I had a pretty damned good weekend. Besides having to chase Bradley around to make sure he wasn't getting into trouble (which he always was), everything went nicely. Towing the trailer there and back was actually fun as well. Normally, in my '79 F-150, we'd be putting along doing 55 or 60 MPH, and sometimes 35 MPH on the hills, and I'd be worring about overheating the entire time. Traci and the kids would also normally be following me in the car, since we can't all fit into that truck. However, this time it was perfect. In the '97 F-250, we were all relaxed in the cab of the truck, with the A/C on, cruise control set at 65 MPH, and we only slowed down to 63 on the worst hill along the way.

The camping was good--the relatively cool weather made it almost perfect, except for a couple of small thunderstorms. I left a note on my Bear Creek cache page saying that I'd be at the campground all weekend, and I had a couple of geocachers stop by for a chat after finding the cache. We also got a short visit from two cachers from Mount Pleasant who drove all the way over to the campground just to visit with us. I was hoping they'd be able to stay longer, but I have a feeling we'll be meeting up with them again soon.

I've spent most of this week lazily getting ready to go camping. A water pipe in the trailer sprung a leak at a T joint, and it was in too tight a spot to solder it back together, so I used some epoxy putty--hopefully it will hold up under pressure. I found out that when I plug the trailer wiring into the new truck, the right brake and turn signal light doesn't work. I tracked the problem down to the actual socket on the truck, but I don't have time to wire in a new socket. I've only got to make two each of left and right turns on my way to Bear Creek Campground, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, but the following two weeks are going to be rough. I'm planning on finishing up all the projects that need doing around the yard before I go camping again. I'm going to Provo Wednesday to finally get the roofing materials for the garage, and when that job is done, I've got a few more small jobs left before I'll be done until fall, when I'll need to repaint the trim on the house and build new window screens (for all 13 upstairs windows!).

At least the garden is very low maintenance for now. No weeds have popped up yet, and I've got the water on a timer. There are some cherry tomato plants that are looking pretty sorry, and I might just rip them out and replace them with store-bought plants. We started everything from seed, but the cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapeños came up late and are growing very slowly. The corn and squash are doing the best, but I think everything will be producing very late in the season. If the garden works out this year without being too much trouble to take care of, we'll do it again next year, except we'll know to start the seeds a month or more earlier than we did this year.

Finally got a new truck:

It's probably a little overkill for what I'll use it for. It's got the 7.3L Power Stroke diesel engine, automatic transmission, and best of all, it's a Supercab, so the fambly can ride in one vehicle when we go camping!

If anybody needs a CarFax report within the next 30 days, send me a message with the VIN and an email address, and I'll get back to you with one.

Since our trip to Salt Lake was cancelled, I spent the weekend doing something productive. I finished preparing the garden, and Traci and I planted everything yesterday evening. I also tilled half of the front yard, and dug up the sprinkler system to see what needs to be repaired. It turns out that the damage isn't as bad as I'd thought, and I will be able to fix it all myself (I had my doubts). I'll need to buy a pipe threader kit, and a few small lengths of pipe and various fittings, but it should only take me a few hours and less than $75. <sarcasm>Can't wait!</sarcasm>

Michael is recovering quite well. Since Friday, he's actually been up and about a lot, and seems to be perfectly normal, except for coughing fits every once in a while. I guess his appetite isn't back to normal yet, but after several days of eating next to nothing, I'm not surprised. He also tires easily--we went for a walk this morning, and he kept asking me if we could stop and rest after only a couple of blocks. Normally, I have to ask him to slow down and wait for me. I'm sure it'll take him awhile to get his appetite and his strength back, but hopefully by the time we go camping next weekend he'll be back to normal.

Traci took Michael to the doctor today, and it turns out that he has pneumonia. He hasn't eaten more than a few bites of food in the past few days, and he's been laying in bed or on the couch most of the time as well. The doctor gave us stuff to give him breathing treatments, and prescribed an antibiotic. I think he's got it so bad, while Bradley seems to be mostly over his sickness, because of being born so prematurely. I hope, for everybody's sake, that he gets over this quickly.

Bah. Traci and I had planned on staying at Mike and Ali's tomorrow night, then going to the UTAG spring meeting Saturday, but both the kids are sick. They started out with cold symptoms early this week, accompanied by a fever, and though Bradley's been ok lately, Michael has it really bad. He's had a fever on and off for a few days now, and he's been puking a bit too. If he shows any sign of a fever tomorrow, we're taking him to the doctor.

I suppose it won't hurt to stay home this weekend and get some yardwork done. As long as I get the garden planted, I'll be satisfied, but I might even get around to a few other projects.

I spent some time in the San Rafael Swell on Tuesday afternoon, and it was amazing--for more than three hours, I didn't see a single person or vehicle. It felt lonely, but not necessarily in a bad way--it was annoyingly crowded in some areas when I was there Saturday. I probably won't go back there for another two or three weeks, when I plan on placing a cache there.

I'm going to place a series of caches along the Price River, and one of the areas I have in mind requires a drive deep into the Swell, then back north almost to the northern edge of the Swell. I'm also going to place one near the dam at Scofield Reservoir (but not too close), where the Price River begins, and another where the Price dumps into the Green River. The last one is going to be very difficult--there's no road, just a pack trail that winds through an unnamed canyon for about 13 miles. It could be nearly a 30-mile hike or mountain bike ride, depending on how rough the trail is. I've ventured part of the way down the canyon, to the point where 2WD vehicle access ends, but I'm not sure how far I can get in a 4x4. If I don't get out there soon, I may have to wait until fall. I've always had problems with heat exhaustion, and that's not a place where I want to run into that kind of trouble.

I'm still recovering from Saturday...it was a truly exhausting day. I left home at 8:30 in the morning, and drove about 35 miles to Castle Dale, then hit the dirt road leading into the Swell. After that, it was nothing but driving (145 miles of dirt roads) and hiking for the next 12 hours or so. I spent most of that time on some pretty rough roads, so much so that my seatbelt left a mark on my left shoulder from being jostled around in my seat all day. My left arm, neck, and face also got nicely sunburned from all that driving, so I'll be looking pretty goofy until it fades.

I only visited 11 cache sites out of 13 that I'd planned. After the sun had set, I decided to call it a day and found a nice place to stop and fix something to eat. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and even that only consisted of a granola bar and some coffee--I'm not sure how I made it through the day on so little.

After cooking something on my camp stove and relaxing for a few minutes, I continued east on the Green River Cutoff road toward US-6. I'd never been on that part of the road before, and driving it in the dark wasn't fun--I wasn't sure if I'd even make it to the highway, but I think I was just being paranoid. I eventually did make it there, after making a few guesses as to which roads to take, and made it home 13.5 hours after initially leaving.

I was so mentally and physically exhausted by then that I was having a hard time putting words together to form sentences, but I still felt good. In hindsight, since I didn't complete my goal, I wish I'd have spent more time in some of the areas that I visited. The Black Box was especially awesome, and I think I'll return sometime with Traci so we can do some hiking there.

It's funny (or not) that I left home with the expectation of finding all the caches in the northern end of the San Rafael Swell that I hadn't previously found, and when I got home there were three new caches listed on geocaching.com that I'd actually passed with a couple miles of. They were all placed the day before, but hadn't been listed until after I left home. I'll be returning someday this week after work to (hopefully) get FTF on them.

I registered my truck today. Damn, I'm cheap--I should have done this six months ago. It only cost me $35.50 to register it, and $10.50 for a safety inspection (I saved $6.50 on that because I bitched about Grako's taking too long to inspect it). At least now I can park it somewhere other than my front yard (without fear of receiving a ticket). The Wal-Mart parking lot will probably give it the best exposure, and hopefully I can sell it and buy a new truck before we go camping in two weeks (yeah, right).

I'm heading out for another long day in the Swell tomorrow. I plan on finding the 13 caches in the northern end of the San Rafael Swell that I haven't yet found. Most of them I can drive to within a few hundred feet of, but there are a couple that involve a short hike (half a mile or more). I only hope that when I wake up tomorrow morning, I feel up to it.

I could really use a day or two off, just sitting at home and relaxing, but I guess Sunday I may get to do that--it's my 7th wedding anniversary. Traci and I don't have plans yet, except to cook a nice dinner for ourselves, but I could certainly use a little R&R.

Rather than vying for a decent undeveloped camping spot on Memorial weekend, I drove to Castle Dale today and reserved a couple of sites at Bear Creek Campground. There were already several sites reserved for that weekend, but luckily we were able to reserve our second choice for spots--our first choice was already taken by somebody we know.

I'll have to renew the registration and insurance on my truck so we can go camping. I was really hoping to sell it by now (it's been more than six months already), but very few people have even shown an interest in it. If I don't sell it and/or the Mazda soon, I'll have to nearly give the damned things away in order to get rid of them. I'd honestly rather keep the Mazda just to have something to drive off-road, but I can't afford to keep it and buy a new truck.

I've finally gotten some real yardwork done this week. Both the front and back yards are now at least somewhat tamed and free of weeds. My only goal for the rest of the week/weekend is to till the garden plot and throw down some peat/manure/etc. I'm already exhausted from trying to start the tiller--I think it's about had it. I can't keep it running for very long even at idle, but if I try to actually till the soil, it just gives up and dies.

I think I'm going to stay home this weekend, for once. I'd actually like to do some traveling, but my family doesn't like long trips in the car as much as I do. To me, if the destination is worth the long trip, then why not? My wife, and especially my two kids, don't see it that way.

I just remembered that, while I was out near Mounds Reef looking for a dashpoint today, I left some rocks behind that I'd planned on bringing home. They were chunks of what looked like a huge geode (about one foot in diameter) that had broken up. Some of the chunks were really big, with part of the spherical surface on the outside and a lot of crystalline rock on the inside (or what used to be the inside). Many of them fit together so you could get an idea of the original size. I had to drive through the bottom of a dry streambed for half a mile to get to the area, but it didn't really start raining today until after I'd left, so I'll probably have to go back after it's dried out a bit. It's funny that this isn't the first time I've left some rocks behind and had to go back to pick them up, but it's always been worth it to return.

Our trip to Buckhorn Wash yesterday went very well. Luckily, it wasn't crowded down there at all. We stopped at the dinosaur footprint, the pictograph panel, and a petroglyph panel that I hadn't seen before. We also ate lunch at a very nice spot, and it didn't rain on us--just sprinkled a tiny bit.

Both my sister and I placed new caches down there: Dinosaur Footprint and Buckhorn Wash. The cache I left there is probably my favorite of all the caches I've placed. When I came home through Buckhorn Wash from The Wickiup in March, I saw an awesome rock formation--it's basically a tall, long, and thin fin of pockmarked sandstone sticking up in the middle of a designated BLM camping area. I wasn't sure if it could be climbed, but I found out yesterday that it's definitely possible--Mark and I climbed more than halfway up the least steep side, but it was still a pretty difficult scramble. I think it would have been possible to climb all the way to the top, but I didn't want to place the cache up there and have somebody risk his/her own life trying to find it.

Today, I went on a little fossil-hunting expedition near Mounds Reef. I started my hike at my cache, and hiked north for about 1.5 miles until I came out on another road. I didn't find any fossils until I had almost reached the road, and the rocks I found were too heavy to carry all the way back to the car. I left them on the side of the road, then started hiking along the road back to the Mazda. Once I got about halfway back, I realized that the road went pretty far south before it turned back north to where I was parked, so I headed cross-country and took a more direct route.

I was specifically looking for cephalopods, but all I found were some small shells and some fairly large fossils that I can't identify. What sucks about the whole hike is that it wasn't until I was nearly back to the car that I really started finding interesting (and numerous) fossils. Now I want to go back another time when it's not raining to search some more.

After I left the Mounds area, I decided to go south to Desert Lake, then I was planning on going through Cleveland and north on SR-10 on my way home. It had been sprinkling or raining most of the afternoon, but the roads seemed merely damp everywhere I'd been up to this point. However, shortly after I crossed the bridge over the Price River, the road went from mostly gravel to mostly dirt, and it got as slick as ice. I almost lost control and slid off the road doing only 20 MPH, and if I'd gotten anywhere near the edge of the road I'm sure I would have become stuck. I managed to make a 10-point turn in the middle of the road and started back in the opposite direction, and drove the half-mile back to the gravelled part of the road in first gear. After I reached safety again, I cruised back home the way I'd came before it got any more wet.