May 29 – 31: Canyonlands National Park, Utah (part 3)
May 31st
The ear doesn’t look bad. You can’t even tell the idiot went to grab my hair and got the ear instead. It feels bruised but doesn’t look it. I didn’t have my studs in, a remnant of a dare in college, so it is all good. I would let the holes close up if it wasn’t for the fact that I paid so much to get them. I know that’s stupid, but they’re part of my routine now and … well, it’s just stupid. But them guys are hurting worse.
I was about to call it a night last night but there was a little wind so I had the rubber mallet out to make sure the tent stakes were solid in the ground. I was just bending over when one of them grabbed me. Don’t ever – even as a prank – grab me when I have a potential weapon in my hand. *POP* right in the frelling gonads. In case that explanation isn’t plain enough … I don’t like surprises inside my personal space, especially from someone I don’t know. You grab me at your own peril. Not even Dad or Lawrence did it more than once, not even to wake me up. They both said once was enough. Dad said no three-year-old should be able to throw a stuffed rabbit hard enough to leave a bruise. I was fourteen when Lawrence tried to shake me awake after a long car ride. Thankfully his thumb wasn’t sprained or broken. Penny had warned him. He listened after that. Benny knows to call rather than try and shake me awake.
The guy might have tried to scream after the mallet tagged him but his throat was a little otherwise busy from the vomiting. And while his friend was definitely some kind of craphead, he was a smart enough craphead to grab his partner and drag him over to their truck and take off. The incident lasted seconds. No one came out of their tents to investigate. I don’t know if they heard anything or not, they certainly didn’t come out. All that was left was to throw water on the little bit of vomit that hit the ground. I’m assuming the remainder went on his shirt. I’m more irritated that I hadn’t heard them sneaking up. They either had plenty of practice or the wind activated my APD. Either way, coulda turned out a whole lot worse than it has and I need to work on my situational awareness.
I found out more later, but I’ll get to that. I was actually relaxed when I went to bed. You know that feeling you get when a job was well done. Well I had it until this morning when I remembered something.
Been so long since we’ve really celebrated the holidays of any sort that it being Memorial Day today more than kinda surprised me. Boy did that … never mind. Benny is still so sensitive about Lawrence’s passing that I didn’t know whether to say something or not. About mid-morning I realized that his gold star bracelet that he never takes off was missing. Or should I say not missing but hidden. Smart kid. He’d tucked it under a sweat band he had on his arm.
“Benny?”
“I didn’t lose it,” he said, hunching his shoulders. “I’m still wearing it.”
“Okay, I figured that much out,” I said gently. “Why are you hiding it?”
“Because I don’t want people asking.”
“You know, you can always say you aren’t up to talking about it.”
He sighed and sounded like a little old man, not a five-year-old, when he said, “Not everyone listens like you Aunt Gus.”
I responded, “I take it you’ve given this some thought.”
He shrugged. “I just don’t want people to ask. It’s private.”
“Okay, I’ll let it pass and won’t pester you about it. But Benny … promise me …”
Quickly he said, “I’m not going to be like Momma. She ran away from everything. I’m not running. I just don’t want to talk about private stuff to people I don’t know.”
“Well, that too but I wasn’t thinking you were like Penny.”
“Really?”
“Really. You’re allowed to feel how you feel. Just don’t feel like you have to hide it from me. Remember … I lost them too. I miss them too. Both of them. I know that Penny … your mother … had issues. But at one time she was as close as I’ll ever likely be to having a sister and she … she tried. Even if it was just for your Dad, she tried. And Lawrence was my brother, and I miss him, because when I didn’t have Dad and Grandfather …
he is who protected me from everything.”
“Now
you protect
me.”
“You betcha. But I don’t want to smother you or tell you that you have to feel a certain way all the time. Just don’t hide stuff from me. Not big stuff like this. It is easier when you have someone to face stuff in life with. ‘K?”
He slowly gave me half a smile, but it was all trusting. Geez I hope I am doing this correctly. Lawrence always talked to me like it didn’t matter that he was almost twice my age. He talked
to me, not
down to me; like I had some sense. Dad and Grandfather Barry sorta did the same thing, but more because they worried about me being a girl in today’s world and wanted to make sure I was tough enough to handle it. Grandma Barry didn’t have a problem with me being a girl, or being a different kind of girl. She put it down to me being a tomboy and maybe some of it was that. But I’m different. I came to terms with that when I was still a kid. Dad told me that I would need to, because no one else could help me through life as much as I could help myself by understanding myself and what I needed to navigate both the calms and the storms. I know at some point I’ll need to find a man I can trust that can be Benny’s friend … or mentor … or something. Grandma Barry was the token female in my life, then Penny, though calling them token sounds disrespectful because they weren’t just minor players in my life. Geez, being what Benny needs is my most important mission, one that I willingly took on and one that I will complete at the cost of my own life if necessary because it means that much to me. But, it certainly isn’t easy on some days. Especially when I have to put my own emotions aside to help protect his.
I debated last night what we would do for our last day in the park. Part of me really wanted to go white water rafting but everything was booked. Part of me wanted to go to the Maze area of the park. Instead I chose the Needles area of Canyonlands today. We started with a few easy trails and then did a strenuous one.
Roadside Ruin (0.3 miles) only took twenty minutes. It was just a short trail that led to an ancient storage structure built by indigenous people.
Pothole Point (0.6 miles) took twice that but only because we had to watch our feet so much on the uneven slickrock on the trail. Good views and some archaeological sites along the way.
Cave Spring (0.6 miles) was the same length but took less time despite the two ladders we had to climb. The short loop led to a historic cowboy camp and prehistoric rock paintings.
After those three trails as a warm up, we started stretching ourselves. Slickrock (2.4 miles) took two hours. The views were certainly worth it.
Then came our long hike, the longest we’d done in the park. The Druid Arch trail was eleven miles and it took us five hours to complete. According to the brochures this trail offers one of the most spectacular views in The Needles. I believe it. It follows the first part of the Chesler Park trail, then branches off to travel along the bottom of Elephant Canyon through deep sand and loose rock. There was about a quarter mile at the upper end that is steep with one ladder and some scrambling, but we both made it. Benny only needed a bit of help a couple of times. Boy was he proud of himself.
After we got back to the trailhead we had to hurry and get to the visitor center before it closed … just barely making it … to turn in our backcountry permit from the previous day to let them know we were back, turn in Little Bear’s junior ranger stuff, and yes I got the longhorn for the Crew as a prize for a job well done on today’s hikes. Benny said he was shy and hasn’t told his name yet. I suspect it is because the one on the tag said Lawrence. We found out his name “later” and that’s another story.
So anyway, we were walking out of the visitor center when I see the ranger from the campground.
“Excuse me, uh Aunt Gus?”
I nod.
“Anymore trouble from those two men yesterday?”
“I think they were in the campground late last night but something spooked them ‘cause they took off fast.”
“Know what time this was?”
“Honestly? No clue. I was going in for the night. It was dark. The sky was full of stars. But I wasn’t paying attention to the time. I was too busy pounding the tent stakes more firmly in ‘cause some wind had just picked up. And to be honest, I’m assuming rather than 100% on those men. It looked like the same truck but like I said, it was night, but the moon and stars were out.”
“That fits.”
“Fits?”
“Where’s Little Bear?”
“In the van. Why?” I asked trying not to sound defensive.
“I didn’t want him to overhear this. Those men went off the road and rolled and are in pretty bad shape. They had to be medivac’d out. They both had a blood alcohol level of 0.15, more than twice the state limit.”
I made a face. “Er … that’s pretty intoxicated.”
“Yeah it is. They’re both lucky they aren’t dead but I’ve heard they are going to be out of commission for quite some time. They’ll likely lose their licenses as well.”
“Doesn’t sound like they were smart enough to have them in the first place.”
He chuckled and nodded. “You’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Yes Sir. And before you ask, we’re headed to Arches.”
That made him laugh. “That’s going to make a couple people I know happy. Safe trip Aunt Gus.”
“Thank you.”
Well, I caught a break. I don’t like lying but I know how, and I’ve been trained to do it well. My track was a toss up between Search and Rescue or Special Operations. There’s some overlap there but Lawrence said let the tests pick my track so that’s what I was going to do … only it didn’t happen that way in my life. Maybe I should look into career counseling or something. I know they have tests online. That might at least give me a place to start.
Well since I didn’t have to worry about the crapheads anymore, and Benny had had a good day without people getting into his business, we decided to head back to camp and just have dinner, relax, and then prep for tomorrow’s change in parks.
For our dinner we ate the zucchini lasagna leftovers and neither one of us wanted dessert. I had Benny wash up and then took my turn. When I came out he whispered confidentially, “I know what his name is.”
“Really?”
“Laughsalot.”
“Really. That’s … unique.”
“Yeah. That’s why he didn’t want to say at first. People make fun of him.”
“Welllll … I can understand that. Been there myself a few times. Family name is it?”
He shook his head. “His mom was a prankster and always joking around with the other Momma cows. I think she made the name up.”
I nodded. “It’s a story he can tell his kids. I’ve had to tell mine often enough.”
Benny snickered. “Can … um …”
“Yes you can build a tent. But we have to pull out early. ‘K?”
He grinned after saying thank you and I think he’s finally fallen asleep. I’m up because I’m going over the budget to see how off I am. Let’s see, good news first. My e-commerce income from the blog looks like it is close to $600 this month because of a couple of big sales. And that’s if you don’t include the $1000 from the silly ladder vid. That won’t pay the rent but I’m banking it and it will be a nice emergency fund when this adventure is over even with me taking a few dollars out here and there. It just can’t be big dollars like for Pike’s Peak. I don’t regret the expense but I need to do my best to stay within budget as much as possible.
Speaking of, I heard on the news that the pipelines are paying off so much that we are back to within a hair of being energy independent like we were back in the late 2010’s. If that remains true they say gas will come down a little and stay under $4/gallon. That would be great but I’m not counting on it.
Adding to the emergency fund is the money that I am being refunded from the Gold Star Family discounts. I’ve also saved a few nights here and there … and the full week in DC … and I still have the free Hilton night for an emergency if need be.
Also as a positive, the van hasn’t had any major maintenance expenses and in fact hasn’t really been as expensive to maintain as I budgeted for. Knock on wood. To keep this true I need to make sure and do the regular maintenance like I did in Estes Park.
Now for the bad. Despite planning the best I could, it looks like I underestimated the number of miles we would be driving. I thought I would be driving around 15,000 miles for the entire estimated 7-month trip. That would be 2,142 miles per month. We’ve been traveling two months so on average that would mean 4,284 miles. I’ve tracked that we’ve 7,623 miles. Wow, quite a difference. If the maffs aren’t playing with my brain, if we continue with similar mileage rather than 15,000 miles, we’ll drive 26,677 miles. Holy smokes that is a huge difference. Instead of $6,250 I might be forking out closer to $11,000 for fuel.
I’m not saying that we are going to have to cut the adventure short. I can take the money out of the estate funds. But I really feel like I’m going to need to try to make up the difference in some way. Not even the blog money will make up that short fall. Say it is $11,000 that I wind up paying for fuel, that is a shortfall of $4750. Even if I make a solid $600 with the blog each month, that’s only $4200. If I add the $1000 ladder vid payment it will but then there goes the emergency fund with no ability to do any extras with or for Benny. For instance I wouldn’t be able to buy any new Crew members for Benny. I wouldn’t be able to buy patches and things like that. New hikers and clothes for both of us might be problematic.
I have me some thinking to do. I just need to not allow my thinking to affect Benny. I’m the adult. I need to protect him. If I can’t make up the difference, I’ll just have to take it out of the estate funds. But to do that will mean less cushion for our eventual plans. So many questions, so many potential problems.
Cumulative Fuel Expense: $3174
Cumulative Accommodation Expense: $1152
Cumulative miles: 7623
Resources:
Keto Zucchini Lasagna Recipe- Ketofocus
travel solo and they seem a bit cramped as well.
