Saturday morning, Paul and our neighbor Ron took Ron’s truck into town to get drinking water for our nearly empty tank. That was a full morning of work, so the kids and I were left to our own devices. (I should add that Grandma and Grandpa had left for the north country that morning.)
Anyway, naturally that meant that we wanted to go into town too. So after all the teeth were brushed and hair was made presentable and most of the previous evening’s hot dog mess was washed off the faces, Megan got behind the wheel and drove us (nearly flawlessly) out as far as the paved road. Then it was Laurent’s turn behind the wheel, and she drove beautifully into town and to the Alco store. The kids had fun exploring and choosing some items there, and then the girls decided to let me drive back. (Lucky me.) On the way back I stopped by one of the fences engulfed in tumbleweeds and had Meg jump out and take some pictures… and then again in the wash where you can see the tire tracks through the epic tumbleweed collection. As you can see, I really could not get over this phenomenon, and I’m still having a hard time figuring out where all those things go by mid-summer. I am sure this happens yearly and I’ve just never been there to see it at just the right time before… I expect the spring rains will flood them all away, and by the time we come up for July 4th we’ll be able to hike through the wash again as usual.
And finally, just when I had forlornly abandoned all hope that I would see any cows at all this trip, off in the distance to the east past our southward bend in the road, Megan spotted a little herd by a watering hole. They were mildly interested in our presence, but disinclined to make much of this odd bunch of 2-leggers gaping out their windows.
When we got back to the quonset I took out Jadyn’s blankie, which I had just finished that morning, and took a few pics to celebrate it’s juicy colors (that little girl has good taste).
Before long, Paul and Ron were finished with their water transfer, and we had a quick and tasty sandwich lunch, and then it was off for our afternoon explore. The plan was to drive by “Big Lake” so we could mock at it a little, and then go to Canyon Land for a hike. However, we were cut off on the first road we took by a very steep and washed out road. Paul has hiked all over the area, so he was pretty sure about the next road he tried… however, we ended up driving around and around, and finally decided that what we thought was a road was actually someone’s driveway, and by the time we had gotten that far, we thought we’d better stop and say hello so they wouldn’t think we were up to no good and start shooting (because you know, it’s the wild west, and sometimes people do that!). So we found our way up to the cabin, which was sitting high up on a steep hill, and I was more than a little distrustful of our brakes as I sat there in the truck with the kids, tilting backwards and watching Paul trudge up to the porch to say hello. Before long, he waved us all out of the truck and we all went up to say hello, and got invited right up onto the porch and sat down and had the absolutely LOVEliest chat with Estelle, and after a bit, Duane, her husband, who came back from a vain hunt for his property corner marker. We enjoyed them so much and knew it was providence that sent us meandering in their direction. I wished so much that I had brought my camera up from the truck, for they had the most gorgeous view of the rolling countryside from their high cabin porch…. but at the same time, people like their privacy, and I probably wouldn’t have posted pictures of their place anyway. At any rate, it was the most enjoyable part of the weekend that I didn’t photograph. 😀
After we said our farewells, we continued on toward Canyon Land, across the railroad, and passed by the New Covenant Cemetery, where there is at this time only one burial marker. At last we reached the canyon, and the view definitely lived up to its billing. In fact I took an atrocious number of pictures (only a fraction of which are included here), in part because I kept walking along the top of the mesa and seeing new aspects of the vista, and also because when I got to the furthest edge I turned around and took pictures walking back, and also because Paul and the kids climbed all the way down to the bottom and then all the way to the end of the canyon where there were some ruins they wanted to see, and it took forEVVVVVVer for them to get back, and then I realized I was getting sunburned so I had to stand under a barely-tall-enough juniper tree to avoid the glare, and while I was standing in the shade I had nothing to do so I took more pictures of the gnarly tree (I do like gnarly trees).
Finally I saw them climbing up the side and went to meet them, and that was almost the end of the excursion, except for the cows that were crossing the road as we drove home.
