Last Saturday

 Wow, I had an awesome Saturday

 

After the duck experience, I went inside and swam for two hours.

When I say swim, I don’t really swim 

because I don’t

I use weights 

I use Floaties 

i use bars 

I use everything the pool has to offer 

even the ledges that you sit on

I use these as exercise equipment

 anyway back to the story.

I left the pool  early today because I had made plans with another brother 

I sent him a message saying that I left the pool early

But he never got the message 

so I sat in front of his house for 30 minutes just on the grass 

just enjoying nature it was really peaceful not having to worry or think about anything

As we were packing up the vehicle, we grabbed his dog, and a few other things to prepare for the day, because we were gonna be gone for about 12 hours

 he told me a brief description of where we were going

So, as we were driving, he started to explain in more detail to me where we were going, 

and it was interesting because he never knew my past, 

and I’ve never known where he’s gone 

but as he was describing it to me, I’m like OK that sounds kind of familiar

 and he kept describing more and more

 and I said in my mind that’s interesting 

that’s interesting 

and he got to one part in the story of his details on where we are going and I thought this is really familiar and I said in my mind …

as we’re driving I’m gonna point out things before we have it happen so he can know that I’ve been here before

 and he can know kind of where we’re going

 the whole day played out that way it was really cool as we came up to the 1st turn off

 I said OK we’re probably gonna turn right here and it’s going to dog leg to the left 

and I guessed in a thousand feet 

but my distance is way off today which you’re gonna find out later 

It was at least a mile.

  We followed it to the left and then we talked for a while and he talked for a while 

I’m more of a listener and as we were going probably 10 minutes or so 

We both see a big ole dust cloud coming and we know it’s a truck we just don’t know what kind of truck it is 

all this dust is coming off of it and we get really close and it’s a semi going like 80 miles an hour on this dirt road 

This dirt road it’s really soft and edges and the semi truck didn’t even seem like it slowed  down.

 It just kept going and we went off to the side of the right of it and we were going our normal speed 

As it passed we just couldn’t see because of the dust 

it blinded us , and so he stopped and let the air clear which was pretty quick, but that was a really fun experience because that just came out of nowhere blinded us,

 and we just stopped paused waited till it passed 

and then just kept going down the way we needed to go 

and then I said we might be coming up to a four-way cross for a section in The Road

. We’re just gonna keep going straight according to where I  think we’re gonna go 

he said Yep Yep that’s exactly right

 and I said, and then afterwords up here

 we’re going to turn left like on a diagonal left 

and to the right 

in the dirt is a  triangle shape where the sign is…….

there’s gonna be a stick and a rock in the dirt 

because that’s what used to be there  

And he said a stick and a rock???

  I said, Yep a stick and a rock.

 That’s what I remember and we went around this hill and as we turned left I looked down and there was a stick and a rock

In the triangle . 

I don’t remember if it’s the same one but I always remember there’s a just a stick and a  rock,

 showing you the way to turn left 

 And I started to say 

oh this is the road that we had a white fox lead me 

Down the this road in front of the the car 

and all these cool memories are coming back 

and I said oh yeah and over here we did this

 and over here we did this 

Then  he said people come over here  and dig in the rock and find trilobite’ fossils 

and you can search for them for free 

and it’s open to the public 

and that was really cool because I’ve never done that before 

so that was kind of fun remembering memories 

of being back here. 

I need to go back and do all these things now that I’m able to start walking 

and doing stuff again 

I need to act on all my past memories that I kind of left in my past

I forgot about all the fun I used to have 

I threw all that away  

Because I let myself go…

But this trip changed my life. I want to go back out and start doing things again…

I want to go back and be a child again, with adult wisdom  this time

and have fun and go back to enjoying life…

Not get stuck in the house and watch other people do it…….

On TV…….

No, I’m gonna re-live my life and have fun again 

but this time I’m gonna do it the clean way

Back to the story. 

Sorry.

As we were driving further on the road 

We were commenting about where all this water was coming from that was coming down the road 

that we were driving on 

and I said oh yeah there’s a spring up here to the right, 

around the corner

But again, my distance was way off 

my memory seemed like it was a lot shorter.

We probably drove about a mile before we came to that spring.

 it was further than I was thinking  

we parked and I said you know what 

I’ve never been up there.   

As I pointed up to the left, 

I always drive by it 

It looks really neat up there and so we got a few things for the dog and for us 

Not knowing how long we were going to be 

 We got food we got water we got just things to dig around and have fun and explore and we went up there

 My brother wanted to go do something that I’ve always wanted to do 

but I’ve never done

 that was awesome…….

after our exploration 

  we came back down to the car 

 I said 

this is the road which I know there’s a really sharp 90° turn in it and then it goes up to the left

 He said 

well there’s a road that goes over to the right and It looked kind of weird

 I didn’t remember that at all

 and so  I said that’s new never seen that before that would be a fun road to go explore also sometime

 last time I was here in this area I had the opportunity to fix the road

I said, I will gladly put in the culvert here in this road area.

 The guy lived , I want to say in Spanish Fort but I don’t remember 

he used to own this property and I told them I would gladly put in the culvert here in this area so this didn’t happen and he just brushed me off 

and it’s interesting because as we are coming up, he said there’s a road washed out  And it was that road that I offered to put a culvert in 

but that road being washed out 

kind of changed the day 

which was I thought we were going to have

I thought we were just gonna drive up to where we had gone

About around the year 2010,

 but we had to go around the mountain because there was like a 30 foot space between this road and where we are trying to go 

the road has been totally washed out and now you had to drive an extra  40 minutes

 beautiful drive 

but you have to drive an extra 40 minutes just to get all the way around all the way back down to get to the other side of that culvert or where it should’ve been 

and so as we’re driving up, I again began to pointing out things 

I Was also looking at things

 All the while he’s driving and doing his own thing and we’re talking about the landscape and how things work and it’s really fun to just go back in my past 

and remember how much fun it was to get out 

how much fun it was to do things 

because for years I just trapped myself in my house 

I just trapped myself in the house rather than doing what I used to love to do

 I used to love going out and exploring and having fun and enjoying the countryside.

 I used to love going out fishing 

Doing all these fun activities 

but my life trapped me 

in my house

 I used to watch TV and just sit and watch TV all day long 

I usually just sit and watch TV and movies  and video games and I used to just sit home all day

and then be in my car,  driving every where 

I was either in my car,  or my house,

 or my car, or my house, 

or my car, or my house and over and over every day 

and that just became my every day thing 

but being with my brother today  re-opened my mind

 re-opened my mind I was like a child again

 it was wonderful…….

he opened my mind 

Allowing me to start saying 

let’s go 

let’s just go and do whatever let’s be spontaneous.

 Let’s have fun. 

Let’s be like little children with adult minds 

with adult behavior and adult understandings 

adult wisdom

 Let’s go be kids again let’s go explore. 

Let’s go have fun. 

Let’s go drive down this road. 

Let’s go drive down this road. 

Let’s go have fun 

We should let all our worries go 

Just let the world go

While we are out here

 Let’s let all our problems just go. 

Let’s go look at rocks. 

Let’s go look at trees. 

Let’s go look at sand. 

Let’s go see how deep this hole is over here. 

Oh wow look at this view. 

It was marvelous to be a child again 

to be a kid again!!!

anyway that’s how he opened

 my mind on Saturday 

now I’m gonna go back toward driving and exploring 

so as we were driving up

he said

Last time I was up here

 I wasn’t sure how big the canyon got and how bad the roads were so I turned around here

 and in my mind I said

oh man, you turned around in the wrong spot, and I said 

Drive up here 

because I can show you where the road goes and I can tell you all about it 

and as we were driving 

he said

 oh wow there’s an old cabin right there to the right

 and I said yeah that’s been there a long time it really hasn’t changed any

 I then said

up here we’re gonna get into some aspen trees and we did 

Then the road, got really smooth.

 , he said oh man this is beautiful out here.

 I said yeah it reminds me of goblin Valley Utah but it’s green.

 It’s got life all around it. 

It’s beautiful 

and he’s like oh yeah 

that is right ! 

this is awesome 

and as were driving I said OK up here at the top there’s gonna be a fork in the road.

 It’s I said it’s a little ways up here 

And Again. 

My distance was way off and we kept driving through these beautiful goblin valley rock formations and aspen trees on the left we saw a  little snow patch  along the mountain where the sun doesn’t hit yet and it was 80°, so it was pretty warm outside . It was really neat  And so a good ways up because my distance was off

We drove about ten minutes. 

I said it’s going to fork to the left and it’s gonna fork to the right

 if we go up to the right there’s a radio tower up there and it’s just a dead end 

but it’s a beautiful view 

and I said if we go to the left that’s going to help us get back to where we wanna go back in that valley where the road washed out  

And I said where do you wanna go 

and he decided to go up to the radio tower to go check that out

 and it’s a pretty steep climb going up 

and he said

 is it a cliff over there?

 and I said just go slow and so he parked, and when we got out

  It was one of the most beautiful views I’ve seen in a long time 

and the other in miraculous part up there in the middle of nowhere on top this mountain where this radio tower is 

we had three or four bars in our phone,

 so I called my sister 

and I said I want to show you where we are  

And I FaceTime to her 

which means I let her see through my phone and let her see through my phone where I was 

and so I asked her how to work it because 

I’m still dumb with my phones 

and she said  push the camera and it’ll flip it around 

so I did that and I recorded the vehicle we were in and I went in a 360° view really slow and she goes wow that is really windy up there.

 I said yeah it’s blowing me over but you have to see this view and I did a 360° panoramic view 

 of where I was and I said that’s all

 that’s all I wanted to show you 

just how beautiful and how much I’m enjoying this 

Then I said I love you..I’m taking off 

I’m going back to what I’m doing and we hung up 

and that was it and then I thought you know what I’m gonna share this with other people and I took another view a video of it this time and I went around twice. I don’t know how to post videos on here but maybe I’ll be able to learn how so everyone can see this awesome view  at the radio tower

 and so I was looking around trying to just look at things and I saw this wrapper blowing in the wind. I didn’t know what it was. 

It was shiny so I went To go look at it and I was going down the hill

  there is an old mine cart shoot 

where they dump the mine diggings in 

and they back up the trucks 

and they drove it off to go look through it  somewhere else 

I said Whoa…….

 I’ve never seen that before down there 

so I got to see something new.

 It was really neat

 and I slowly got down the hill 

and I said whoa there’s a cave back here that I didn’t know about  

And I said it goes back pretty far in there and I don’t like caves , but for some reason, I said I’m gonna go get in a little bit. 

There was  snow in Center of the opening, so I went back as far as I dare, till the light went out.

probably I walked in 10 feet  I said in my mind…

 OK that’s enough 

that’s enough because I don’t like it in caves

but I said oh wow this goes back really far in 

I said at least 200 feet because it’s in dark and I have been in really bright so it looks like it went back really far I said whoa and I’m yelling because I went down quite far down the hill yelling up to him

 and so I said do you have any flashlights

 and he went back up the road and went and got them and I waited and I waited

, and I didn’t realize how far I walked down the side of the hill to see this cave

 And he came down and he got flashlights and had to put a leash on the dog so it wouldn’t go in the cave

 because we didn’t know how far back it went and so I went and sat in the same spot where I went before

 cause I knew that I could be safe and go out from there

 and I sat down and I closed my eyes

 and i Made my eyes get used to the dark rather than to the bright light outside and I just sat there and I got calm and I got peaceful and I just try to get as much darkness in my eyes 

and by doing that you’re able to see further in there in the cave and then I turned on the flashlight and then I open my eyes 

I looked up and it went in about 20 more feet 

and I  Was like oh, my goodness…….

 I just told him to get a flashlight. 

I just told him to do all this and he is gonna be so disappointed 

 and so again my distance is way off today 

and for the rest of the day he gave me a really hard time about the 200 foot cave. The road distance and other distances throughout the day.  I just had to take it all calmly because he was 100% correct 

it was pretty funny 

that I just accepted it 

For the rest of the night 

because 

I felt really dumb 

if I would’ve just gone in the cave and did what I did the second time 

if I would’ve just sat there  And calmed my mind rather than being excited 

rather than 

oh yeah this is awesome. 

 if I would’ve just gone in there and done it like the way

I should’ve done the way I knew, and if I would’ve just sat down

  And got my eyes accustomed to where I was and darkened my eyes 

 if I would’ve just turned my head to the right open my eyes I would’ve seen that it only went back 20 feet

 and I wouldn’t of yelled and went through all that all that to get him to get flashlights

 and he could’ve just explored and seen it for himself 

After my short cave experience was over 

the very short cave experience.

We explored a lot more and drove around a lot more. 

We Had a wonderful evening.

We got home probably around midnight

I really enjoyed being a kid again

Getting out of the house

Getting away from my vehicle, 

and just enjoying nature

Wow, I have to do that so much more

It felt wonderful to get out

Get all the stress away from you

And have fun…

::David::

6-4-24