8-29-06
Start: CR 256, UT
Destination: 2 mi. from UT 95
Elevation: 4200 ft.
Miles: 20.6
Weather: Hot
Today was hot. I'm pretty sure it's over 100 here, but we don't have a thermometer, so I'm not positive. We've been up around 8,000 ft., then came down to 4,000 - back to desert, red sand, sagebrush, little shade and lots of water drinking. It seems backwards that the places we want to drink more water provide us with less. It should be the other way around! Oh well, it makes for interesting challenges.
We took our break under the small area of shade from one of the last, low juniper trees we could see across the vast sage brush-spotted red-sandy desert. Gopher and Ba-ha were going to be picking us up, but we weren't sure when, and we were just hoping to see them pop up over a hill with cold water and chocolate. So we were being pokey, thinking, "Ahh, just 15 more minutes..."
But the rescue car wasn't what got us off our butts. Mom suddenly says, after getting up at light speed, "SCORPION! Robin - move - a scorpion - a hairy scorpion!" I was laying on my sleeping pad, and had no idea where it was, and I froze. I didn't want to startle it. Finally I just jumped up and onto the road and looked back. He was partially hidden under a small piece of bark. I tried to get a couple of pictures, but they turned out blurry. He walked right up in between the two of us, and we could hardly see him. He looked just like Terry from Camelot described them. He was light green in color, sort of greasy-looking, and he was about 3" long. Pinchers and stinger tail, too, of course. This is the first time I've seen a scorpion in the wild. It was really exciting. He was very afraid of us, so that's good. We just got clear out of each others' way and moved on.
Finally - the car. Turns out they got a flat tire about 1/2 mile down the road from where they saw us. Gopher and Ba-ha worked on jacking up the car, switching tires, getting the donut on... they looked hot and tired by the time we met up. So they are going to try to get hooked up with a new tire tomorrow. I seem to remember Dick B. telling me of a Utah flat tire story... I sure hope they can get one, because it sounds like the tires are slim pickin’s around here!
We did get back to Granny's Diner - we snacked on chocolate, popcorn, and veggies with dip. Dinner was fried chicken, homemade noodles, gravy, carrots, bread, and coconut cream pie for desert. Now that's what I call eating!
We have full bellies, we're showered, and we're tired, so we are off to bed!
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