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| Can you hear me now? |
August 14
Jack woke me up right after I dozed off. “Do you think we’re slanted?” No, of course I didn’t. I yawned and went back to sleep.
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| The view from our tent |
By morning I had changed my opinion. I don’t care how flat that ground looked when we put the tent there, it tipped at some point. Undoubtedly a supervolcano lurks down there somewhere. I saw all about them on a documentary; how they make bulges, lumps, and slants in the earth below the unsuspecting humans.
Jack woke up in pretty good shape, not creaking and groaning like before. For Some Odd Reason. He quickly got ready and took our guests back to start working, while I was still trying to stand upright. Our kids stayed to help me break camp.
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| Step 1: Eat Breakfast |
How to break camp: 1) Eat breakfast. Take your time, after all one member of your household is already serving the community on behalf of the entire family.
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| Step 2: Take a Hike |
2) Go for a hike. Not a long one, but you can’t leave Makoshika without at least looking over the edge into the canyon. And maybe dipping over the edge. Just a little.
3) Pack and load everything. 4) Police the camp for trash. Some of it is yours, but not the cigarette butts. You can feel very good about yourself, since in a way that’s community outreach, too.
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| Step 3B: Balance on the Edge of the Fire Pit and Watch Everyone Work |
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| Step 5: Go for Another Hike |
5) Go for another hike. You’ve earned it.
From there we visited Jack for just a minute, where he was helping sheetrock someone’s kitchen wall. After that, we went to the bridge project.
When we heard they were painting the footpath railing of a bridge, we pictured this dainty little thing spanning some miniscule creek in the city. Instead, it was the bridge across the Yellowstone River. They had less than 200 feet to go, and were about to run out of paint when Jack got done and came to take us home.
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| Part of the bridge - even with a wide-angle lens I couldn't get it all at once. |
After a trip to the Triceratops Park (aka Hollecker Lake) to let our hot, stinky little workers go swimming, we made the trip home. Right now we’re parked at the post office to get the mail, less than half a mile from electricity, running water, and our very own bed. And with a mattress, Jack and I each have the same amount of padding. No sharing possible.
No more camping, at last.
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| WHERE ARE MY SHORTS??? |
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| Can you hear me NOW? |
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| A Happy Reunion |
Don’t worry. We worked very hard, once we got there. We helped paint a house purple, the lower sections, anyway, then moved on. For some reason no one wanted to take Devon up on his fervent offer to paint from the tops of the ladders. Clancy stayed in the car and rested, since following Devon around for two hours in the forest gave him nearly as much exercise as he’s had in his whole life.
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