Mother, Nature by Jedidiah Jenkins

Author:Jedidiah Jenkins [Jenkins, Jedidiah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2023-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

5

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We wake up in Gunnison to a neon-pink sunrise. The high-altitude clouds like Bob Ross brushstrokes. It is 19 degrees. I go start the car and let it run for a while to warm up. Today we’re aiming for Salt Lake City or even Twin Falls, Idaho.

We drive down from Gunnison into a huge valley just north of Montrose. As we exit the San Juan Mountains, the aspen trees and lush green grass end abruptly and the land becomes dry, a mix of white and pale pink. Then the pink fades to gray, leaving only rocks and shrubs. By the time we’ve passed Grand Junction, heading west to Utah, it is almost hard to see. The rock and sand reflect sunlight through every window. The buildings sitting out in the vastness are cracked and often abandoned.

“This was one of the hardest stretches of the entire walk,” Mom says.

“Why?”

“Well at some point, and I mean this is not very pretty, but at some point I was close to heatstroke, it was 108 degrees, and we found a drainage ditch and I drank out of it. Within fifteen minutes, I was sick as a horse. And it so happened a highway patrolman drove by and saw we were in trouble and stopped to help us. He took us five miles up the road to a motel and dropped us off and I threw up all night long.”

“What do you think was in the ditch?”

“Oh, well, cattle urine, bacteria, and just parasites and who knows. I got so sick I couldn’t walk.”

“Wild, Mom. I can’t believe you drank out of a farm drainage ditch. That’s so intense.”

I am again amazed at all my mom and dad survived. She holds up a photo of them lying under their umbrellas on the side of a sandy, rocky hill, the exact spot we’re driving through now. The land hasn’t changed at all in forty years.

“Once we get to Green River, I think your dad and I turned north from there up Highway 191 to go to Salt Lake that way. Yeah, see here it is on the map.” She holds it up to my face.

“Mom, I’m driving,” I say, annoyed. “I’ll stop in Green River and then I’ll look and we’ll find it.”

“What should we listen to today?” she says, bubbly and moving past my scolding.

“You know what I know nothing about? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I’ve never even seen the movie.”

“One second,” she says with the tone of a detective, typing Butch Cassidy into her podcast app. “Let me seeeee.” She theatrically scrolls down the list of options. “Here we go. Found one. It’s just one episode, but it’s an hour long.”

“Perfect, lets listen.”

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