in sand and thorns I'm walking forth

So there I was, sitting on a rock. Something whooshed over my head. I peered across the canyon; it was a crow. I looked down. A caterpillar!

It didn't take long to decide that this was a secret agent killer caterpillar, making its wiggly way toward me to sink its teeth into my flesh and poison me, laughing maniacally as I writhed and died. When the caterpillar got to my rock I scooted down to another rock and turned away. If I was going to be assassinated, I didn't want to see it coming. After a few seconds, I checked on it. It had lost interest in its assignment and wandered the other direction. Telling myself it was lulling me into a sense of false security, I pretended to ignore the caterpillar until it wriggled out of sight.

Then I got bored, climbed up the rocks, and made myself a sandwich.

Yep, I got to do some quiet thinking by myself while my family did hikes I couldn't do. I found I was usually good to just sit for about half an hour, then I had to move around, take off my shoes, look at caterpillars, drink water...but I was grateful enough that I wasn't trying to do things I can't do. Even though it seemed long to wait in the middle of the desert with no one around.

And I did do some hikes! I was able to squeeze through in Spooky Gulch, and the 6-mile round trip Calf Creek trail was survivable. The main problem with the latter is that I made friends with a cactus. On accident I let one of the big spines get me (it didn't hurt, really) and that caused a bunch of little spines to fall down my sock. Picking spines out of my foot slowed us down a lot, but better out than in!

As usual, it wasn't a real family road trip until I tossed my cookies (Chips Deluxe Soft 'n' Chewy), but at least I waited until we got to the hotel. Also we saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Talk about exciting!

I'm sure I'll be able to get the sand out of my shoes someday.

"Augustine"