Ups and Downs

Finally! I'm just gonna ignore the housework for a bit and get this camping trip blogged! :) Warning, this will be long!

It was definitely different than any other camping trip I've been on yet. Lots of struggles and cool stuff all rolled into one.

Our original plans were to spend the entire week of July 20th camping with RM's brothers' family. But, because we had all spent so much time sick earlier this summer, RM really couldn't take the extra time off work. So, we decided to go just Wednesday through Saturday. We made arrangements with RM's parents to borrow their camper trailer and truck for the trip. When RM drove the truck, he noticed that the steering was really loose. Feeling concerned, he spent Tuesday repairing the truck and we weren't able to pack the camper like we had hoped. We decided to get up extra early Wednesday to finish packing and get on the road.

Well, as we began to pack Wednesday morning, a pulley broke on the camper. The top would go neither up nor down. RM and his father went looking for a replacement pulley, while I did my best to pack the camper and bed of the truck. We weren't able to leave until just after lunch. I took the delay philosophically: there was simply some reason we weren't supposed to be on certain sections of road at certain times. We wound up eating dinner on the road (note that this is now two meals worth of food I have packed in our coolers that we haven't eaten while camping) and arriving just before dark. We set up camp super quickly and jumped right back into the truck to go into Escalante on an errand for RM's dad. It was past bedtime when we got back. Day one of our camping trip over, and we haven't been anywhere near the lake.

Thursday morning we noticed the truck had a flat tire! We ate a pancake breakfast (RM's brother's family had so much batter ready we didn't make our mix at all. Three meals to take back home now. :p ) and RM and the kids headed down to the lake. I stayed behind with 'Lashes to finish setting up camp. Of course they went with little or no sunblock and got nice and toasty. PrincessBug caught her first fish on this camping trip last year, so she was stoked and ready to get some more. SunshineBoy didn't catch any fish last year and has been of the opinion that fishing isn't really that fun. Well, that changed when he caught his first two fish this year. Now he gets it and is eager to go fishing again.

SunshineBoy and Bob holding his and PrincessBug's fish.

I finally made it down to the water in the afternoon and we took a family paddle around the lake.



Unfortunately, 'Lashes isn't very fond of his life jacket, so our excursion was rather short.

'Lashes holding some water plants off of PrincessBug's fishing pole. He doesn't like his life preserver. I wonder why?

Toward evening, RM and his brother put the spare tire on the truck. Shortly after that the camp host came around. He had a tire repair kit and we were able to repair the original tire. Yay! Then we followed RM's brother and their family to a secluded spot a bit up the road to go target shooting. It was a first for my kids.



Uncle C. and RM help the kids target shoot.

RM & 'Lashes with their earplugs.

The gun totin' mama.

After target shooting we headed back to camp for a dinner of freshly caught fish and taco soup. We told SunshineBoy that if he wanted to fish the next day he had to at least try one bite of fish. We're trying to teach the kids that the fish they catch need to be eaten (by someone) or it's wrong to take them from the lake. I even ate some fish to be a good example. But, it was no use. SunshineBoy wouldn't budge, he wouldn't eat even one bite. Mommy & Daddy got tough and SB didn't go fishing on Friday, just boating.

Friday morning RM wanted to go to Devil's Garden. However, when we tried to go, things got weird. The kids didn't want to go, they wanted to go to the lake. I felt grumpy about going. Breakfast took extra long and it was getting hot. Finally we abandoned the idea.

On our way down to the boat for another outing, I got a few pictures of some pretty wild flowers.





While I was taking pictures, I noticed the charm on my necklace was oddly tangled in the clasp and I made a mental note to have Quinton help me sort it out as soon as we got a chance. He was already on the boat when I got there, so I decided to wait a bit. When I got back to the camper, the charm was gone. I was devastated. I hunted up and down the trails, in the boat, near all the clumps of flowers I had stopped by, but with no luck.

Anyone familiar with my charm will know it was literally like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can see it around my neck, tangled in it's clasp, in the picture from target shooting. RM made the charm for me in a jewelry class he took before his mission, so I've had it for sixteen years or so. It's always been one of my very favorite pieces. It's unique and has always captured peoples' attention. Everyone always wanted to know what it was. It was described as a flute, a sword/knife, a stalactite, a needle, you name it. In reality it was just a cool shape made from a broom casting. I've been meaning to take a close up picture of it for months and just hadn't gotten around to it. For the rest of the trip I kept my eyes out, hoping beyond hope that it would show up, but it never did. Even now I'll reach for it, and it hurts every time I realize it's not there. Here's another picture. (Sorry for the poor quality, it's a tight crop from a much larger picture taken earlier this summer).

After lunch that day, RM took the big kids on a hike up to the Posey Lake overlook, while I got 'Lashes to take a nap. The quiet time in the trailer was really nice. My favorite part? The humming birds that would come buzzing around our camp. They have the most amazing high pitched thrum and they are so pretty. I wasn't able to get any pictures, but I found this picture by Greg Joder on the internet that should give you an idea of how beautiful they are.

The whole crew at the Posey Lake Overlook

After the hike, RM suggested going to Devil's Garden again. This time it just felt right. Everyone was happy and excited to go. So, we piled in the truck and headed out on the 40 minute drive to Devil's Garden. Devil's Garden is a really cool set of rock formations, called hoodoos. The worst of the heat was gone by the time we got there and we got there early enough to hike deeper into the formations than we've ever gone before. The kids thought the formations were cool, the multiple varieties of lizards interesting and the fine, soft sand a blast to play in.








On our way back to camp at dusk we came across a dog on the road. It would follow the truck, but run away each time we stopped, only to follow next to the truck again or run ahead of us. It took us three tries, but eventually RM was able to convince the dog to come near enough to us to let us pet it and get a look at the tags. Her name was Bernice and she lived in Kaysville! We picked her up and put her in the back of the truck, gave her some water and took her into town. We tried all the telephone numbers on her tags, but with no luck. No one in Escalante could give us any advice or had seen her owners, so we finally took her back to camp with us, after grabbing a pizza in town because it was going to be too late to eat dinner at camp. (Are you counting how many meals we've missed now?) Bernice was so sweet and well behaved. She spent the night bedded down in the back of the truck.



Saturday morning we packed up camp and got ready to leave. We took Bernice back into town asking around for her owners and leaving many more phone messages with the local sheriff, the BLM and US Forest Service, notes at gas stations, etc. with no luck.


We couldn't find anyone willing to care for Bernice until her owners found her. Not knowing what else to do, we decided to take Bernice back home with us. We figured that if we had to, we'd drive her to the address on her tag.

At the last minute I felt inspired to leave a note at the trail head near where we found Bernice.

Then, we headed for home over the dirt road between Escalante and Loa. About 8 miles out of Loa it began to rain. About 5 miles out of Loa is began to pour. All I could think about was poor Bernice in the bed of the truck getting drowned. We stopped the truck and RM and I got out to cover the bed of the truck with a tarp. We were soaked to the skin in seconds! But, we did manage to get Bernice and the gear covered up well enough to get us to a drier, less windy place where we could redo it better. We pulled into Scipio about 6pm to get gas and eat dinner (a meal we were supposed to eat at home :p). While I was waiting in line to order, my cell phone rang. It was Bernice's owners!! The lady on the phone was so emotional she couldn't speak and she had to hand the phone to her husband. They were still in Escalante and wouldn't be able to make it to us until very late, so we made arrangements for them to pick Bernice up at our house on their way home on Sunday. So, Bernice the dog had a sleep over at our house.

Sunday afternoon Bernice's owners came to pick her up. They have owned her for 11 years and she is a true member of their family. The thought of her lost in the desert made them sick. She had gotten spooked by some gunfire and run away from her owners Friday afternoon. They spent Friday night and all day Saturday looking for her. They finally found our note at the trail head. It had been rained on and sun faded. It was barely legible, but they had been able to make out my cell number by holding it up to the light. It was a wonderful blessing to find Bernice's owners and to get her back to her family. It was definitely a high note on which to end a camping trip that had had several ups and downs.