Things That Go Bump In The Night

Anytime you move or visit somewhere new, a lot of exciting things are bound to happen.  Really, it's just because everything is unfamiliar and there are a lot of new 'norms' to get accustomed to.

In the desert, not a whole lot gets accustomed to the mid-day heat, so all the action happens at night.  Here in Prescott, there have been live music shows, craft fairs, movies, and street dances almost every night in the Courtyard downtown.

And of course, after the lights go down and the crowds disperse, all those other more silent, sneaky things that go 'bump' in the night come out to play.

A couple weeks ago, Shaun and I went on a midnight bike ride to buy ice-cream, just a couple blocks from our house.  Just around a bend, Shaun stopped in the road to tell me he saw a javelina.

Upon hearing the unfamiliar word, I saw an image of a chupacabra in my head, and immediately flipped a U on my bike and was pedaling as fast as I could the other direction.
A Chupacabra is a mysterious dog-like/reptile-like creature of modern myth, mostly in Latin cultures, that kills farm animals and sucks out their blood.

Needless to say, I saw whatever Shaun was talking about out of the corner of my eye, lurking in the dark, and it scared the hell out of me!
Turns out a javelina is actually a Collared Peccary and we had rode through a whole herd of them, babies and all.

When Shaun yelled at me to stop and I actually got a good look at what I thought was surely going to eat me, turn out it was actually pretty cute with it's eyes shinning in my bike light.  I probably scared them more than they scared me.  
So, the javelinas scattered into the rocks and we bought our ice-cream, but my heart didn't stop racing until we returned to the house.

A couple nights ago I saw some huge dark lump crawling across the living room floor.  At first I thought it was a large cockroach, but it was moving rather slowly and clumsily.  The dogs were pretty interested in it, but good thing they didn't try to eat it, as it had some rather powerful mandibles.  I captured the crawly insect to discover that it was 3 inch long Longhorn beetle.  Cool!

(not my photo)

Not so cool... Last night I switched on the light and stepped out the front door to find myself face to face with a giant black widow!  The black beauty was mid-construction of her tangled web, right across our front entry.  I have never seen a black widow so big! 

I took a couple pictures until she shied away from the light and hid in a corner.  I called around town today to find out if there was any naturalist who would want the damned thing, but no luck.  I'm going to let her live in the dark on our porch until she starts making an egg sack, mostly because she is just too cool!, and partly because I am too afraid to get close enough to kill her.  

Normally I suck spiders up in the vacuum, but something tells me that's not gonna work on a spider of this size and caliber.

Two Dogs Free To Anyone Who Wants 'Em

Tragedy struck in the Karlan/Davis household today.

I got out of bed around 8 to find the bathroom door open.  I asked Shaun if he had already taken our little chicks outside to the coop.  

He said 'no'.

Harvey's favorite thing in the world is to pull the stuffing out of squeaky toys until he finds the plastic squeaker.  A whole box of squeaky things locked in the bathroom...  Poor Harvey, I can only imagine his disappointment to find that the fluffy little things had no squeakers.

But no matter how happy, sad, disappointed, or proud of himself he was, I can guarantee it was no match for how upset I was.

Of course, not all the blame can be placed on Harvey.  Suka has been know to magically open doors...


My first urge was to kick them out on the street with 'FREE' signs duct-taped to their faces.  Luckily for the mangy mutts, my rage was lessened by my attendance of a seasonal parade, and the fact that our neighborhood has at least two ice-cream trucks.


I guess I will consider apologies.

2010 Roadtrip, Završni Dio, Arizona!

Final Part, The Grand Canyon State
~Home~


My god, we've already been in Arizona three weeks.  So much has happened, I can't keep up.  I'm going to fly through all the details here in chronological order so I can get back on track.  


Here goes...
June 9- Drove across the Grand Canyon.  Wow!  Stopped at Lee's Ferry, where the Canyon raft trips start, and played in the water.  Drove to Flagstaff where we had some drinks with a friend, then camped in the woods and bouldered some until we found poison ivy.  Spent the rest of the evening catching ants to feed to antlions.


June 10-  Played frisbee golf in the park, then climbed for just a little bit in the afternoon.  We made it back to Flag to catch our friend closing up at work.  We proceeded to paint the town red and watched the sunrise from the top of the hospital parking garage.


June 11-  Nothing happened.  Too hung over to move.


June 12-  Shaun and I volunteered to work at the Flagstaff Pride Festival.  We sat in little cage and sold tickets for half the day.  We couldn't even see the festival happenings and the tickets cost too much, so nobody really liked us.


June 13- Left Flag around 8 am.  Made it all the way to Cottonwood, 30 miles from Prescott, and our car broke.  For some reason it wouldn't rev over 3,000 rpms.  All shops closed on Sunday, so we drove very slowly over the mountain, through Jerome, to Prescott.  Very pretty scenery and amazing views from Jerome.  Must have been Corvette day or something... every Corvette in the country was driving the road over the pass.  Probably saw 300 Corvettes!


June 14- Bought a hotel room for the week at Apple Creek Cottages.  Really cute little place by a stream, great courtyard with bbq grills, and very dog friendly!


June 16-  Found a house to rent very close to the college, very cheap rent, very cool landlord, and in the 'Eco-hood'. All college students, hippies, and chickens, with a garden in every yard! The landlord gave us the rest of the month free, so we could clean the house...it needed it! Shaun and I each bought a new bike for commuting around town.


June 19- Shaun found a job and started immediately.  Little restaurant that really fills the niche for old people.


June 22- Got the car into the shop.  Fixed in just a couple hours and thankfully was cheap!


June 27- Climbing!  Too hot out and Shaun got a good burn.


June 28- Rode our bikes to the grocery store around 11pm.  Rode through a herd of javelinas in the road.  Scared the hell outa me!  They look like boars, but they are actually peccaries.


June 29-  New roommate showed up.  Really cool med student only staying for a month.  The room is super cheap and 1/4 mile from the hospital, so it worked out perfect for him, and helped us pay our first month's rent!  Someone gave us a young chicken, food, and feeders for free.  Yay!


June 30-  Bought a car and 5 baby chicks!


Now we're up to date!  So, today-  Young chicken disappeared.  She escaped from the yard somehow, and I don't think she's going to make it back.  Had to have the new car towed back to our house, but it's an easy fix and Shaun has done it before.  The High Sierra Music Festival starts today in Quincey, California.  We're not there, obviously, because we had to sell our tickets to pay our rent, but that's ok.  There is a lot happening in Prescott right now.  The world's oldest rodeo is going on right now, and there are events every day in the park.


Things seem to be working out really well, and I think we've broke the 'we-shouldn't-be-here' streak.  Bozeman feels very far away, but it's not a bad thing.  Prescott feels right.  


Photos of our home in Prescott here.

2010 Road Trip, Dio Cetiri, Utah

Part Three, The Beehive State


June 8.  The morning in Baker, Nevada proved to be much less windy and much less lonely than the evening before.  Pairs of birds sang from a nearby ditch, another pair from the picnic pagodas, and even more from their hunting grounds in the fields.  Suka and Harvey found a tiny horny toad to play with and Suka demonstrated the 'soft jaw' capabilities of Chesapeake Bay Retrievers by picking the little guy up and carrying him around for a while, then spitting him out without a scratch or a squish.  Harvey surely wouldn't have been so gentle.  


Just across the state line, Utah was just more desolate desert.  To really make a point of how harsh desert life can be, a dead cow lay in the sand near the road, not a drop of water in sight, picked completely clean by vultures except for it's skin and grassy stomach matter.  The unfortunate cow, despite being just a shell of it's former shelf, still lay in the position it died in, upright with it's head leaned gently against it's foot.  Maggots had been left to finish up whatever they could, and i'm sure eventually some lone coyote will lope by and drag away the hide or a bone.  It was sad to see, but also I feel very lucky to have had a little window into the 'circle of life'.  So often we find a dead animal or a bone, but rarely do we get to see first hand what happens during the process of decay, especially when scavengers like vultures are involved.  It was a real 'National Geographic moment'!


We stopped in St. George for $2 showers at the rec center, then lathered up with sunscreen and drove on.  We reached Zion National Park at 3.  We weren't sure if our parks card had expired or not since 'June' is a relatively vague expiration date, but the gate man didn't seem to care, or he just didn't notice.  The road through the park didn't open until 4, so we spent the hour walking around in the scorching sun looking at lizards and cacti, and slowly dieing of heat exhaustion.


The drive through the red cliffs and canyons was worth the wait.  The road was narrow and dangerously curved around everything it possibly could, but Shaun and I couldn't keep from cranking our heads sideways to try to get a good look at the rock walls towering above us.  It was amazing and beautiful, but there was absolutely no place to stop along the road, so it was impossibly to get any good pictures.  


We drove through Jacob Lake and spent a gorgeous evening camping in the Kaibob National Forest, with a warm breeze swirling the delicate honey smell of fresh flowers all around us.


And of course... the photos!

2010 Road Trip, Dio Treci, Nevada

Part Three, The Silver State


Everything in Elko Nevada is closed on a Sunday.  I found out that Elko's cowboy poetry gathering is in January.  For some reason I thought it was in August.  Good to know.  
Since there was nothing we could do in town (laundry, use the internet, buy a climbing guide, get a map at the chamber of commerce...), we attempted to satiate my craving for tacos at a little Mexican restaurant (amazing ceviche!, but still craving tacos), then drove out of town a few miles to Lamoille Canyon.


The canyon was gorgeous and the mountain peaks still snow capped although it was well into the 80s on lower ground.  A small stream cut directly through the canyon, although with the warmer weather, it wasn't so small.  We camped on the hill above it, surrounded by cliffs, and waterfalls.  Cool air rose up from the stream, and a cool breeze brought more fresh air down from the mountain tops, but it was still plenty warm after the sun went down, so we stayed up late playing cribbage, reading, and listening to all the water around us.


As the sounds of the day started to die down and we settled into our nighttime routine, we laid in the tent and listened to sounds like thunder, rumbling the walls of the canyon around us.  It was more of a feeling than a sound.  So low and powerful, like the grinding of teeth.  I was reminded of being a kid, sitting under a bridge on a dirt road when a car drove over.  The rumble was so low and completely surrounded us.  The creek was so full, and moving so much water, that huge boulders were being shifted in the creek bed.  All through the night, I laid awake listening to the rushing water grind the rocks through the canyon.


In the morning we drove the twenty miles back to Elko to buy our climbing guide.  As it turned out, the only store in town that sold it had randomly decided to stay closed that Monday.  We found a limited amount of information online, but enough to allow us to climb at least a couple routes.  So we headed back to the beautiful Lamoille.  


We got our climbing gear together and drove up the canyon to find our cliffs, but something didn't want us to be there, either.  The canyon just a mile up the road from our camp had been closed.  Rangers were suggesting that people start evacuating and moving on to other locations.  Apparently landslides were starting to happen further up the road and were threatening to block the already raging creek.  If a landslide blocked the creek, then blew out, huge flash floods could come racing down the canyon from wall to wall.


There was rain in the forecast for the next couple days, and with the powerful display of the water moving the boulders, a flood warning was all we needed.  There would be no climbing in the Lamoille, then.  We packed up our camp and, greatly discouraged, drew a line straight down our map to Arizona.  


We drove through the desolate, but beautiful heart of Nevada to Eureka, an ancient historical mining town, but were disappointed to find the surrounded hillsides stripped and cratered.  Apparently mining was still happening in Eureka.  


We drove the Loneliest Highway, and found it to be pretty lonely.  We stopped at Illipah Reservoir to soak the dogs, and found it to be equally as lonely.  In Baker, on the border of Utah, we filled up our water and pitched the tent in the wind, in the dark, in the desert.  The wind was blowing so hard that we set up the tent between the car and a fence, tied two lines to the car, two lines to the fence, and another couple lines to some rocks that were near.  We went to sleep and the tent didn't budge.


Hopefully the Southwestern corner of Utah wouldn't be as lonely or as desolate as the Lonliest Highway in Nevada.


Pictures here!

2010 Road Trip, Drugi Dio, Idaho

Part Two, The Gem State 
(and a little bit of Utah)


The drive out of Wyoming was for the most part uneventful.  The scenery was gorgeous, it was a sunny day, and it was pretty quiet in Southwest Wyoming, aside from some good laughs  and a few groans over making way too much hummus for two people to eat. 

We had to drive through the tippy top corner of Utah, so we stopped at Bear Lake to water the dogs.  A few raindrops spattered on us, but the rain blew over, and the dogs had a great time running on the lake shore, chasing birds, and playing fetch.  They had so much fun that, hours later, after we stopped in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, soaked in the world famous springs, and took two showers each, the dogs were still sleeping.  Of course, by that time, it was rather late.  Opting not to pay for KOA campsite, we drove on into the night, and eventually pulled into some unmapped, small town to sleep in the car for a few hours.


June 6th we arrived in Almo, Idaho bright and early to get our climb on in City of Rocks.  The landscape was amazing and the rock formations unbelievably rugged and expansive.  We were happy to be following part of the California Trial and it was impressive to see settlers' names written in axle grease still clinging to the rocks.  
We drove around the City, ate breakfast, hiked a bit, and drove around more, but we soon realized that, for the height of the rocks we meant to climb, our guide book was rather incomplete.


As it turns out, there was just so much to climb there, it was impossible to give adequate description of whether the routes were bolted or what kind of gear we needed to take for protection.  Also, almost all of the routes require two ropes to rappel.  Since the guide didn't specify the heights of the routes, Shaun and I didn't feel comfortable climbing with just our one rope.  We decided to camp on BLM land close to the City, and give it another shot in the morning, since a friend from Bozeman, who had experience in City of Rocks, was planning on meeting us to show us around.


Morning came, and the rocks were still as massive and foreboding as they were the day before.  We hiked to a few routes we thought we could climb, but were still just as intimidated as we were the day before.  We read through our guide for the 20th time, but it was still as incomplete and vague as it was the day before.  And our friend with the second rope wasn't coming like he said he was the day before...  
Feeling pretty down, and having completely lost our climbing mo-jo, we decided to pack up our camp.  Even though we had finally hit on good weather, something in Idaho just didn't want us to be there, and we felt that we needed to move on. 
Besides that, I was having a killer craving for tacos, and Almo, Idaho just didn't have a Taco Bell, or for that matter, any restaurant of any sort.


On to Nevada.  Into the desert.


Photos of Utah and Bear Lake in THIS album.
Photos of Idaho in THIS album.

2010 Road Trip, Prvi dio, Wyoming

Part One, The Equality State

The waters were unpredictable there for a while, but the ship has landed, run aground a mile above sea level in Prescott, Arizona.  I know it's been quite a while since my last post, and quite a lot has happened to fill that time.  Although the road trip was not as epic as planned, due to some unforeseen weather, car trouble, and limited cash flow, we drove through 5 states, had some really great times, and saw some amazing landscapes.

  

We ended up setting sail out of Bozeman around 8:00, the evening of May 27th.  We made it all the way to our campsite between Hoback Junction and Alpine Junction near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but we found the gate locked and slept in the car until morning.  We woke up the camp host bright and early to let us in and had a wonderful sunny day to ourselves.  The family and 'crew' started showing up later that afternoon, and throughout the Memorial Day Weekend, there was definitely no shortage of campfires, marshmallows, rain, rafting, and fun!  There was however quite a panic that Friday when we lost Suka.  He went for a nice little swim in the rapid waters of the Snake and we found him a few hours later a couple miles downstream, wet, cold and scared, but just fine once he jumped in Shaun's arms.

The morning of June 1st found us alive and well in the Lander, Wyoming's city park.  We used a good part of the day doing laundry and sneaking into NOLS for showers.  A couple games of cribbage got us in the mood for beer, and a couple pitchers of beer got us in the mood for spending the entire night with the locals at one of our favorites, the Lander Bar.  (We love you Lander locals!)

The next day we attempted to climb world-renowned Wild Iris, but the snow drift was still too high to get to the cliffs.  We drove back through town and set up camp near the climbing in the Sinks Canyon.  The big plastic port-o-potty near the campground was the cleanest, brightest, and nicest bathroom I'd used in at least a week, however an unfortunate splash of Liquid Blue Chemical left me traumatized for the rest of the day, fearing that some of the more delicate parts of my body would be rendered un-usable due to chemical burn.  Luckily, none of my skin was eaten away, and everything is just fine.

We eventually got some climbing in.  Shaun took  to calling me 'Pack Horse', since I insisted on carrying all our gear to prepare for my school pack trip this fall.  We ended up only climbing 5 routes over two days, squeezing in between the top ropes the NOLS group had placed on almost every climbable surface. (no-no.  Bad climbers.  Be good and share!)  The climbing was good and the views were amazing.  We were having fun, but we weren't necessarily having a great time.  We felt a little uneasy and it seemed that something (the poor weather or the NOLS ropes?) was hinting at us to move on.  So we packed up camp, indulged ourselves at the downtown bookstores and outdoor store, consumed a salad and mas cerveza at Lander Bar, broke a bag of rice all over the car, and shared a 'World Famous Chokecherry Shake' on our way out of town. 

Next stop... Good climbing and good weather in IDAHO!

(Photos here!)