I’ll have a Double Ben with Cheese please!

Ohhhhh hiiiiiii Baaaaaaakieeeeeee!

Big burgers, coyotes, and groinerflies. This was THAT kind of week, which means it was a pretty fun week. 

It’s still cold here, but there’s little hints of spring in the air, and as per normal this time of year, I have the itch to get out of the house. Ben was on Spring Break, which mostly meant that I could sleep in a little every day. But it was nice to have him around, to hear him work on his songs, and to hear him and Joey jam after school.

Work is getting more interesting than it has been for a while. I had my first truly busy day for a while this week. I didn’t go into the office at all this week. Which may become more normal. I’ve been thinking of selling that little car, and that’s one more reason I guess.

Wednesday night the youth did baptisms at the temple. It was snowing pretty hard but we got decent turnout despite that. It’s that spring snow with gigantic flakes that melts fast and looks so pretty when it comes down. I was glad Joe wasn’t working and was able to come. I was really proud as he was the first one into the font and completely confident in baptizing the other youth. The younger Priests were really watching him to see how it was done. Sometimes it just floors me how grateful I am for you boys and your willingness to just DO good stuff. I got to do a whole bunch of the confirmations which was fun. I also got to get to know several of the temple workers between kids. Now, I’m no uncle Tim, but I can carry on a pleasant conversation with complete strangers if the situation warrants.

Towards the end of the week I was sort of obsessed with the weather forecast. We wanted to go on adventure for at least one of Ben’s days off and the Lone Peak 4Wheelers had a run planned for Saturday. Joey had wanted to go back to Goblin Valley (yes, I was going to allow him to skip school on Friday) and I was willing. But it was another slushy snow day and a three-and-a-half hour drive over the Soldiers Summit pass did not appeal to me, especially if we were going to repeat it again the very next day. So we ended up just going to Antelope Island. That turned out to be a pretty fun few hours. The weather was kinda bleak and while it was in the low 50s, the wind was blowing hard enough it felt much lower. That place is barren yet somehow rich with all the grass and patterns of the rock scapes, water, mud and salt patterns. I took 64 pictures, some of which I got out, walked around, composed shots with foreground and background etc. The three that turned out were the ones I took out of the drivers side window and cropped the road out. Bison and coyotes are two of my favorite animals, and we were able to see and photograph both. At that one high spot overlook we were going to hike to the top. Ben got out of the car while Joey and I were joking around. Ben got to the railing and the wind about blew him away. He struggled back to the car and we decided to call it a morning. The whole time I was thinking of that last campout with you and Jordan. That was pretty close to two years ago exactly. It was still pretty early in the afternoon so we decided to go find some lunch.

There’s this burger place up there that was on Diners, Drive-in’s, and Dives that we went to go find. It was up in Roy not far from the Hill Air Force Museum. It was a true drive in with no seating inside. We walked through the wind up to the order counter and I got the “Ben look”. I had no idea why till I looked at the menu and all of the burgers were called “Ben burgers”, hence, the title of this letter. The burgers were good, but the best takeaway was the random ordering of “Double Ben Burgers with Cheese Please!”

There’s this camping store that I had wanted to go to in the area. The sell Klymit gear, which is sleeping bags and pads. But that store also had really cool gear for elaborate camping like rocking camping chairs, roof-top tents, tall camp lights, and all kinds of cool random gear. I had been looking for a thick sleeping pad to replace my cot that takes forever to set up. The ones I’d been looking for ranged from $250 to over $300, so out of my range. I found one at that store for $110, which still got me in trouble but I felt it was worth it. Your brothers want me to get this giant four person roof-top tent for the trailer, it seems like a good idea to me. You’re mom and I in the trailer and you guys up top. Maybe some day.

We got home early enough for your mom and I to go on our Friday night date. Mom chose a new African style grill place. It was good, but I don’t need to go back. Then we did our normal shopping. When we got home Joe wanted to watch National Treasure, it brought back memories of when you were little boys.

Grandma came over for Sunday dinner, she’s stressed over grandpa. Ben and Joey are making Sand Tong wings and Asian noodles. My battery is low and dinner is almost ready. So I’ll charge this and eat, then tell you about yesterday.

_______

Just finished the dishes. Grandma went to go see grandpa. Grandpa is in a place that is primarily designed to meet the minimum requirements of collecting Medicare payments for so called rehabilitation. Which by my observation means they warehouse people that qualify and do very little else. Grandpa is not doing better for it and is probably doing worse. He’s developed a pretty bad rash and blisters. They don’t bathe him or help him use the bathroom. Grandma is sick about it. At the same time I worry that grandpa is putting too much worry and stress on her, to the point of manipulation. He should be home Tuesday, we’re hoping that they can get some home health care services to alleviate some of the load on grandma. In the end Jacob, family is who we lean on for strength, but we should do our best to guard our own strength too.

Back to yesterday. As stated, I was looking at the weather all week. All week it was going between rain and clear for Saturday. I desperately wanted to get out. As you know however, I’m reticent to risk bad weather for something so trivial. I finally told Ben and uncle Tim that we were going but that if the roads were bad I held the right of last minute cancellation. I got up several times to look at the highway cameras on highway 6 over Spanish Fork canyon. It looked clear…ish. Uncle Tim got here at 6:20 in the morning and we left. It was crisp and clear. Cold but not quite wintery. After all of my fretting, the roads were snow packed for several miles in the high elevations, but it was sunny and bright with light traffic, and we made it with no problems. 

We met up at the Maverick in Castle Dale. I seem to really love Maverick unless I'm in town. Eleven vehicles showed up. All jeeps, all lifted and built well. My 4Runner was the odd man out. The other thing I noticed was that I was far below the median age of that group. Seriously, I’ll bet the average age is in the high 60s. Multiple guys in their 70s, and one guy, one absolute legend that uncle Tim figured to be 82 at a minimum and possibly pushing into his 90s. That guy was in a built Cherokee and trailed us in line all day. He drove like a boss. I would follow that guy anywhere and I want to be him in 30 years. 

Our first stop was at the Wedge overlook. We went there at the start of our infamous Jeep drowning trip. It was really pretty with all the snow. The roads up to that point were wet and muddy, a little slick, but really smooth. The second leg of the trip was much more technical. Easily the most difficult trail I’ve taken the 4Runner on and probably a 5 on a scale of 10. Which is beyond the limits of any stock 4x4 and getting into the range of requiring heavy modifications. Being surrounded by the friendly yet hard core Jeepers, all eyes were on the doofus in the Toyota. It did really, exceptionally actually, well. I’m no braggart, but my driving  isn’t too bad either. In fact, uncle Tim said as much to grandma. He admitted that he’d never be able to drive that (I think no one reading this would be surprised by that though). By lunchtime the group was impressed enough to embrace us out casts and compliment my choice of vehicle. Remember when that happened at the Jeep jamboree in Texas? I may sand bag a little, but it’s always better to under promise and over deliver. The part of the trail we were on was called Lost Spring Canyon, which really doesn’t mean much to me because I still can’t find it on the map. The last feature we were going for is called the Mars Landscape. It was at the top of a muddy gully that even the most hardcore guy couldn’t make it up. I actually appreciate a group that knows when to turn back for safety or trail preservation reasons.

On the way home we stopped in Wellington at a restaurant in a motel called the Outlaw Cafe. The food was that expected homemade small non chain restaurant style, which was welcomed. We got home just after seven, and I was too lazy to clean the 50 pounds of mud from the Toyota. I’ll regret that tomorrow. 

I woke up last night with a sour stomach and loose stools. Had the Outlaw Cafe earned its name? I’d hoped at least for that to get me out of church, but no joy there. I’ve recovered.

As I finish this up mom and I are upstairs listening to your brothers jam. They just finished the Piano Man. It is not possible for me to describe the joy that music gives me. I can’t wait for your participation in that.

Let us know what time your calling. We’re back on Daylight Savings time, Hallelujah, but we’ll need to sync up time wise. You’ve really spoiled us with some amazing letters, but no pressure here.

Standard but sincere closure to this week’s letter. I love you kid, you’re doing so great, keep going. Im so proud of you,

Pops