Bryce Canyon or Bathroom Misdaventures

Bryce

Having been to the Grand Canyon and Zion, I thought there was not much more we could see that would be different and amazing.  How wrong I was.  Each of the three great parks was as different from one another as could be.  Yet, the same stone and the same colors were in all three, making the difference al l the more startling.

Bryce Canyon is the one that looks like sand castle drippings.  Each dripped pillar is called a hoodoo and there are thousands.  The first day, after setting up camp we drove the scenic route to the end and back, stopping at lookouts along the way, but not engaging in any strenuous hike.

Our first full day at Bryce we chose a somewhat strenuous hike that took several hours.  Unlike the Grand Canyon, at both Zion and Bryce we were able to walk among the stones, pillars, arches and hoodoos.  The hoodoos and canyons we found out, were caused, not by running water, but by erosion and the freeze and thaw cycle that little drops of water go through during the winter and spring.  Indeed, one of the signs at a lookout point said that the spot on which we were standing would, in our lifetime, fall into the canyon because after every rain, little pieces of it were being washed away.  And, in about another million years, Bryce Canyon would have eroded all the way back to the nearest river and become flooded.  No more hoodoos.

We were lucky, on our walk to meet another Ellen and her husband.  We made plans to join them later that evening for a rodeo and fireworks.  What a great time we had.  The Ellens had a lot in common; the rodeo was  quaint and the fireworks very good.  We weren’t too  happy with one event during the rodeo, in which all the kids under 5 lined up and upon a signal ran after about 5 little bunnies.  The winners got to keep the bunny they caught.  Looked a lot like bunny cruelty and we thought it was pretty weird that these kids were allowed to march into the stands clutching their bunnies, until they had the same contests with a greased piglet and the winner kept it too!

I won a neckerchief and a coupon for a 7 inch pizza by answering the question, “How do you get down off an elephant?”  For those of you who say that I can never remember a punch line, now I have a red hanky to prove you wrong.

 

TALES OF WOE…or How Not to Pee in the Woods (adult content below)

David has gotten into the habit of waking me in the middle of the night when he goes outside to pee so that I can avoid the rush to the bathroom in the morning because many times we have camped quite far away from the public bathrooms.  And it is quite acceptable to go outside half dressed under the cover of darkness.  All worked well until Bryce.  Our campsite was on a slope bordering a hill.  Do you anticipate impending doom?  During the midnight pit stop while looking for just the right spot,  I fell once flat on my behind, and then fell forward and started to slip down the hill.  All was not well/  The second night, David stopped at the bathroom on the way back from the rodeo, gave me a flashlight and told me he would meet me at the campsite.  Again, disaster.  I left the bathroom…and the flashlight died.  I got so disoriented that I started wandering around, fell once, went back to the bathroom to start in a different direction and got lost again.  Things were looking grim.  Then I remembered who I am married to and knew that if I went back to the bathroom and just waited, David would come to the rescue.  So back I went, and just as I was starting to cry, David’s flashlight came bob, bob bobbing along.  He said that he knew he had made a mistake telling me to get to the campsite on my own and had come for me as soon as he parked the car.  What a guy!  And I knew he would!