To the Man I Spit On, I’m Sorry

Is this ever going to get boring? I loved waking up the last couple of mornings to the view of the dark blue waters of Lake Mead, with its islands poking out of the middle. The water is really low right now, and the high water line is visible about a third of the way up the largest island, creating a pale tan swath under the dark brown peak.

We rode our bikes down to the Hoover Dam yesterday. The wind was 30 mph with higher gusts - enough to push me around a bit and almost blow me over once, but it was a fun ride that took us past the dam boneyard, with all of the broken and worn out pieces that are waiting to be recycled.

Abe told me before we got to the dam that if you spit over the edge, the updraft will blow the spit upward. When we were looking over the edge, he once again told me, "You should spit," so I did. Of course, as soon as I did, his response was, "Did you just spit?!" He told me to! It was really cool to watch as the foamy globe slowly floated up and over our heads, like a drop of water floating in the space station, and then I lost sight of it as it went behind me. Just after I lost sight of it, I heard a man, "What was that? I think a bird just s**t on me!" Maybe I should have turned and apologized, but I just stared intently over the edge, keeping my face hidden in shame and embarrassment, hoping he wouldn't figure out that it was me and thinking, "I can't believe I just spit on a man!" Abe and I had a good laugh about it afterward. Unfortunately, I doubt the man was laughing if he figured out what it was. Maybe he knew it was an accident and had a really good sense of humor...

At another spot, Abe was smarter and squirted water out of his water bottle (spit works better because it floats better, but I'm sure people would rather get hit with water) after checking to make sure there was no one behind us. We were next to a tall concrete wall to the left of us, and we watched as the water shot up and splattered on the wall. Then we heard someone make noise and turned to look. Although we saw the water splatter to the left of us, some drops had hit some ladies ten feet to the RIGHT. We apologized and let them know that it was just water. The ladies were gracious and laughed. I guess the moral of the story is: When you spray liquids over the Hoover Dam, know that you never know where it will go. Maybe it should be not to spray liquids over the Hoover Dam, but it's too cool to resist.

We have met more amazing people on this stop. Wednesday night, Abe went into the lodge to play blackjack on one of the machines and met a lady named Lolly. She was here with her husband, Tank. I love the names - Lolly and Tank. Anyway, while we are just over one week into our year long trip, they are one week from their one year anniversary, which they will spend in our hometown of Boise. And, while we just left Zion to get out of the wind, they are leaving here to go to Zionto get out of the wind. I hope it works out for one of us. I got to meet them on Thursday morning, and they seemed like really great people. Lolly was even nice enough to show me around the pickup camper that they were living in. It's amazing how much room they have! It felt way bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside, and she showed me some of the changes they had made to make more efficient use of the space. I love seeing how other people live doing this! With our two dogs, one of which is on the huge side, we couldn't make it in a camper, but it seemed to be working great for them, and she wasn't ready to quit yet.

There was also Mark, who is living in the back of his pickup with a camper shell. He's a singer and guitar player who plays at bars, and has a dream of starting a YouTube channel and touring the west coast, posting videos of himself performing at the different locations and telling about them. He struck me as a man with a huge heart. He was friends with a lady staying in her Jeep with her two Dachshunds. They spent a lot of time visiting with each other, and he drove her somewhere in his pickup Wednesday evening. I got the impression that they looked out for each other and helped each other out whenever they could. I'm realizing that I'm going to have a chance to get a close look at a community of people across the country that few people know anything about.

Now we're on our way to Lake Havasu City, AZ, where it's 70 degrees and cloudy with a slight breeze. I see shorts in my near future. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon.