Just How We came to Such a State as This Without Really Trying......Part Seven

Kristina Mikkelson Casanova Dec 19,2017 

 

 So many mountain passes to go over entering into Utah..some 8000 to 9000 thousand feet lugging that 32 foot trailer behind us in our old truck of the same age. Sometimes going down to twenty miles an hour. I wondered sometimes if we were going to make it to the top. Then we would have to brake going down the other side and at times the brakes getting red hot and we would have to pull over and let them cool. It seemed to never end. 

 Finally a vast plain of sage brush was before us and mountains were far in the distance. A reprieve from all the mountain passes that also suck up your gas. We decided to camp over night on this BlM land and call it quits for the day even if it was early afternoon. So we found a road and some level land and stopped. It was so nice. Cool with a slight breeze and familiar sounds and the strong odor of big sage that I so loved. 

 In the evening we sat outside and watched the sun set and it was so beautiful with reds,purples and yellows streaking across the sky. After a night filled with the sounds of crickets and call of coyotes we woke ready to hit the road once again for we knew that we would be camping out in a place called Oak City canyon. A day to take care of business in the nearby town of Lynndyl, Utah where we also lived in a small cottage. It was an area that I had dreamed of moving back to. I had once known so many people and had had so many friends..so many good memories of the eight years we had lived there. So I was very excited about returning and maybe even looking around for a house to rent. 

The county of Millard is not the prettiest place of Utah to live but the people had been wonderful. Pete and I had found hidden places in this dry desert area that were breath taking or very interesting such as topaz mountain where one could dig for topaz,or areas where you could dig up very old pottery and old glass bottles, or a place where wild horses came to drink in the evening or a an extinct volcanoes where you could still lay in the concrete pools with the warm volcanic waters soaking the aches right out of you. These things never left your thoughts..at least they had never left mine. I wanted to experience them all again and meet up with old friends. 

So we entered Millard county with high hopes...but things were not quite how I remembered them....everything was dying and dead from years of drought. Did not expect it to look this bad but it was horrible and left me with a sorrowful heart. We still had hopes for the mountains near by but wellllllllllllllll a forest fire had devastated most of the tall pine forest...leaving very little left. It was at this point that I cried. 

We managed to find a spot where a few trees still stood although they too were partially burned and had to just be happy with that. We were going to be here for two weeks so we just had to deal with it. Yet it was hard as I remembered how it used to be. 

Things were different in other ways as well. This had once been a quiet and a relaxing place to be as well as safe but the quad invasion had changed all that. O so many quads passing by and none had mufflers..and dirt bikes without mufflers and trucks with out mufflers ..it was a noise fest to be sure. 

Water was another problem we faced that had not hit us before as all the towns in Idaho had water stations for RVs and trailers but nothing in Delta or Lynndyl or any of the towns. We tried the water at the paid camp area which we were allowed to use but it was swimming pool water and completely undrinkable so we finally went to the stores in town and stocked up on Olympus bottled water. It was the best we could do. 

We stayed for two weeks..two miserable long weeks. We drove around and by our old stomping grounds but they just did not feel the same anymore....we did not feel the same about people we had once known and in fact nothing was the same. I wondered if I had just imagined it all. Either we had changed or they had and probably the answer being we both had. 

A few nights before we left we noticed car lights going past us then stopping then shutting off. Our little chihuahua guard dog (LOL) growled and Pete said I think someone is prowling around. He quietly went out side then I heard yelling and another voice answering back. Then Pete again and then the other voice then I heard a car door slam and a car starting up and leaving. 

 Pete came in s;lamming the door and muttering a few cuss words. Some girl in her twenties had been attempting to steal our solar panel. He thought that she was doing it on a dare but still..and yes this place had changed and I guess caught up with the rest of the world. 

 The day before leaving we drove past and by old familiar spots and I said my goodbyes. I knew in my heart that I wold never return to this place..it was not home anymore. 

The next day we pulled out and left ...not sad at leaving ..just sad at what this place had become. 

 We were now headed for Sanpete county just a few hours away to check out our STUUF at the storage unit in Fairviiew.