For the past several days we have been living in the bed of our pickup. The last four months our focus in life has been killing cancer cells. For now we have a reprieve. This cancer does not define who we are. We will not let it. We are grandparents, cyclists, and dancers.
And in a powerful way, it is the years of road trips roaming the country that define who we are. The summer we were married we were amazed to find that we had both always wanted to go on a road trip. So we bought an old decrepit truck and camper and off we went with no idea what “going on a road trip” even meant. (We learned fast!)
Since that first road trip eight and a half years ago, we have slept 3 years' worth of days in our truck/camper, teardrop, or our tent. That we have done this for 3 years is almost impossible for us to grasp. And almost everyday we have hiked and explored the most remote areas of our beautiful country that we can find.
This week we took our 720th hike since we got married and started taking road trips 8 1/2 years ago. That is almost 2 solid years of hiking every day. Two years' worth of days we have hiked together in the past 8 1/2 years.
We now know what a going on a road trip means for us. We thrive on them. We need to be lost in the middle of nowhere, all alone. This is who we are....this is what defines us.
This week we were back on the road again in our Turtle (F350 with a slide-in camper) camping in the middle of nowhere on an old dirt road with no one around. The only sounds we could hear was the wind through the trees and the coyotes singing throughout the night. We hiked and explored during the mornings, and in the afternoons we read, worked on our hobbies, and sat quietly enjoying the solitude and birds singing to us (and Dan savoring his wine).
It has been beastly hot at our home this summer, setting new records for the hottest and driest summer. During our years of road trips Dan and I have discovered that for every 1000’ of elevation gain, the temperature drops about 5 degrees. The lower elevations in Arizona are perfect for camping in the winter, but in the summer camping would be absolutely miserable (none of our rigs have air conditioning as that would require electrical hook-ups which are only available in urban campgrounds).
Our plan this summer was to try camping north of our home at around 7000’ to see if the temperature would drop enough to be comfortable for hiking, for relaxing during the hot afternoons, and cool enough to sleep at night.
We left home in 110 degrees and drove 100 miles north up onto the Mogollon Rim, in the Coconino National Forest. We found a great campsite perched on the rim of the Fossil Springs Wilderness at 6900’ elevation. We were less than three hours from home and it was 89 degrees.....wonderfully cool!
Our question was answered. Yes, we can live in the bed of our pickup in the middle of summer in Arizona. This is very good news for us and our life!
Within five minutes after we set up camp, I had already made a truly amazing discovery....a fossil of a shell at almost 7000’ ABOVE sea level! It looked very similar to the shells we have found at sea level at Ebey’s Landing on Whidbey Island when we had lived in Washington.
I knew that I had found something very, very old, but was perplexed on how I had made this discovery. Dan being the smart guy that he is made the connection, “Well, Vicky, we are right next to the FOSSIL Springs Wilderness.“
I found that this area was a haven for fossil hunting. I have collected unusual rocks and fossilized bones for years. We even found 30 million year-old fossils in the Badlands National Park and the Oglala National Grasslands.
Our home and gardens are decorated with my special finds from nature. This year for my birthday Dan gave me several books on rocks, mineral, and treasures of the natural world. So you can imagine my joy to be in a place that I could collect to my heart’s content!
So how did the shells end up 7000’ above sea level? It turns out that Arizona was last under water 311-290 million years ago. The Mogollon Rim plateau, where we were camped, extends 200 miles across Arizona the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. It is a geological formation that rises 2000-3000 feet abruptly above the land to the south, and many of the rock formations on the edge of the rim are similar to those found on the walls of the Grand Canyon.
The Mogollon Rim was formed by the end of the Permian Period which ended 251.9 years ago, so the shell fossils that I found must be at least 251.9 years old!
Thinking that he shell fossils I am holding in my hand were living organisms over 250 millions years ago, makes Dan and me realize how brief and precious life is. We are thankful for and treasure each day.
We hiked every day and had a wonderful time. We are usually hiking in deserts or grasslands so it was especially fun to be high on this plateau with ponderosa pines and vistas of deep ravines into the Fossil Springs Wilderness.
On one hike we saw a coyote loping through the woods. It was so large that at first we thought it might be a wolf. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a picture of it.
During our lazy afternoons I knitted and Dan constructed a 1914 Stutz model car:
I started knitting another sweater for our baby granddaughter.
I finished knitting a backpack. Two and a half years ago I made up my own pattern and knitted and felted my first backpack. I ended up making eight more before this one. I was trying to make the perfect backpack. It needed to be just the right size to fit my wallet/purse, rPhone, iPad, a knit project, and a light STP jacket. Each one was beautiful, but had something about it that was not just right.
When we get home and I felt this backpack, it really will be the perfect size....I hope. My fingers and toes are crossed. It looks ridiculously awkward and large. We’ll see....
After we arrived home, I felted my new backpack and I finally have made the PERFECT backpack!
Dan’s beautifully painted and constructed Stutz....hopefully we can get it home in one piece:
Every afternoon in the sky to the north black ominous clouds formed, the wind picked up, there were lightning strikes, and the camper shook from the thunderclaps. There were just a few drops of rain, until our last afternoon when it poured for a hour or so. This was our first rain since early March. We loved it!
Living this past week in the bed of our pickup was so familiar. We were home again, snuggled in our Little Home. Listening to coyotes sing throughout the night, hiking unmarked roads, making discoveries every day, lazy afternoons in the sun, day after day together with no other human being around......this is what defines us.
That is why, after four months of doctors' appointments and nine weeks of radiation, this trip to the top of the Mogollon Rim was so important for us. We are back in the saddle again.....
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