Now that we are briefly back in Provo, I have a giant to-do list. Dale flies home tonight to leave for Jamboree on Friday. But best of all, I got to have all five of my kids and kids-in-law together for lunch and photos! All our travels and planning, and this was the only time we could get together.
Other stuff I did today:
bath for the dog
took Batman to work
bank deposit
picked up Batman for lunch
lunch with kids
prescription refills
mall shopping with the kids
haircut for Dale
run up to REI for a backpacking camp chair
work gloves for Dale
not done yet: laundry & AC service
I thought I was on vacation!
Finally we got some pictures uploaded from Monday’s river adventure! Batman and
Dale both ended up in the water because they were in the more dangerous inflatable kayaks, nicknamed “duckies.”
Sara was our river guide in the raft with Melanie and Jack and me. We went out with The River Company in Stanley, Idaho.
Batman and Jack are off fishing somewhere without cell coverage. The laundry is done–I strongly recommend the tech wash soap in the orange bottle from Walmart–and the galley is clean.
Today is our last day to sightsee in Challis, which brings me to some recent quotes…
Batman: Want to take that road up to the dump?
Dale: Is that number one of one attractions on TripAdvisor?
Jack: Mom, we made up a play. Do you want to see it?
Me: Sure! What’s it called?
Jack: “Who Is the Town Murderer?” It’s got a great plot twist at the end! (and it did)
Me: Is there a laundromat here?
Batman: No.
Me: Is there a drugstore here?
Batman: Not anymore.
Me: We didn’t pack socks. Can we buy them at the bowling alley? (common in Florida)
Batman: No.
Dale: Will there at least be 4G coverage in Stanley?
Batman: No.
Dale: Those are gunshots, right?
Me: Yes.
Confession time. I invented a word today. Two words, actually. And if I don’t preface this, it will sound mean and make my mother cry. As much as our family loves camping and traveling and seeing new places, we are, at heart, city people. We appreciate good, cheap restaurants, nail salons, 24-hour grocery stores, all-night pharmacies, and a choice of cineplexes. And small towns are charming, Today we went to church in the Challis Ward, the local Mormon church. The people there were very sweet, very welcoming. But they all seemed quite bewildered at the fact that we are church members who don’t live in Idaho or Utah and have no desire to do so. They are heart-bonded to the Inter-mountain West in a way that separates us in a fundamental, big-city-vs-small-town kind of way. To express this feeling of disconnect I invented the word
Idahoverload: n. a feeling of mild discomfort arising from excessive exposure to Idaho culture, similar to a stomach-ache from excessive sugar. See also “too much of a good thing.”
The second word I invented (where are the people of color around here? Hello!) was
blandscape: n. a particularly homogeneous gathering of people.
Tomorrow is our river rafting trip, which promises to be amazing. Plus they have agreed to take care of our dog! And I have really appreciated that Batman has no cell coverage here, so no work worries have interrupted our adventures. Tonight we are popping the Jiffy-pop and putting up the movie screen to watch the pilot of Breaking Bad. Because Netflix plus free wifi is a good thing.
And now Batman’s 30th high school reunion is complete. The starting event was a picnic in the city park. Is there anything more beautiful than a 16 quart cooker full of pulled pork? I must also mention the full-sheet cake with a depiction of the old Challis High School building rendered in buttercream icing in the school colors. Melanie ran into a fellow Whovian. Clean-up was done in record time due to a brief micro-burst of wind and rain that blew through the park, snapping the canvas on the pavilion with a heart stopping crack every 30 seconds or so.
The main event was the cocktail supper at the Y Inn. Amazing appetizers and school memorabilia decor, enhanced by leftover twinkle lights and tulle from “someone’s wedding reception a couple months back.” The silent auction and other donations raised over $800 more for the scholarship fund that Batman started this year in memory of their six classmates who have passed away. Batman got the award for having travelled furthest, as well as the award for having the youngest child. Good job, Batman, getting that done all by yourself! Hahaha!
Breakfast this morning at an alum’s home was the wrap-up. My children appreciated the plentiful bacon and giant flapjacks.
This afternoon, Batman took his boys up Peck’s Hill, an infamous site of track & field torture in high school, especially for the distance runners. You will notice from the photos that Melanie and I are safely ensconced in the Funvee, completely free from the temptation to run up a sizable dirt hill.
Afterwards we stopped to visit with one of Batman’s former employers (he of the notorious sprinkler pipe, now an aged rancher of 83 years, which means he was close to Batman’s current age when he first hired Batman!) Then we had pizza and bowled at the local bowling/pizza/video rental/ice cream establishment. We’re pretty good, considering we only bowl when we come to Challis. Not really. We are quite unskilled. Sad, actually.
Henry stayed by himself in the camper and did very well. We alerted the neighbors and asked them to contact us if a crisis arose. And he learned to drink directly from a water bottle. Weird.
We finally had a lazy morning with no where to be until noon! Batman skipped a rock on the river flowing past our campsite. Jack had never seen this done before and insisted that his dad teach him the magic. They spent most of the morning skipping stones then had a game of horseshoes.
The teenagers slept in.j
I hand-washed all the laundry before it got too hot to work outside. My patriotic manicure suffered for it.
We spent our Fourth of July evening with John and Robin, a local family with whom we have become great friends over the years. We were at their house ten years ago for the Fourth as well. Now it’s a tradition! She graduated with Jeff, then married a boy from the class two years ahead. Now it’s fun to visit with them and their kids and grandkids. John was a champion of the underdog back in high school. No one got picked on or bullied if he was around. Good, good guy.
I brought my ice cream freezer & made homemade ice cream. Here is the recipe. It is so easy that I ran out of excuses for not making it! (found on Google search)
1 quart whole milk
1 pint half & half
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons vanilla
You don’t even have to mix it if you don’t want to. You can just dump it in the container and plug in!
Then I follow the instructions on the outside of the rock salt box. Robin had styrofoam cups and plastic spoons on hand. I should have thought to bring that too! Also I should have brought and ice cream scoop!
We spent today making the seven hour drive from Provo to Challis, Idaho, for Batman’s 30th class reunion. We stopped for hugs from Mindy, our extra daughter. We will get to visit with her again next week. Then we met my Mom for lunch in Blackfoot, Idaho, at Rupe’s Burgers. She looked so festive, and imagine our surprise to find we all had done the same patriotic nail art. (tiny, girlish squeal of delight)
The kids were very well-behaved, thoroughly entertained by their individual laptops, tablets, and DVD players, all equipped with headphones. Great for travel, except when…
Batman is driving into his hometown for the first time in ten years and wants to tell the kids about the various sights along the way. “That’s Mount Borah, the highest point in Idaho. See it, Jack?” No answer. “I used to move irrigation pipe in that field, this field, and the one on the other side of this hill. Not wheeled pipe like you see there now. I had to lift every section.” Deadly silence.
As parents we choose our battles. Making the sweet chiselers put down their headphones and listen to their father reminisce was not a battle Batman and I wanted to face today. So we permitted the children to continue in their state of Parental Noise Deafness, unable to distinguish the voice of the loving parent from the ambient noise of their own choosing. It’s a trade-off. Quiet car, or semi-attentive, but noisy offspring.
We are camped for the next six days at Challis Hot Springs, a lovely spot with free wifi and bathrooms that were clean until we had to track mud into them during the rainstorm this evening. I felt so bad. Then the dog got out and bit the neighbor’s trousers. After they welcomed us so nicely, they must think I’m a rolling disaster. The guys are enjoying the hot spring pool tonight. It will be nice to have total access to that while we are here.
Tomorrow’s Independence Day events include a picnic, a parade, a street dance, and fireworks on the bluff above town at midnight when it finally gets dark up here. Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
This morning Melanie got to visit America’s oldest yarn shop, Heindselman’s Needlecraft. The object of her quest was dwarf hair for the Hobbit series she is starting. Thorin Oakenshield appeared by the end of the day. A link to her blog appears to the right.
We spent a pleasant afternoon in West Jordan with Brother of Batman’s family. My nieces and nephew are so fun. We ordered pizza and did patriotic nail art for the girls. It was kind of them to take us in so we could escape the excessive heat of the unshaded camper.
The kids did more movies and gaming this evening with Kristin & Josh, as well as with our extra son Will, who speaks badger. The only distressing part of our day was some bad news from home. One of the kids from my early morning seminary class was seriously injured in a skateboarding accident today. He is in the hospital with bleeding in his brain. We are keeping Liam in our prayers.
Yesterday I had some moments that seem to express the local culture here in Prove. And it does not reflect well on my religion (shared by over 90% of folks here), so I find myself rather disturbed. Provo’s nickname is “Happy Valley,” and there seems to be an underlying attitude that nothing bad ever happens here, or that consequences don’t apply here.
The first moment was at 8:38am when I dropped my husband Batman off at his company’s Provo office. Now when I say “his company,” I mean that literally. He started the company 10 1/2 years ago and it has grown to five offices in the US and one in Manila, with around 20 employees. It is a multi-million dollar operation. And it’s his good name on the sign. Batman Industries.
Now with that said, he emailed everyone in the Provo office last week to tell them he would be working out of their office this week. Yet on this particular morning, when the boss has a report to get out by 2pm to please the top client, there is NO ONE at the office to let him in. He called the folks who were supposed to be there. They offered no explanation, no excuse, and they still do not understand why the boss was so insistent that he have access to the building with his own blinking name on it! Should he have called them at home on Sunday evening to remind them? Are they seven?
I thought I was overreacting. You know, the boss’s wife gets her knickers in a twist over a teeny little thing, but then the rest of my day happened.
While driving around Provo I saw multiple incidences of small children (age 10 or younger) riding bikes, skateboards, or walking unaccompanied across the crosswalks of the city’s busiest intersections. You just don’t see that in Florida. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it does reflect a more relaxed attitude toward danger.
The absolute clincher occurred while I was waiting for the kids to come out of the theater. I was seated in my running vehicle when the front right corner of my car was struck by a small gray car pulling into the spot next to me. The small car immediately pulled through the parking spot and sped away. Luckily he only bumped my tire. I hope he received moisture damage to his vehicle due to his own weak bladder, a match to his weak character. Apparently this type of hit-and-run is extremely common here.
My long-winded point is, when you go through life thinking that nothing bad could ever happen in Happy Valley, you are ill-equipped to handle minor crises like a visiting boss or an auto mishap, let alone a major crisis like an injured/kidnapped/missing/killed unattended child.
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I think I'm way funnier than I actually am
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