottom side.

Ok, here we have the Coopers' second stuck, and biggest stuck of the trip. In a beautiful location. See the irks on the right side of the picture above? we climbed that irk and on the slip face - the Coopers (who were leading) struck disaster. They radioed us and told us to hold off, or we would have hit into them and gotten us both stuck and unable to move.

The picture below is the backside of the irks above.

The Coopers climbed the irk, and went down the slip face. Instead of a straight slip face like the pictures above, here is what they encountered:

Oops. They got suuper stuck. Not only that, they got this:

The wheel came off the rim. Bad news! They radioed us and told us to find an alternate route. We came up the irk from further to the North, around and came straight through the flat area, instead of down the slip face. We did not get stuck, luckily. That would have been horrible. Both cars would remain there and we'd have had to walk out of the Rub - most likely dying in the process. Or you know, something like that.

This is Dad on the irk further down, before cutting through to bail out the Coopers.

Beautiful dunes! (Ps - the ridges in the sand are good. They generally mean the sand is harder).

Dad coming through to pull the Coopers' out.

Emily and I

So stuck. We had to dig the front of the car out, jack up the car, change the tire, then Dad had to wench the car out (I have a video of this).

Waiting for the FJ to wench out the Land Cruiser.

After we were finally unstuck, we were out of time - not being able to reach Happy Valley. So disappointing! I was so excited to see the remains at Happy Valley. I definitely had the artifact fever by this point!

This is an alter we came accross. Again, I'd love to know what exactly this was used for. SO COOL!

Driving along to our campsite, the most beautiful sunset. I tried to get the best picture I could with my phone. Below are my best attempts. Imagine if I'd had a real camera!

Are you dying yet? SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I was in awe of the beauty the whole time we were in the Rub.

Camp site as we pulled in. This was my favorite camp site of the whole trip.

Emily, Fleet and I (ages 8 and 13) sat around the fire for an hour before dinner, playing sand pictionary in the light of the flames. So fun! We ate dinner and had smores around the fire. It was the perfect night.

November 11th

Campsite the next morning. Yes, I'd love to sleep under the stars and wake up to this beautiful site every morning. I'm considering marrying a Bedouin and moving to the Rub. No stress. No shoes. Drive around in the dunes all day, eat great food, sleep under the stars... hmmm... yes please!

One of the best parts of the trip? I went barefoot about 95% of the trip. I was barefoot 95% of 9 days. INCREDIBLE. I hate shoes. I hate socks. This was heaven for me.

We left the Triangle, and began our journey home (with a quick planned stop at one last site). First gas station we got to, once on the road.

So, these pictures should really be at the beginning, to show how we looked for artifacts. But I forgot to take the pictures till the end, so here they are! Looking for arrowheads at one last spot off the road.

This is what we used to pick flint/artifacts up, and filter through the sand. Everyone had their own. You can't buy stuff like this, so we all had homemade ones. We are so hard core.

Dad, looking for something good.

Now prepare for a special treat - road signs!

Oh yes, we know about sandstorms!

Another gas station.

Didn't get a picture, but there was a bigger gas station, the first main gas station close to Yemen, and the police started asking questions. Next thing we know, they're telling us we have to go home (which we were doing! Hence hiding from the police the whole trip) and providing us with a police escort.

You can't see, but we got the flashing lights and all.

Checkpoint - where our escorts asked for all our documentations and then let us free!

Copies of our Iqamas. Interesting point - McKenzie is listed as MC Rose. I think this should be her rapper name. And her first album will be Bobulation Plantation. Much thought went into this.

Agriculture!!! First time I have seen agriculture in Saudi. Ever. We've done tons of road trips - been all over the country. First time. My favorite is the sand everywhere, but the actual artificially implanted grass.

Palm tree farm. So pretty.

I love this shot. The Mosque sign right next to the Mosque.

Somewhat of a random/funny story, although I have no pictures to document.

I mostly on the trip tried to dehydrate myself. Pulling off the the side of a 6 person caravan and peeing on the side of the car with Dad inside and the possibility of Bedouins driving by - NO THANK YOU. Not drinking just made so much more sense. On the 12 hr trip back I tried not to drink. But finally, what I did sip caught up to me and I had to pee so bad. I held it for something like 4 hours but man, I was dying. The Coopers were stopping by the side of the road and going - but yeah right, like I'd do that.

We stopped to get gas close to Riyadh. Tim had to go to the bathroom too, he asked and was told the bathroom was through this big double door (which was open). In Saudi, all gas station bathrooms are Mosque bathrooms. And in Saudi - men and women can't even order at the same restaurant window, let along have their bathrooms close to each other. I asked Tim if the women's bathroom was around the corner, and he said it was through the same door. Which I found odd, but I had to pee so bad. So I followed him through. Inside, was another set of doors after a little open area. Inside were 3 closed bathroom stalls, and an area to wash for prayer. No one was inside. I told Tim I didn't think this was the women's restroom, but he told me to just hurry inside, and Dad said he'd keep watch. I ran in a stall, and Emily and Tim went into one. When I came out, a Saudi man walked out of the one next to me - and there were men in the bathroom washing. I ran out as more men walked in. It was right before prayer.

I was so embarrassed. I would have been humiliated in the states. But in Saudi!? Women cover, head to foot! There are men and womens' sections of restaurants! But using the men's bathroom!??? BAD. I was so embarrassed.

Needless to say, I didn't drink anything more the rest of the night, and we pulled home a little after 11pm. I came home, woke Bob up and hugged her and it was the best thing ever.

Ok, now pictures of what I found!!! So exciting!! This is the whole loot! Well, except for the large petrified wood pieces.

One of the best treasures I found. An almost whole knife!! It's a rare find. 6-7 inches long.

These are the knives I found Most of them are just tips. Finding a whole one is really rare. The one on the far left is the one above. The one on the far left next to the knife, on the first row is the knife I found next to a lake bottom. It is almost whole. It's really thick, and really old. I love it especially a lot, because when you hold it in your hand, like they would have, you can feel how it was formed to fit someone's hand. CAN YOU SAW AWESOME?

Another one of my favorite finds. This is a scraper. You find the most of these. They come in all shapes and sizes. They would have been used to - scrape.

I like this one, because you can see how it was specifically made to have a place to put your thumb, to give you leverage.

These are 5000 ish old hand axes - Dad found these last trips. So beautiful!

Bigger knife tips - still broken. Pretty colors, and really old. Too bad the picture is so poor.

These are my favorites. We call them laurel leaves. They really don't look cool here though. They are small knives. Notice the pretty colors (hard to see, I know). And they are varying ages.

These are some of my favorites - again so hard to see in the picture. The big knife in the top middle is gorgeous. Not as defined as my big knife, but you can see how old it is, how primitive. I also love the one next to it on the left. Spear tip! And the material is so pretty!

Closer up of 3 of my favorites. The one in the middle has the prettiest coloration. I love the one on the left because it is super tiny, but also because in the middle you can see where they carved a rivet to put their finger on, to give leverage while skinning hide, most likely.

Ah! How cool is that!? I think finding this stuff, and seeing how they used these things, made them to fit them, is just so cool. I wish I could have seen these things in use! Seen how all this was 5000 years ago.