The Green Tortoise Part X

After such a bad night's sleep and the fear of being left behind in Idaho, I decided to abandon the idea of rest all together and start setting up breakfast production around 6:30 AM with Driver Dave.

This becomes one of my regular jobs during the next eleven days. To set-up breakfast, first we pull out all the equipment from the cargo bays in the buses belly. For each meal we extract four six-foot folding tables, twenty over-sized stackable crates the contents which include coffee cups, plates, bowls, coffee brewing equipment, coffee, tea and hot chocolate ingredients, disposable sandwich bags and foil, assorted cereals, condiments, dried pasta, granola bars, olive oil and vinegar, miscellaneous dried ingredients like flour and corn meal, dried spices with salt and pepper mills. Also there are two huge tool boxes that hold chef knives and utensils plus the silverware we all use.

Once we unload the bins out of the bay, then comes setting up the huge pot we use to boil water for coffee and tea plus setting up the propane stove with five gallon propane tank. The is no weekend camp stove. It is cast-iron and very heavy designed to hold only one over-sized stock pot at a time. The first actual cooking task after bringing everything out and setting up the stove is boiling water. Everyone craves their coffee or tea first off in the morning. Occasionally we make other meals that require us to use industrial sized camp stoves with dual burners. We set two of those up back-to-back with another giant tank of propane.

We have a hand-washing station that uses a three compartment sink concept: soapy water, rinse water and bleach water to sterilize. Before anyone helps, they have to wash their hands. Also, we set-up a dish washing area with the same set-up but using bus tubs and there are four drying racks. Dishes and utensils must air-dry after being dipped into the bleach-water to kill bacteria.

Wavy Dave, the tax consultant, appoints himself as chief coffee maker in the morning. The only problem with this is that he is not a coffee drinker thus makes terrible coffee. We're drinking cowboy coffee which consists of boiled water poured on top of coffee grounds in a stainless steel pitcher with spout. We strain the coffee into plastic cups and put the leftover grounds back in the pot. When I kindly suggest to Wavy Dave that he use more of grounds in his cowboy coffee, he says, "That's not what Driver Dave instructed me to do."

Good times.

Except for a couple of days, each breakfast has cut fruit salad, granola and yogurt. On the other few days we had French Toast which wasn't so much fun for me since I can't eat bread without feeling sick, but people seemed to enjoy it. Carol, who also can't eat bread, made us cheese omelets instead for breakfast. That was nice. Another day, Cassie and crew made a Mexican scramble which was inedible. It was watery, wet eggs with soggy vegetables.

To set-up and tear-down breakfast takes a couple of hours. Once the food prep is done then we pack a lunch for the afternoon which are sandwich fixings, then we clean and put everything away. Not a fast process.

It is Sunday morning and we are headed to the Craters of the Moon. It is before 9 AM and already a hot 95 Fahrenheit degrees outside (that's 35 Celsius). Driver Dave drops us off and says the hike is only a mile around and there are caves to explore. He is wrong. It is a few miles but I do the hike quickly and return back to the bus and fall immediately asleep. I don't wake up for several hours which is blissful rest.

When I awake we are headed down Idaho canyon roads that weave around the Salmon River. It is a beautiful area, lush and green and all of our spirits are lifted. We arrive at our campsite which is off of the river so we can go for a swim, or at least a dip and it is the first night of camping. We pull our out big bags and tents and start setting up camp. Most of us will be sleeping outside. Those who didn't bring tents lay blue tarps on the soft grass and take cushions from the bus to sleep under the stars in their sleeping bags. It sounds romantic but I've slept under the stars plenty of times and don't like to wake up wet, covered in dew. But I can see the attraction. The party group set-up their tarps just like they are in the front of the bus except they don't sleep head-to-toe outside. They're side by side. Each tarp holds about four people.

I bought a new tent for this trip and it was a bargain. It is huge compared to my companions who have single or double tents. Mine can easily sleep four to six people. I take cushions from the bus to sleep on and bring all my gear inside. It is so nice to have all my stuff around me within the confines of my own space. There is a strong sense of self within my little tent. I savor the privacy, skip dinner and fall asleep for thirteen long, glorious hours.

The first night of camping was a success. A huge thunderstorm passed through our canyon after dinner and we were lucky, no tents were harmed. I slept through the whole storm and listened to the stories of the double rainbows that appeared following the storm. After breakfast we tear down camp and have a two hour wait before we head out white water rafting. Everyone is in good spirits and a group of us sits around a picnic table telling stories and laughing.

Joe is funny this morning. Every time someone says the word "gold" he stands up, crouches over like an old man and slaps his knee like he's a prospector from the 1800's and says really loud, "GOLD!?" The laughter feeds his soul and it becomes an inside joke for the next week, especially when strangers are around. We say the word in anticipation of Joe's response. Later in the trip Joe buys a black Stetson cowboy hat, black leather holster and a very real looking metal gun, so he looks more the part. He takes to sitting in full cowboy gear on the bus, hiding the gun when we roll into small towns. Joe takes no shame in playing dressing up and will do just about anything for a laugh on this trip.

A while later and we are back on the bus winding through the canyons to the drop-off point for the white water rafting. I was ambivalently about going rafting thinking about other things I could do with the sixty bucks, but decided I had never done it before and didn't know when I'd be back to the west coast again...and the snow pack was still melting so the trip was bound to be exciting. At the last minute I decide to go abandoning caution to the wind and face my fear of the white waters.

We are met by our Idaho guides, rugged, athletic, strong, handsome men who know this river inside and out. There are three boats. Two boats are full with eight people and mine has six. There is only one person who is not with the Green Tortoise group. His name is Todd. He is a teacher from Baltimore out west camping with some friends. His companions bailed out at the last moment once they found out that we would be on class four rapids.

Rating rapids is the same as rating tornadoes or hurricanes. It is a one through five scale, five being the most dangerous and one the easiest. The snow pack was still melting under the hot Idaho sun and the river looks intimidating. Our guides have increased the ride by ten miles. They are a small, family-owned business that dropped homemade cookies to our campsite after we arrived last night as a welcome present.

This should be an exciting ride.

To be continued...

So much love,
All the way from over here...
Linda