It seems like overnight the world changed. Schools are closed, bars are closing, restaurants are limiting seating, friends are losing their jobs, all my sons friends from NY are home and playing video games. It’s incredible what a few days has done.
Last week we were going to to dinner and checking out cool places in Flagstaff. This week there is an eerie silence that is falling over everything. Many of the campers have left. Our campground said that they received dozens of cancellations and said we could stay as long as we wanted. One week ago they had one site available for us. They had to move us from one site to another so we could stay until the end of March without disrupting other reservations. I’m hearing a lot of sad stories and we are praying for everyone right now.
On a brighter note, we found out that the evening time is the time to hike. That is when all the deer come out to eat. There are about 8-9 deer that run in a heard around 5pm each evening. We have to hike up to a flat grassy area about a half mile from our campsite and we walk the “Fatman’s loop”. God why do you think they call it that I loveDon’t ask me why they call it that because I’m 100% sure I’m losing weight walking that loop but, maybe that’s the point. At an altitude of 7200 ft. we don’t talk much while we walk and even then you get a bit winded hiking uphill for a half mile. Luckily the trip back home is easy.
The deer are fun to watch and they seem fairly comfortable with us walking by only 40 feet away. After watching them for a short while we have now started hiking further up the mountain. There’s an overlook about 3.5 miles up the mountain but, we haven’t been able to get there yet. We always seem to start out too late and it’s important to be home by sunset for obvious reasons.
Maybe tomorrow we can get an earlier start.
Luke's Journey Across The USA 