Saturday March 15th 2014 at around 10:30AM we set out for Streamboat Rock State Park. This was North and mine's 9th camping trip there, all the previous ones in 2013. At the split up of his mom and I in September the camping trips stopped...for no good reason. Then North developed an obsession with staying inside either his mom's home or my home, with school the only exception. I was worried, so I got this new Jeep to stir things back up to being active.
North was a little afraid of the open top, but after he got exposed to the great feeling and visibility with the top and half-doors off, he got to loving the Jeep.
This trip was the last weekend of this Winter. So only parts of the trip were right for having the top and sides off. We drove the first 140 miles with the top up. Then as I saw the temp rise to 55, and sunny in the arid desert, I stopped and pulled the top back and took off the doors around Roslyn.
Once in Moses Lake we had an extra treat. The area is used for testing large jets, and today one of the largest military jets I've every seen was doing almost stunt-like testing moves around. Then at a traffic stop it made a low pass right over our open top. I honestly believe North will remember that forever.
Memories. For the first time North started telling me his memories. We were going down I-5 in Seattle and he pointed to the portion of Capitol Hill that runs along I-5 and he said "we walked there when I was a baby". Then the same about the REI Store. He wasn't a baby, but I know what he means: a long time ago in his mind.
Anyway, now I know I'm making memories for him. I deliberately did that walk along I-5 in Capitol Hill to generate a specific big city walking experience for him. We walked an area with a vista of the Interstate and all the skyscrapers of downtown.
Back to our trip. Driving through the Coulee Corridor is like driving right through the Grand Canyon, only the walls are 800 feet high, not the mile high of the bigger more famous canyon. I've got a travel tip blog entry about the area here.
All along the way I kept trying to find legal, free off road trails to climb just to give North the thrill. I found a few, then just a few feet into the trail a sign was posted "No Unauthorized Entry". Bummer.
We got to the campground and set up...Jeep style...not our old Volvo style.
What you see there is two 20 degree sleeping bags, one red cheap sleeping bag, and Big Doggie...our stuffed animal that comes on every camping trip.
We made a fire, cooked some hotdogs. Watched a full moon rise over the canyon walls. Then was sat in the Jeep with the top off to see the moon and the stars. We ran the motor and blasted the heater, sitting in temperate luxury. North was obsessed with Minecraft and I did my ritual for that location of finding an interesting AM station. Not saying I only listen to AM. But those canyon wall do weird things to AM signals, I've gotten Calgary Canada and this night a really good history segment from Idaho.
North the Engineer:
He has an innate capacity to figure out engineering problems. In the last 2 years, in the realm of camping, I have went from the comically worst campfire starter to..well...dependably OK. This trip North made a point of mentioning several times for me to make a bridge with the logs. I did. Then I noticed that OMG...that is the best design for starting a fire.
I told him how brilliant that design was. I just love that boy.
For sleeping I put the top back up and the doors/windows back on. But the back window was left at home...deliberately. So we would be a exposed to the night time air. The low was 37. North normally tosses and turns, and keeps me awake too. That night he didn't. That morning he woke and said something he's never said before "wow, I slept so good".
Immediately I did the usual ritual of starting the vehicle, getting the heat on, and getting North seated for the trip, and then gathering up and organizing for the exit.
Driving back...I know all the alternative routes back...I told North we'd go through Quincy. I love that big big big agra town. Its got wide open desert spaces, fields dense because of irrigation, and the Cascades in the near distance.
Oh and along the way we finally found a Federal Lands offroad driving area. We drove up and down a basalt hill, and through a shallow pond or huge puddle, which ever you prefer. It was really fun.
We are on the cusp of Spring, so farmers were fertilizing their fields with manure. North got to smell that and tell me what the fertilizer was.....cow poop. Oh, and he was the first to mention a farm...saying with exclamation "THAT is a farm!".
We drove on. I'm always concerned if he is comfortable. Basically I want him to experience the big and the wide, but I never want him to endure misery. So I got the cheap red sleeping bag and put it on his lap and over his body. We got on the Interstate. I kept looking over for signs. He was smiling big many times.
Then miles past the Ryegrass Summit (ok it really is Whiskey Dick Mountain) he started crying, an "I'm enduring it" kind of expression. We were near an exit and I took it, telling along the way I was sorry and I didn't want him to feel bad.
At the truck stop, one we've been to dozens of times, I put on the top and the windows. We were safe in the a properly covered vehicle, the heater so warm he asked to turn it down.
North, if you ever read this, I only wanted it to be big and fun, never something that made you cry. I felt so bad.
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