Chapter 6

While Joe and I were waiting out the rain, I started thinking about the past. All my life I had gone camping, yet this wasn’t a weekend getaway, this was the real thing. Now I had to think I wouldn’t be in a nice bed with a hot shower any time soon. Hospitals weren’t around the corner and sickness was real and deadly. If something happened, I only had myself and Joe to depend on, so careful was what we had to be. I had all the knowledge I needed to survive and to thrive. This was now my life!

I somehow felt more alive, things were crisp in my mind. The beauty of the natural landscape was more vivid, but so was the terror of what laid ahead. I was understanding some of the loneliness that Joe had been feeling for the last few years. I talked to Joe about how I was feeling, of how lonely I have been since my wife had died and how hard it was just to get up those first few days and weeks. I had many friends but when I lost my wife my true and best friends. It was like nothing else mattered and my whole life had been destroyed.

Joe slowly told me about his parent’s death and then those who he thought were his friends left him and stole everything he had left in this world that was from his parents. He lived in the stable and worked hard to make it, his few new friends tried to help a little, but he to was lonely and truly alone in the world. He told me the last few weeks have been the best he has had since his parents’ death and felt like he had a way to start over. I let him know I felt the same way and our lives were going to fuller with each other and if not blood brothers, adopted brothers. You can’t pick family, but you can pick your friends and as far as I was concerned, he was my true brother.

We went to sleep that night feeling a lot less alone. The rain had stopped during the night, we made a nice breakfast and cooked some extra bacon so we could have biscuit and bacon for lunch. We washed our pots and dishes, getting a lot of things ready to pack. We were going to have a late start we wanted the horses to be dry and to give them a rub down before we got started. No reason for saddle sores for just a few miles. After getting everything packed, we headed out, hoping to get about 15 miles even with the delay. I figured maybe 3 days of travel and we would be close to our destination. I hoped the landmarks that I had in my head would lead me where we were to go.

The afternoon of the third day we saw the old burns from a forest fire and the steep walls of a long bluff. We found a green patch by a small fast-moving creek and figured we would stay here tonight and continue on in the morning. We unloaded the horses but only unpacked the things we would need for the night. I asked Joe if he wanted to find us a few pheasants or a couple rabbits for dinner and he took off with a smile and the 410. It wasn’t long and I heard a shot and just a few minutes later another. I had wood collected for the night fire and a coffee pot starting to boil. Joe was back in less than an hour with two rabbits cleaned and ready to cook. I put them in the pan to fry while we set up our bedrolls. We laid them out close to a big boulder and hung a single tarp over the two to keep the dew off us in the morning. We had clear skies, so we took a chance with our camp. We did cover the saddles and packs just in case. It was a great meal and we finished it off with a can of peaches for dessert. After getting things cleaned up, we drank a bit of coffee and settled in for the night.

The next morning, we were up and packed as soon as the sun started up. It took about two hours to come to the break in the bluff and it was just like a line in the sand, bluff right up to grass and trees. The country was just full of surprises and beauty. Right where it was supposes to be was our last landmark a set of three large rocks, one on top of the other just like a snowman. We had plenty of time left so we made camp and hobbled the horse so they could graze and drink. I asked if Joe wanted to try and find us a deer since we would be here a few days and he thought he would see if he could find a trail somewhere. I had him take a rifle instead of the shotgun, hoping he would be able to find something. It wasn’t 30 minutes until I heard a shot. About an hour or so after the shot he came back dragging a small pronghorn. Some don’t like the meat, but I liked it well enough and tonight would be backstrap, fried taters and fried bread. We would hang the quarters out tonight and tomorrow eat what we wanted and smoke the rest. Joe was happy with the antelope and said it just walked right in front of him. Then started bragging about being such a mighty hunter that any beast would feel such honor to be eaten by him that they just gave up when he was on the hunt. I had to laugh and agree that he kept us well stocked on the trip so far.