Elephant Hill

 Oh hi Joe,

I’m starting this letter Saturday night. We’re sitting in the Canyon Lands, Needles district campground, we seem to have the whole place to ourselves. We just got done eating sandwiches, and before that, we did Elephant Hill. I realized that Ben is down to about five weeks before he’s off to Yale, so we decided it was time to go camping. 

I had some freelance yesterday morning, so I got up early to get that out of the way. It was easy enough and the client thought it was a good start. The I started to get the 4Runner packed. I always seem to over pack, but it seems to pay off when I do. As I was getting the gear out of the trailer I was hit really hard by nostalgia. The last time we used it was with you when we went to Dinosaur NP. I thought of all those fun trips we took with mom, Calf Creek, black Canyon of the Gunnison, Hovenweep, the Oregon coast. I wish we’d get back to that. Since mom started her masters and at the temple, she really doesn’t come with us anymore. I may fix up the trailer to sell if we’re not going to use it, but I’d rather use it. 

After I got the car loaded I gassed up and came home to shower, I hate starting a trip all sweaty and pissed off. About then your brothers came home so we left. My original plan was to camp at this place by the Green River about 20 miles north of the town of Green River. We passed the main campground and there was a large shirtless man staring us down. I hate camping in crowds so we kept driving up the road. We found a great spot by the river next to The Stone Cabin, I add that for future reference. We had it to ourselves. There were looming cliffs on either side of us. It was really hot. So your brothers got in and spent some time in the water. I took of my shoes and dangled them in the water which was also refreshing. There were these tiny little minnows in the river, they were almost translucent, and they seemed to really enjoy nibbling on my toes, and the sensation was oddly satisfying. We warmed up the Chili dog burritos that mom sent with us, they were surprisingly tasty. Then we sat around talking about the stars, the universe, and everything. I managed to halt the conversation by mentioning the temple film. For the record, I think in terms of eternity, we’re going to find out that the priesthood and physics are closely related. We went to bed about 10:30 when it finally started to cool down. I laid down on my cot without a sleeping bag (Jake took it because he didn’t bring one), or my sleeping bag liner (Jacob used that for a pillow). I wasn’t getting to sleep for a long time so I put on my hoodie. That worked for a while until I got up to pee and get the extra sleeping bag I packed to use for a blanket. That did the trick and I slept really well the rest of the night.

We got up late in the morning, it was really pleasant in the morning. We warned up the egg burritos your mom made for us which were very tasty. We got camp struck and headed out. The original plan was to go to Goblin Valley then go camp high up in the Henry Mountains (remember when we went there?). But Ben wanted to go to Moab so to Moab we went.  We went to that cool bookstore in Moab, bought a few groceries, gassed up, then got Burritos at Gualbertos. Then Ben asked if we could go four wheel Elephant Hill.

The last time we went to Elephant Hill was in 2011 when you guys were little, the time before that I went on 1987 (I had my 1987 Suzuki Samurai, the coolest and simultaneously worst off roader of all time) with my brother Art, uncle Patrick, and my cousins Ray and Ron. All of them but my cousin Ray are gone now in one way or another. The first time I came was in 1978, I was thirteen. My dad had just bought a 1978 Toyota FJ55 Land Cruiser in bright Blue. It was a predecessor to my 4Runner and the coolest rig ever. So even though I only make it here on average of once every 15 years or so, I feel like I have a connection to it. It strangely feels like home. 

It full on summer now, which down here means hot, so it’s not too crowded and when 

were able to get our permit and a campsite really easily. In fact, as far as I can tell were the only ones in camp and we only saw two other rigs on the trail. One jeep that for some reason kept stopping to tighten up their lug nuts. The other was an FJ Cruiser. I must say that the trail seemed much more tough and technical that my other visits. I dare say that technically it the limit of what I’m willing to take my 4Runner on. That being said, despite many clunks and bumps, that rig was up to the task and made me seem a good driver. As stated, it was hot, but I saw no issues with temperature though there was an odd chemical smell that I can’t place. I see no dripping or leaking, so I’ll have to research to see if it’s a known issue.

Right now we’re sitting in camp trading shrieks with a murder of crows (that’s what a flock of crows is called, right?) we just had the sandwiches mom sent us the fixins for (she may not come, but she still takes care of us). It still hot, but not unpleasant in the shade. Honestly, I think a rare gift of old age is heat tolerance, I don’t mind it as much as your brothers seem to. In all honesty, we’d probably be ready to head home but we’re all sort of waiting to skip church, oh the shame.

I’ll finish this up tomorrow. Your aunt and uncle sent us some nice pictures of you and your comp. You look good and your smile makes me happy. Uncle Tim said you are a good missionary, and I wholeheartedly agree.

______

Well, we’re home now. We got home about 1:30 and were showered by the time mom got home from church. We had some aftermath to the trip. I hit the rock sliders several times, there’s some fresh scrapes on the bottom. I hit the rear bumper hard several times to, it also has a small dent on the bottom and looks like it shifted higher on one side by maybe 1/4 inch. I hope I can adjust it back. There are several more “pinstripes” from brush on it. I need to search for that coolant leak too I also lost the sole to my favorite pair of Merell shoes. Oh and those Crows? They busted into our snack bag and spoiled a brand new bag of nacho cheese Doritos, jerks.

Mom made us fried chicken breast sandwiches with delicious homemade rolls for buns, insanely good. After, we watched the old western, Who Shot Liberty Valence, one of my favorites.

In other happenings this week, we decided to put tile wood planks for a backsplash in the bathroom, we also bought a faucet. I hope to get the tile installed this week, we’ll see how much progress I’ve made by my next letter.

The other night aunt Patti came over with her grand babies. Evan loves cars, and he was telling my about his RCs. So I pulled out my little orange crawler that I take on our jeep trips and he LOVED IT! It was fun watching him playing with it in the front yard. For how little he is, he caught on pretty well.

I also finished my latest model kit. It’s a Tamiya 1966 VW Beetle. I made it to match my memory of the first car my dad bought for me to drive. It was a 1964 VW bug (as we called them) that was soo rusty. It had rust in the floors, on the fenders and doors, everywhere. It was an oxidized Tahitian Blue color, with a white interior. One night I hit a bag of fall leaves and it ripped half the rear fender off. So I took some bailing wire and drilled holes in the body and fender to reattach, not the most professional repair, but it held till I could fix it, which I did. And that’s another story. I think the model turned out well and I’m proud of it. Now to decide what to start next.

Well kid, I sure love you, do I tell you that enough? Sometimes I think that if there’s only one thing you boys remember about me it would be that, I-love-you!

Pops