So Strange

I've always thought of June 1st as roughly the high water mark for the river each year and the question was how high. Always takes the beach by 1st week of May. Some years 1st week of April. This year I don't think it's going to take it at all. For 12 years this is a low for me. Not only is the river not rising from snow melt I think it's going down and people coming to stay from Colorado tell me there's no snow left in the mountains. With the river so low the large tour boats aren't coming down the river and their prop wash isn't eroding away at the beach bank. I know lack of water hurts a lot of people down stream but here it's making for a really nice beach and a good time in the river.

Two Sunsets (Courtesy Rachel and Linda)

Finally

Then for just a few minutes Jax and I were able to get away and watch some disc.

Ski Resort Closure

About this time of year I get groups of disc golfers showing up for disc golf when the ski resort in their town closes but this year they must have all closed the same weekend because the lodge, the hogans on the hill, behind the solar panels, the boat ramp, the boat house, all of Last Hurrah and even the meadow area next door were all full of guests and campers.

It's Just Impossible

I got an email and a cancellation saying it was just impossible to get here with an SUV. There were 30 or so of them in the parking lot over the weekend.

Kobae and Jax

Jax got a bath and Kobae got something in his throat or indigestion. Every time he'd let out his reptile scream he's crank out some farts.

Moab to Monument

I spent all day Thursday with the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission showing them special stuff on this side of Hurrah. I think they have plans for Base Camp and the Wind Caves.

Jax Doing His Job

A Clue (Courtesy Linda)

The stuffing in the pillows on the back porch couch has been disappearing. Perhaps this is a clue.

Some Stuff

The critters still come at night though not in the numbers they once did because I don't sit outside all night and wait for them as in the old. Few foxes, couple skunks, two or three ringtail, and after midnight the raccoons. Still with morning two 8 packs of hot dogs and three bowls of Kit&Kaboodle are gone. Still feeding the birds and squirrels at three different places and Jax sits on the desk in my office looking out the window just daring a rock squirrel to climb up in a vehicle. They don't. Jax is parking lot squirrel cop and they respect his determinedness, if I just invented a new word.

Linny, Jax, and I, along with Holly, Alex, and Taka finally got a little kayaking in and made it around the island.

A few guests along with Jax and I climbed to the top of the Wind Caves and Jax seemed to be thinking about jumping off but apparently the crack word off and he got smart again.

Kobae got hungry, over and over and over.

George Washington Hayduke came alive again when one day the 12th or so hiker of the season came by for water on the Hayduke trail and then the following day Hayduke came alive again when two ladies showed up hiking the trail. Hayduke lives.

I took guests up to show them dinosaur tracks.

Jax, Hayduke, and City Girls

Jax and I watching the squirrel video together.

Four Haydukers came through. The girl on the left stood on her head for 15 minutes on a rock up by the hogans. I ask, she said "It feels good."

On Monday night I saw vehicle lights looking like they were driving down the ditch at the bottom of the driveway to the river so I got in the truck to look for my late arriving guests and found them at the Condo with flashlights staring in the windows though they were staying in a hogan. They said "Google sent us here." They followed me to the hogan, then back to the lodge to cook a late dinner. After they left I saw them driving around over at Last Hurrah looking for their hogan.

In the morning they came over and took a side by side and then went kayaking. The questions were entertaining. "Should we go up river or down?" I told them it didn't matter because the river went in a circle. They ask about crocodiles. Watching them paddle up river was like bumper cars. Then they got lost again on the way back to their hogan. No, I won't forget New York. My kind of town.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

On Friday Jax and I hiked up to what I'm being told will be the Mother of all Hogans. Work is coming along.....slow.

On Saturday Kobae spent more time down in his hole and then much of the day as the Gatekeeper. He hasn't moved in permanently yet but he's thinking about it.

On Sunday Jax got a bath from Linny again and as usual spent the next half an hour drying off on anything he could find.
With the washing machine still broken at the lodge the second someone moves out of the Main House then Linny gets in to clean and us catch up on the wash.

I spent the day pumping water from the pond into the tanks. Linny and I are thinking to solve our water issue at the lodge and the current laundry overflow issue I'm going to put another set of washer and dryer into the garage and a new one here at the lodge. We'll see if we can get that all plumbed and wired over the next week or so. Without doing wash at the lodge and only showers, dishes, and toilet hopefully the water table in the tank will be able to catch up in the coming years.

Sent Jax down the parking lot to check for squirrels in vehicles and had one in our Kymco.

The Time

The days are full. There are guests checking out with sunrise, rooms to clean, vehicles to gas, maintain, and clean. Linny and I have gone inside outside. She takes care of the rooms and I do all the stuff on the outside plus the bookings and guests issues. Still sometimes early morning or into evening there is just a moment or two where you have time to reflect on just who you are, where you are, and the difference you make in guests lives.

More Haydukers came through. Going to be a record year for them. Even those with a set purpose hated to leave the place. Can imagine how others feel.

During Jeep's unveiling I had a Jeep walkie on one pocket and a Base Camp walkie on the other trying to keep track of the goings on at both places. The cracking of "lost" was consistent throughout the day. I walkied Linny to tell her we were missing a kayak out of the garage but later walking down to the river it was like the guests had done a kayak striptease. One kayak was on the beach, another in the tamarisk, a walkie in the mud and two life jackets strung a couple hundred feet a part. On the other walkie Jeep was missing a Cherokee. After all the photo people, writers, and video people had taken their test runs on the new models one was missing. The Base Camp walkie came on again and a three year old was missing at the Wind Caves and multiple dogs hadn't been seen in awhile but with sunset everything and everyone had been found.

Kobae hasn't moved into his house yet but he's thinking about it. He's gone down inside a few times and checked it out but mostly he just guards the front porch or he's a 185 pound door stop. It's hard to tell.

Last year we had a few instances where rock squirrels got up in guests engines and chewed up their wires. It turns out some starter wires and spark plug wires are made of some sort of vegetable derivative. That was a good idea. So the rock squirrels get up in every engine and find out which ones are edible. That was BFJ though. Before Jax. Jax has taken it as his sacred duty to never let that happen again and all we need do is open the screen door and say "Go find the squirrel." and he will head down the parking lot checking out each vehicle and if he finds something wrong he goes to no ends to solve the issues.

When Rachel and I broke up back in December I went back on a couple of the dating sites. Over the last couple weeks I've had a few dates show up and been able to devote no time to them with so many check ins and check outs and the varied list of things guests would like to do. So two nights ago I went back on the sites to those I had talked to about a visit to Base Camp to tell them for the next two years at least my social life is over and I'd be a horrible boyfriend and cancelled all the upcoming visits. Honesty sucks.

Still I am able to break away every day or so for a few minutes on a hike or down to the beach but it'd April and I have yet to kayak. The hike down to the beach has one sort of drawback. Jax is nuts or he finds crack, we're not sure which.