Just for Grins

We recently had cycled into one of our three day weekends, which for us is a Mon, Tues, Wed.  Having not made any plans to do anything definite we had only made a brief trip up to one of the big overlooks one afternoon.  More time was spent doing housekeeping and laundry as well as some time writing on this blog.

But we also do not miss the opportunity to enjoy the moments of absolutely gorgeous weather regularly bestowed upon us.  It is quite enjoyable to sit in our camp chairs and watch the light as the sun finds ever changing paths through the ponderosa pines.

On one of these mornings we had been sitting quietly for some time, the campground was unusually empty and the people that were here were making themselves scarce.  The silence was noticeable and we were drinking it in.  Just about then movement caught our eye.  A golden mantle squirrel (somewhat rare and found only in places with habitat similar to the North Rim) and a chipmunk started foraging around the trees directly in front of us.  They would sniff around, dig and come up with a nut they buried last fall.  Nothing unusual about that but the squirrel soon got really close, and eventually took interest in what I was doing.  Which was nothing more than watching what he was doing.

Sitting in my camp chair, legs crossed I watched the squirrel get closer and closer.  There were frequent duck-and-retreats but there was always a return, and with each return a closer approach until finally he was standing on my one foot touching the ground.  Once he was on my foot there were no more retreats.  The next move was straight up my leg.

A couple of hops up my leg with a short stop at my thigh just to be sure everything is okay.

Then it is like; "Hey, how you doin'?"


The squirrel's chipmunk buddy did a great job of photo-bombing.


He seemed pretty relaxed but I was keeping my hands away and the camera between him and my face.  These things have been known to inflict serious bites.


After a couple of circles around my lap he was off and back to digging up his cache.
Having spent the morning communing with little forest creatures we got a wild hair and on the spur of a moment decided to drive to Kanab for lunch.  It's only a 170 mile round trip and we have all day - why not?  Besides, we never got our hamburger on the 4th, now seemed as good a time as any to take care of that.

Of course it is not a non-stop drive to Kanab.  We have to stop in and see Betsy and Tyler at the country store.  That's twenty miles out, twenty five more miles and we are at Jacob Lake where we have to stop and get cookies.  Its a law, you can not go past Jacob Lake Inn without getting their home made cookies.  Finally, we make it to Big Al's Thunderbird Drive Inn where we both got grilled chicken sandwiches instead of hamburgers.

The drive-in, in addition to being right under a 3G tower, has a good, free Wi-Fi signal.  While waiting for the sandwiches all the bells and whistles on our phones started going off.  Emails, text messages, app updates, you name it, it came in.

Being in town, a town that has not one but two grocery stores, we took the opportunity to restock fresh strawberries and vegetables.  Our favorite place is getting to be Honey's Marketplace.  They have a pretty good selection of items but the fresh foods have to come so far before they make it to the store's shelves that they are pretty "mature" the moment they are set out.  And, as a bonus my receipt from buying groceries gets me a discount on fuel.  Its a sliding scale from 3 to 15 cents a gallon, depending on how much you spend on groceries.


Honey's is a big step above anything we had access to at Big Bend.  But it is also more than 3 times the distance.
The time in Kanab was short.  We did not leave the North Rim until one in the afternoon and we wanted to get back before the sun went down and the deer came out.  That strategy turned out to be good for more than just the safety aspect.  We were treated to a pretty spectacular sunset just as we were passing through the meadow.


It was amazing how fast the light changed.  At first there was a double rainbow but before I could get stopped and the camera out, it had evaporated.  But in its place were these rays of golden light.  And then, just as quickly it changed again and buffalo got in on the act.


Not a bad day for everything being spur of the moment.

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