Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

Back in the 70s there was a movie starring John Travolta called “Staying Alive”. It was the height of the disco craze and the Bee Gees were on the sound track for this movie. The song “Staying Alive” has always kind of rumbled around in my head because it has a catchy tune, and more importantly, is a time marker in my memories of what the past was like.

Hiking up the hill, working through the week at a job I don’t like, or sitting through a hot afternoon on a beach often brings back these lyrics in my mind. However, instead of thinking of dancing and singing, I am thinking about how I am going to make it through this event, this experience, or this situation. I am literally working and trying to Stay Alive. Life can be such a challenge these days. I am not sure how I am going to make it sometimes.

My, how things change over the course of 17 years. That many years ago, the family took a vacation to Michigan to visit for the last time. Since then, we have not been back to that state. One of the first stops was a trip through the Black Hills with a stop in Rapid City, South Dakota. We went and saw the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, better known as Mt. Rushmore.

Today we made the same trip from Rapid City. We saw the faces of the Presidents carved and chiseled into the side of the mountain. That was all that was the same. Everything else had changed. They had a brand new parking garage complex, a new visitors center, an avenue of the states, and many other things. It was really quite pretty and very nice. I enjoyed the visit thoroughly. The President’s are still awesome and they make me proud to be an American. I love this free land. I just hope that in less than a month we make the right choice for President. I fear that we won’t.

It was a wonderful day in a wonderful trip. I have been glad I came.

Back in 1977 I joined in line a ton of other young, science fiction aficionados to attend the newest release from Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As anyone who saw this movie will attest, the end of the movie takes place at Devils Tower in Wyoming where man met for the first time aliens from outer space. Since that time, I have wanted to see that landmark.

Today I saw that landmark. It was a wonderful experience. We sat and ate our lunches in the shadow of this landmark. We took a hike around the base of the monument, and I enjoyed taking the time to appreciate and take in this National Monument. The only thing lacking was the aliens, the army flying around the monument, and the nerve gas. Also lacking was the music and the talking computers.

We had a good time today. I enjoy taking it easy with no schedule or deadlines to meet.

Today was a special day for me. We visited Martin’s Cove (actually the Sun Ranch) for a second time. My Great, Great, Great Grandfather, Richard Collings and his family were part of the Martin Handcart Company that suffered such great challenges when crossing the plains in 1856. This handcart company suffered many deaths and much misery, yet my ancestors and many others remained true to the faith. I just pray that I will have similar courage when the challenges mount in my life.

I am convinced that if they removed Nevada from the map, no one would miss it except for those who gamble and love to go a state that is hot, dry, arid, and desolate. I sometimes thought Wyoming was desolate, but for heaven’s sake, you can drive for hundreds of miles in Nevada without seeing a thing, and then when you arrive in a city, it is way too small. There are no places to shop, no real good places to eat (except for Las Vegas, Mesquite, and Wendover) and you just wouldn’t miss it. I think I wouldn’t mind if Nevada were to secede from the Union.

Today marked the beginning of another winter in Wyoming. One of the first major storms of the year was working its way through Cheyenne, and the whole day consisted of fog, mist, and lousy weather conditions. It reminded me so much of the reasons why I am glad that I know live in Utah. I get tired of the lousy weather and the overcast skies.

I took a walk this summer that made me realized that at one time I was an actual, honest to goodness, outdoorsman. I was walking up a trail in Yosemite National Park, smelling the Pine
Trees, seeing the green all around you. I was in the great outdoors. I loved it. Long ago, I did that all of the time, then I got married and had a family, and somehow I lost that practice and that dream. I am no longer the Outdoorsman. I miss that.

Yesterday was another nail biter. We once again braved Interstate 80 during a winter storm. Luckily for us it was the middle of October, the ground was warm, and the trip was not impossible nor did they close the roads. It was kind of miserable because we had to travel through some adverse weather.

My most non fond memories of I-80 are terrible weather and trips through it. For instance, there was the time that Bonnie and I just about went off the road and were swaying out of control on I-80. Then there was the time that we went through a ground blizzard for 20 miles on the highway in January. We have stopped many times in Rawlins, Rock Springs, and Laramie, on the road and that wasn’t always fun. I hate to think that the I-80 travels for the next little while are going to be always evaluated based on the weather. Tonight was OK. Next time may not always be so OK.

When we visited the Mariposa Grove of big trees in Yosemite National Park, there was a lot of emphasis placed on the National Parks “Burn Policy”. We heard a Park Ranger go into great detail explain and defending this policy. The interesting thing about the burn policy is that at one point, the Park Service went a little too far.

It was the summer of 1989 and Yellowstone National Park was on fire. As a family, we had visited the park the previous summer and had enjoyed the beautiful greenery of the Park. When the fire first started, they treated the fire as a natural occurrence and decided that they should just let it burn so the ecosystem would eventually be balanced out.

Instead, the fire got out of control and the park was burning so badly that Old Faithful Inn, and other man made treasures were in danger of being burned and much of the park was burning out of control. Finally, man stepped in and intervened. I think that since then the Park Service has decided that sometime man must step in and make a difference. We went through the park two or three years later, and it was amazing on how quickly things were starting to recover. It appears that the limited burn policy in Yosemite National Park is starting to make a difference. They want to burn away the underbrush that protection has created, and which can lead to a catastrophic fire of Yellowstone proportions. This could particularly hurt the Giant Sequoias if they didn’t make the change.

I love to write. I don’t do it very well. I don’t have the style that my son Chris has. I don’t have the ability to use prose and to be intellectual. I can’t always seem to get my thoughts down like I would like to do. I can’t always seem to move people by my prose, but regardless, I love to write. I picked that up somewhere. I write diaries. I keep my thoughts to myself. I also write this blog, and tell people what I am thinking, again often not doing much of a job. At this age in my life, I doubt that I will ever be able to excel at writings, but still I like to do it, and the few, the very few, who read my ramblings will have to endure my passion. I doubt anyone ever reads this blog, but if they do, I want them to know, if they haven’t guessed it by now, that I love to write.