Best day of my life

 The best day of my life was actually two days spent naked and involved in strenuous sexual activity. This being a public forum, I can’t tell you about that. I can tell you that I’m old enough that particular best day will never happen again.

That being said, I would like to say the next best days where when my kids, or grand kids were born. The truth is they were so long ago, or such a blur, that those days fade in my aged mind.

I have had a lot of really good days in my life. When you don’t have a lot of really bad days in a life, it’s sometimes easy to blow through really good ones without giving them much thought.

Sometimes the world around you becomes a part of you, and you a part of it. On really rare occasions you are aware of that perfect moment as it happens.

The first time I ever had enough time to travel out west, was well after I was 40 years old. From my house it is about a three day drive to get to the interesting spots and I never had enough vacation time to make that trip worthwhile. Utah was one of those spots. I wanted to experience it fairly raw. 

My wife prefers accommodations such as the Hyatt Regency and refuses to stay in anything less. When I suggest we boondock (camp in remote areas with no facilities) she was sure I had lost my mind. She said have fun, I’ll fly out in a few weeks and we can do it right.

So I threw a mattress and a cooler in the back of my pickup truck and headed out for the wild country of Utah. With thoughts of scorpions, poisonous snakes and/or spiders crawling into the back of if my sleeping area, I eventually found a spot on a high bluff overlooking a desert view. As night fell, I folded down the tailgate and watched a glorious sunrise with nobody else around for miles.

Any thoughts of poisonous critters or even wild animals seemed to flee my mind. I had never felt so at peace, or so comfortable being alone. It was like I was meant to be there, or like coming home. I fell asleep watching as an amazing array of stars filled the night sky. I never bothered to close up the back of the truck bed and awoke to an amazing sunrise. A best day for sure.

There were other best days, but this is long enough for now. 

 

 

Travels with Sierra; Hit the Road Jack

Hit the road, Jack 

(yes, it's a Ray Charles reference)

I throw the last minute items into the truck. Everything is packed...I hope. 

It's the first day of my "Westward Ho "trip. I head out of Ohio on Interstate 70. I run into slow moving traffic before I even hit the state line. I have gone a grand total of about 30 miles.

Two lines of traffic are driving at almost 63 when the limit is 70. If it were just a few cars poking along, I would weave my way through traffic until I passed the morons that are holding everyone up. But I can’t even see the front of the line. 

After a few miles of this, with nobody passing anyone, it starts to rain. So, naturally, everyone slows down to under 60 mph. Oh, Look! A Cracker Barrel! I whip off the poky puppy highway and head for the parking lot. I get out of my car and head for the door in a steady rain.

Before you can say half-blind granny drivers slow poking in the rain, I have my breakfast. Mommas' Pancake breakfast to be exact. I don’t know what it is about Cracker Barrel, but they have the best orange juice. The pancakes always have a slight crunchy edge that is very tasty.

When I am done, I head back out to the truck.  

The rain has stopped and the sun is shining. Traffic is back to moving at its normal highway speeds and the slow poke parade is nowhere in sight.

Back on the road again! (In case you missed this musical reference; Canned Heat about 1968)

I drive to Whetstone creek conservation area near Williamsburg, Missouri. 

This is to be my first boondock campsite for the trip.

As I pull into this area I can hear giant horse flies attacking the truck.Thwap. Thwap. Thwap.

Not a good sign for camping!

The area is quite lovely. 

A very well maintained gravel road leads into the park. There are several lakes and ponds. They all look like good fishing sites. I suddenly wish I had figured out how to fit a Kayak in the truck.

While the campground is not much more than a parking lot with some picnic tables and fire rings, It will do. The fact that it is free makes it that much better. 

I check out the pit toilets and decide that is not a place I would want to sit for even the shortest amount of time. It is dirty and I can see about 10,000 mosquitoes clinging to the side of the chute. I am not gonna be sitting, or shitting, down that chute. 

I drive around taking photos of the setting sun and then settle in for the night. 

It takes a while for the truck to cool down. But when it does I get a fairly good nights sleep and don’t hear the bugs anymore. 

The morning is very chilly so I get up early and hit the road…avoiding the pit toilets.

Next blog; Booneville and Ogalla.