Lake Powell Adventure with an Old Friend
August 28 – September 3, 1996
August 28 – September 3, 1996
DeRay, Jeanette, Ed,
Amy Hugh; Grant Simons
Picked up Grant Simons at 7 PM; stopped for pizza,
groceries, arriving at Bullfrog at 3 AM – the latest we have ever been. I drove
from Soldiers Summit to Hanksville. It’s OK for me to drive in the middle of
the night when everyone else is too tired to drive.
Grant Simons
We were ready for bed at 4 AM. Up at 7:45; run to
store for ice. We only have one engine so we are a bit nervous but it is calm.
The outboard is in Salt Lake for repairs.
We headed for Annie’s Canyon but the depth this
year doesn’t expose one single parking spot for a houseboat so we continue on
down channel. Amy found a little cove, sandy beaches, no shade but private –
even in the main channel. In fact, Amy’s new theory is that everyone rushes for
the canyons and they are narrow, congested and polluted. We were not bothered
by one Jet Ski, no houseboats or small boats even came close. We could see them
crossing clear across the channel but hardy any even came on the side closest
to us and none ventured in our little cove. The water is deep and fresh with
beautiful safe swimming. I even got so I enjoyed the sun and felt deprived when
it went down around 5 PM, finding it dismal and cold. Games, Scrabble, etc.
Pear/shrimp salad for lunch, hamburgers for dinner. Egg/spinach omelet for
breakfast. Fresh homemade bread, compliments of DeRay. Visiting under stars,
watching full moon come up. We have
decided we like to have a small crew. How did we ever do it when we used to
have so many. Brent, Brooke and wives would be fun.
Ed topside
Grant & DeRay
Amy below
Amy
Amy safely inside
Jeanette
Ed
Next morning: hot cakes, swim, games, lunch,
reading, games, napping. What basement? What weeds? What beets to be bottled?
Amy discovered another private cove next to ours where we can swim to. At first
I thought the scenery mundane but I’ve grown to cherish it with the shadows and
sun, sunrises, sunsets, chipmunks, crows, eagles and fish. We’ve spent a lot of
time in the water; we’ve played a lot of games. Grant even played his
harmonica. Coming out of the water after dark, I couldn’t help but dance on the
deck. DeRay hasn’t played Scrabble since Sharon and Dick Swapp wouldn’t let him
use “countered” (because it wasn’t in the dictionary) 39 years ago on New
Year’s Eve. So we played without him – until yesterday when he begged to play
with Amy and me. When we came down from above to fix dinner, he was playing by
himself – winning, of course, and using any dang words he wanted. Strange
things happen when you relax and begin to unwind. We all played Rummikub,
Carmen Sandiego, Shanghai and Brain Twisters.
Next day: Hike, breakfast, swim, games, swim,
lunch, swim, reading, swim, games, nap, dinner, swim, wind, wind, wind, games,
wind.
The following day was calm and beautiful. After
breakfast, we pulled out and went to Halls’ Bay where we found a sandy beach
and lovely spot. As we were swimming, we decided we would be better off leaving
tonight and buying gas, emptying, filling, etc., so we could get an early start
in the morning. They changed the hours on the gas station on us while we were
out but since this is the holiday, they were still open and very unbusy after
an extremely busy day. We barely made it back before dark. We enjoyed a
spaghetti dinner, beans, salad, French bread. We walked around to see the
really big boats. Another lovely night out under the stars.
Amy, Grant, DeRay
Up at 5 to pack, clean. Everyone helped and we were off by 7; really
gone before 8. Still it was 3 before we got home. Standing on the houseboat on Lake Powell this
morning, I thought: “I can’t believe we’ll be in Washington DC tomorrow night.”
LAKE POWELL - SEPTEMBER 7 - 12, 1997
DeRay, Jeanette, Eddy, Amy, and Bonnie
Wight
I think one needs to sleep out under the stars at
least once a year to reconnect with the Universe; the vastness, the wonder, the
encompassing of the whole sky that covers and protects us. It's not just above. It surrounds us; reaching down clear to the
water to seal us in, in comfort and beauty.
It's almost more than one small soul can comprehend. We gain strength from the Universe but I think
if we don't acknowledge or connect to it once in awhile, we lose it.
This spectacular scenery during the day and the
wonders of the universe manifest at night, somehow heal our souls when we
didn't even know we were hurt. They
revitalize us when we didn't even know we were unvitalized. They restore us when we didn't know we were
unrestored. But we were and we are. We can feel it when we get back what was lost
during the hustle-bustle of the days of our lives.
Man-made things consume us: our homes, our malls, our churches, our
businesses; theaters, libraries, schools, gyms, buildings, buildings,
everywhere; concrete sidewalks, freeways, automobiles, trucks, trains, planes,
ships. They are wonders unto themselves,
contributing greatly to our comfort, enjoyment and enrichment. But think about
it, in our day-to-day lives, we hardly catch a glimpse of the natural. We peek between buildings to see the lake or
the sunset; the stars are dimmed by our artificial bright lights; we are so
comfortable we hardly even want to step over a stick. We'd rather pay the government to pick it up
for us.
DeRay
Last week, I told someone at the gym that we were
going to Lake Powell next week to really swim, not just fake swim in a man-made
pool like we do there. Just for this week we can swim as far as we want, when
we want and where we want. There's a
difference. It's much more than swimming
here at Lake Powell; it's a total experience.
I try to not tell myself to swim 1/2 hour without stopping like I do at
the gym. Do what you want. Don't worry about exercise. Oh, so you want to swim to that shore. Go for it.
Yes, it's more scary. There are
no sides; the end is further. But you
are free, free, free. Swim.
It takes awhile to wind down; to quit looking at
our watches; to realize we can do what we feel like doing because THERE IS
TIME. I got out of the water and what I
wanted to do was to go topside and lie in the sun. No time. No time. What do you mean there is no time? There are no beans to pick, no floor to
vacuum; no job to rush off to. There's
time. Go topside. Relax.
Repair. Rejuvenate.
Amy & Bonnie
Ed & Jeanette
Ed & Amy
Jeanette
Ed & DeRay enjoying lunch
Ed
Part of the joy of this type of vacation is that
you don't hafta. You don't hafta swim,
hike, read, play games, sleep, bathe.
You do what you want to do when you want to do it. And there are no beans to pick.
I spent the first day worrying that we would run
out of food and the last day worrying that we would have to pack it all back
home.
No wonder, when Ed was little he said, "Mom,
I'm woe-ied about your woe-ies."
And I wasn't even in charge of food. I told Amy and Bonnie that Dad would buy the
groceries for Lake Powell if they'd plan the menus. "Well, if you had asked us after Boy
Scout camp we'd have been in orbit but we haven't cooked all summer so we're
happy to do it." While they were out on the patio working on the menus, I
called out the kitchen window: "If
you will cook all the meals, I'll do all the dishes!" "Deal!" they shouted back. I am so relieved. It will really be a vacation. Do you realize how uncomplicated doing dishes
is? "Now," I muse to myself,
"all I have to do is assign the dishes to DeRay and Eddy and I'll be
set!"
The Cooks: Bonnie & Amy
They cooked at Boy Scout Camp one summer.
It was like eating out at your favorite restaurant
every day for every meal. It was gourmet
to the hilt, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, especially tomatoes and
peaches.
I was out in the lake in our little lagoon for a
cool evening swim when Amy calls:
"Dish girl! There's dishes
to do!"
"Before we eat? Can't I wait until after?"
Amy and Bonnie had just got a Dutch oven on. Their Dutch oven includes cabbage, mushrooms,
zucchini, yellow crookneck, fresh green beans, plus all the usual stuff.
"The food needs to be put away," she
cheerily admonishes me, interrupting my cool evening swim.
Dishwashers get no respect. I found that out. Low woman on the totem pole, that's for sure.
When I came in, I had to pick up all the peelings,
scraps, put the biscuit pan to soak. As
I was putting dishes away after 10 PM, they were still gloating: "What's chopping a few
veggies???" I conceded that I was
already getting a little sick of dishes.
There's no creativity, no choices, no expression. It's mundane.
Ed helped once (actually about four times before
the trip was over). DeRay generally had his nose in a book but I think he got a
couple of turns in. "If you get
everything all set up (the water heated) and all the food put away, I'll
wash," he always says. What's
washing five plates and five forks.
Getting ready to wash is the hard part.
He's unconscious when he reads.
Just when I thought he might help, a great storm suddenly came up and he
ran to secure anchors, save the air mattresses, swim suits, towels and
buckets. "I wouldn't like this in
the daytime," he growled, "I like it even less at night when I can't
see what's going on."
FLASH!
CLAP! ROAAARRRR!
"Don't worry, Ed," we shutter,
"we're already on the Ark. It was
only the ones who didn't build an Ark that drown." We didn't mention the Titanic but he's seen
it on NOVA enough times to be terrified.
"I was just thinking about my trip to Kansas
City and how fun it was. It was a lot
more fun than this one," Ed said.
The stars reappeared and we wished we were
sleeping outside. There are three leaks
on this boat: 1) Water seeps in; 2) Gas
seeps out; and 3) The sewer seeps. We
have the possibilities of drowning, exploding or wishing we had! And I thought about all of them as we slept
inside that night.
"I'm quite impressed with those
anchors," Ed chats as he wipes dishes the next morning. "They held."
"Thank you, girls, for a delicious
dinner," Ed revels. I told them the
reason their meals are so good is because they have so much energy. They should hire out. They chop olives, cheese, peppers,
tomatoes. Fresh peach cobbler in Dutch
Oven. Camp fire on the beach. One night,
they served gourmet pizza buffet style on the top deck, complete with drinks,
salad, and fresh fruit. No dining hall
was ever as elegant: sheer cliffs
surrounding us on three sides, higher than the Dome at Cologne that made us
dizzy when we looked up. (The Cathedral
of Cologne was started in 1248 and completed only after 632 years. I wonder how long it took to make these
resplendent kaleidoscopic sandstone precipices.)
"Red hills (of Kanab) for you and white
mountains (of Orderville) for me," I comment to DeRay. This is the county of our birth, it's our
heritage; maybe that's why we love it here so much. It feels like home.
By Wednesday, we're not looking at our watches
quite so often. We left our cove, found
nothing in Slickrock for those of us accustomed to being neighborless. Amy discovered a deep cove closer to Iceberg,
just off the Main Channel. This is
really a piece of heaven: Hanging
gardens, sheer cliffs, massive boulders.
The water is warmer. We have
shade later and get it earlier - like the sun doesn't hit the boat until 11:30
AM and leaves at 4 PM. It is so pristine
and private.
Jeanette & her Hanging Gardens
Jeanette
Jeanette
Amy & Bonnie; DeRay
I wake up 10 times during the night to study the
stars and marvel at the night sky so clear and bold. Last night DeRay had made Ed's bed, then went
down to read by the light. "I don't
like to be ditched," Ed confessed when I finally went to bed.
Ed usually wears a life jacket and just twirls and
kicks while in the lake. Even though
he's in the water four or five hours a week at home, he's scared to death of
Lake Powell. I coaxed him to try
swimming yesterday. "I'm afraid to
get my head wet." Nonsense. He
finally did it. I bragged to Bonnie,
"That's the first time Ed has ever swam at Lake Powell." "I swam when Erika was with us," he
corrected. "The year we spent the
night on the rock." That was at
least 13 years ago--the year Jeanne graduated from Dixie, because we had gone
to her graduation just before Lake Powell, and the year Brent graduated from
BYU the first time and the year the Harts joined us.
"Mom," Ed says just before 5 AM,
"I'm afraid it's going to rain."
The spotty black clouds hadn't changed for three hours, so I said,
"If it does, we'll move in."
It wasn't five minutes before lightning
struck. "Do you want to go
down?" Before he was out of his
bag, it had started to sprinkle. It had
stopped before we all got settled again; but the air mattresses were down and
we stayed inside.
It was so intent on raining, it even rained when
the sun was shining. Bonnie was in the
water and was so afraid that she would get wet when it started to rain. Instead of "Singing in the Rain,"
it was "Raining in the Sun," or how about "Make rain while the
sun shines?"
"That sure was a good breakfast. I appreciate those girls for doing the
anchors." That was the Captain
speaking.
"I've never seen the waterfalls that everyone
brags about," DeRay said as we ferried in on Thursday afternoon. It had been raining hard and as we looked
over at the sheer cliffs to our right, water started cascading off. A WHOLE ROW OF WATERFALLS. It was the most incredible sight. Looking at the top, we could see the water
gathering in streams and as it hit the edge, another waterfall was born. How do you describe anything so
sensational? You soak it up and store it
in your memory as salve for your soul to last you all year long until you come
again.
Friday morning as Ed and I did dishes for the last
time after Amy and Bonnie's blueberry hot cakes with fresh peach syrup and ham,
cantaloupe, watermelon and juice breakfast, I thought to myself: "Doing dishes is so uncomplicated. It's not as hard as siphoning gas out of the
hold as DeRay had had to do several times; it's not as hard as driving the boat
and watching out for rocks. It certainly
is better than cooking. This truly has
been a vacation."
"Exactly one year ago tonight, Mom, we were
staying at the State Plaza Hotel. I
enjoyed Washington DC. What I liked
about it was the metro service."
That reminded us that it was our 41st Wedding
Anniversary on Sunday, the day we drove down.
And I thought how like marriage this trip has been: We had sunshine and shade; the wind blew
hard, then it was very, very calm and we valued the calmness much more than if
the wind hadn't blown and threatened our anchors and our stability; we had rain with accompanying thunder and
lightning; and spectacular water falls; it even rained while the sun was
shining, which was delightful in its rarity; we slept out under both bright
stars and cloud cover; the nights were very dark at first as the moon started
out as a sliver, then ended up a half moon giving us light at night. All in all, there was more sunshine than
rain. And the rain had its own rewards.
There was constant change, adaptation, conversion, survival, endurance, growth,
expansion, merit, thanksgiving, grace
and joy. It's been a trip to
commemorate. 9/13/97
October 8-11, 1998
DeRay, Jeanette, Eddy; Cai and
Suzanne; Karen, Clare and Ron
We pack up and drive down at 10 PM to pick up Cai
and Suzanne. They had some errands to run
so it was close to 11 PM before we actually got on the road. We arrived at Bullfrog around 4 AM. Karen, Clare and Ron arrived around
1:30. It was 5:45 AM before we all got
settled in bed. We slept until around 7
AM. Cai, pouting, slept on the front w/o
a blanket or sweater—just a short-sleeved shirt. We decided we weren’t going to pamper
anyone. We were all adults. After getting ice, we went down the channel
20 miles and stayed put. . .the same place we have camped with Amy and Bonnie the
past two years.
Ron, Clare, Karen, Eddy (Jeanette behind)
Suzanne, Eddy, Ron, Clare.
front: Karen, DeRay
We had excellent food;
good company, games, walks, swims. Each
group did three meals. The Pugh
offspring told more jokes that I thought existed. I couldn’t believe the jokes they could
rattle off. Everyone was congenial and
it was a very pleasant three days. DeRay
installed an engine and an outdrive that kept him busy for several hours but
the rest of us had not a care in the world.
Sunday morning as soon as it got light we headed for Bullfrog, dumped
and filled, gassed, breakfasted, cleaned and were off by 1:30 PM; home by 8:30,
only stopping for a malt in Hanksville and gas in Price. 
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