Charlie and I just enjoyed a nice visit from our “adopted 5th son”, Jason Friedman.
Jason, who is in his late 40’s, lives near Golden, Colorado and is a big-shot manager working for home builder Richmond-American. He recently survived a bout of Covid-19 and the 5-day visit to our house in Nevada was his first escape from home since the pandemic began.
He brought his Siberian Husky “Ashka” along for the mini-vacation. She is Jason’s regular hiking partner up in the Rockies. Ashka is 12 years old and very fit. And, she also gets along great with our dogs.
Jason, Ashka and I did several hikes during his visit.
The first was to The Vortex, a popular spot near St. George, Utah which features petrified sand dunes and very unusual landforms.
We also spent a morning hiking in the Valley of Fire, which is Nevada’s first State Park. It is a maze of tortured red rock where you can hike in virtually any direction and find interesting stuff.
You can lose stuff, too. Jason fell victim to the “Pickpocket Bush” along the way, and we had to spend an extra hour or so retracing our steps to look for his car keys lanyard. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack but, miraculously, I found it hanging from a sticky bush.
While at Valley of Fire, we also hiked out to a rock formation called the Fire Wave.
The next day, Jason, my friend Lloyd, and I went golfing at Conestoga Golf Club here in Sun City Mesquite.
We had a great time. I shot 85 with a triple bogey and two double bogies. I think my golf lessons are beginning to pay off. With just a few corrections, I could have broken 80.
On Friday, the four of us (including Ashka) drove about an hour south to the Mormon Mountains and hiked out to a place called Hackberry Springs. Nothing much remarkable about the hike except a few interesting petroglyphs, some of which appear to show Spaniards riding horses. I’m guessing that the rock art was made maybe 200 to 300 years ago.
That night we enjoyed a great dinner of short ribs and mashed potatoes (courtesy of Lloyd) and we played several games of cards. Jason kicked our asses.
He’s driving home today but will stop about half way to do an overnight hike in the mountains east of Salt Lake. We plan to visit him at his home in Colorado in the Spring.