Camping at Green's Peak (Sun.-Mon.)

Sunday morning we were all up and ready to go by 10:00 a.m.  Marilyn was a little sore from riding in Danny and Sherry's Razr, so she opted to stay at camp.  Jeff was the leader and found the only rough road around, I think.  We made several quick stops, some at crossroads, before finally finding a good spot to dismount and walk around.  However, a crime was committed here, and a criminal now resides among us.

When we pull off the trail, there was a lovely mushroom welcoming us.  We all drove past, except one person, and I got a picture.  So here's the saga.

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                                                        Lovely Mushroom, Before Collins,  It was probably 4-5 inches tall.

 Lovely Mushroom, After Collins ran over it

 The criminal being accused.

 Evidence of the flattened mushroom on the tire of the accused.

The criminal.  Expect to see wanted posters at all post offices nationwide.











There were lots and lots of mushrooms in this clearing, many different varieties.  But none as lovely as the one Collins annihilated.

 

So us ladies walked around checking out the mushrooms, and the men discussed the crime, and whatever else men discuss.

Right behind us was a tree stand used for bleeding out an animal, and there was discussion of a lynching right here.

We decided to have a trial later, but Joe and Danny did spot a perfect hanging tree just on down the road.

This forest is full of beautiful pine trees and blue spruce.  One huge tree had been felled here at our clearing.

Sherry really enjoys traipsing around in the forest, and she found several of the mushrooms.  She went back over to the scene of the crime to investigate the damages, and she dug out the mushroom next to the one Collins ran over.

Finally, we were on our way again, riding through this beautiful forest with a carpet of green grass.  We really expected to see lots of deer grazing on this grass, but we didn't see any wildlife.

We arrived back at camp, where a chipmunk or gopher entertained us for a while, digging a hole right under the canopy that Jeff and Brenda had erected.  He stuck his head out a few times, but he was mostly concerned with eating the little flowers.  (He's the brown spot to the left of the dirt pile).

Sunday night's menu was pizza pockets and pies over the fire, which Brenda made and Jeff cooked.  There was some worked involved here from the two of them, but the food was delicious.

The pizza, right out of the fire. 












Monday morning brought a change in plans.  Collins has not been feeling very well, so the Brundiges decided to pack up and go home, and get him to the doctor.  (We are a bit suspicious that the criminal was just trying to escape the jurisdiction of this trial court.)  Marilyn fixed her famous sausage gravy and biscuits before she left, and they got on the road shortly after 9:00 a.m.  That put a damper on the mood and none of us felt like going riding right then.  Jeff wasn't feeling so great either after our rocky ride on Sunday.  So Joe decided he and I needed to go into Springerville.  Brenda had seen on the GPS yesterday that a Circle K was only 18 miles away (Springerville), and he was obsessed with having his fountain diet soda, so off we went.  Danny and Sherry rode along, and we had a nice meal at Booga Reds.  We did a little shopping, picked up some ice, and filled up the gas tanks for the quads.

When we got back to camp, we decided to take a late afternoon quad ride, and we ended up going to Vernon, which is out on Hwy. 60.  On the way, the afternoon thunderstorm hit, and a flash of lighting and the following clap of thunder had me just about diving off my quad.  But we drove out of the rain pretty quickly, although we came upon a pile of hail shortly thereafter, so we knew we had been lucky.  We stopped at the convenience store in Vernon and had refreshments, then headed back to camp, figuring we were for sure going to get rained on.  But we lucked out, missed the rain, and saw two elk.  We decided on an easy dinner since it was about dark, so I heated up the chili and got out the fixins' for hot dogs again.  Joe did a great job roasting our hot dogs. 

Jeff had a little mishap when he was roasting his and ended up with a wet butt.  He sort of tripped getting out of his chair, and landed in Joe's chair where he had left his beer.  So the beer turned over, Jeff sat down in it, and a verbal battle ensued over the spilled beer.  So Jeff had beer-butt the rest of the evening.

We sat by the campfire until bedtime (which is different for everyone, and Jeff keeps complaining that we go to bed too early).  During the nights, the cows invade our campsite -- I'm thinking maybe this is their favorite bedding spot.  And did I mention they all seem to have diarrhea!  Danny and Sherry have out a set of solar panels, and the cows seem to think maybe that is a cow-lick, because it had tongue prints on it.   Danny wiped it off before I got a photo of the incriminating tongue prints, so I'll have to get up early tomorrow and check it out.

Collins and Marilyn reported that they got home about 3:30, and are driving down to the Valley on Tuesday to see the doctor.  We will await word from them.