On the Road Again Read online

  I did see a pair of Coyotes hunting and figured if they were satisfied I was. Back at the camp Sandy had fixed a quick meal and we got that eaten and sat out as night rolled in.

  The open so called “desert” country is about the most beautiful

  place to spend a night just watching the sky.

  We decided to sleep on top of the trailer so we could watch the stars and also be in a better place to fight from if need be.

  Molly was in the trailer so she wouldn’t get drawn out by the “youtes”.

  Buck and company were our night guards and we slept like babies.

  Waking up with the sun is a wonderful thing out in open country and the morning chill had us moving quick into the trailer to get some coffee going. We decided a camp fire was to much of an invite to visitors.

  We did take time for sandy to put a hundred rounds thru Ellie and I swear they bonded from first shot. I don’t think there was even the slightest need to change the sights.

  We were loaded up and on the road in a couple of hours, since as I mentioned watches are not important the time wasn’t exact and that was good!

  We rolled out of the boulders and right onto the road as an old truck with a bunch of Navajo pulled over the little rise. Now most folks would have slammed on their breaks and scattered these days but they just nodded and kept going. I like their ways. Bet there wasn’t a watch in the whole bunch.

  We were looking forward to seeing Charley and his people again, it seemed so long ago. Being stuck among people will do that. Everybody in a hurry to get something done so as to hurry up to get something else done so as…..you get the picture.

  We had talked a lot about all the lives lost and that it was a horrible thing but now that it was a done deal I guess it kept us sane to look for an up side to it all.

  For one and the main thing, the chances of somebody using a nuke on us was real slim and the Earth was going to get time to heal which is a good thing because if we had kept going the whole planet could have died.

  Thinking about all the folks who did die was just something that as time went by kind of got swept aside what with the fight to stay alive on a daily basis.

  We slowed down a lot and decided to just enjoy the road trip and if trouble came we would deal with it as best we could. We spent the night wherever it looked like we could get out of sight and relax.

  The slower travel was much better on the crew in the trailer and the earlier stops gave us a chance to find a place with some graze for them.

  And frankly we were enjoying the peace and quiet of being alone with our happy band of gypsies. I think they all knew we were soon going to be really back in the saddle and I know Buck was ready.

  We took a week to get to Shiprock and arrived close to mid day and it looked just like the day we first drove up to the café. Same bunch of elders sitting in the shade but I almost think I saw a tiny smile or two when we stopped.

  Charley walked out of the café and came over followed by a few younger boys who went right to unloading the trailer while we just watched.

  Buck leading the way headed right for the water just as if we never left here, and maybe in a way we never did.

  Charley looked at my ear and said “ I cut myself worse then that skinning a rabbit. I just shook my head while Sandy laughed.

  She stopped when Charley said “ Good shooting Wyatt”. Then I laughed.

  Charley lead the way to the café where the old woman did smile and welcome us and brought coffee. Which surprised me since three pounds won’t last that long.

  After she headed back for food Charley said she saved some for when you came back. I was flattered to say the least. Sandy got up and went outside and in a bit was back with all three boys carrying boxes that looked like unopened cases of coffee!

  I just shook my head and left her to it. She led the boys to the kitchen and shortly was back and set down while the boys made another trip.

  I was dying to ask but damned if I would give her the satisfaction of admitting I didn’t know half of what I was supposed to.

  And this time I caught Charley with a glint in his eye and a tiny smile.

  I just shook my head and was saved by lunch arriving. If I keep shaking my head so much my brain will roll out.

  The old woman said to Sandy that it was lamb stew she made special for us. I almost opened my mouth to ask how she knew we were coming but I just shut up and started eating the stew with flat bread cooked on a flat rock and it was awesome even though I never was one for eating sheep.

  After we were done we followed charley outside to a table and chairs under a brush arbor where we sat and let the food settle and relaxed.

  Finally Charley made a throat clearing sound and shortly spoke about having heard word from Joe and Willy and the bunch they took with them. He said they had in fact settled in a canyon where the lake waters had backed up when Lake Powell was formed.

  He said they had been busy building homes into the sand stone and using native stones also. Their gardens had done very well and of course the fishing was very good and they were happy.

  I had a feeling there was more so I waited and after a bit he said “They thought they might have trouble soon from some people who have decided the whole area belonged to them.” My first thought was it never stops. Good folks work to build and others just want to take.

  Charley said he didn’t know anything about who it might be so he sent a few of his younger men over to ease in and take a look. Of course it’s a big lake or will be until the damn lets go with nobody working it but that might be many long years down the road.

  Even then if our friends had located in a canyon with water coming from creeks or springs then if the dam let go it shouldn’t effect them too much. I’d hate to be in the country below the dam.

  We decided to hang out with Charley until he heard from his scouts since we knew Jack about the country except from books plus we really didn’t know for sure where our friends had settled. But Charles’s people did and we would have guides with us.

  Mostly I wanted to know as much as possible about the “Who” of it all since I knew Joe and Willy and their group had a lot of the equipment we had “rescued” from the Air base so if he was worried about anybody while having all that hardware it would be smart to walk not run into it.

  But we are going for damn sure. If I think it’s needed I can send word back to the different places our bunch settled and have them all on the road.

  We had some real nice long talks with Charley about this area and I have to say it’s more to my liking then East Texas but there are pulls from both places.

  Charley said they hadn’t had any trouble at all since we wiped out the mystery people who were there to ambush me when I came thru. I was glad peace seemed to be spreading across the land. At least the land we traveled. I was sure the big cities were hell holes and would be for many years.

  I figured the ruling Gangs would eventfully turn into Tribes and as time passed would evolve into something more and maybe much worse then street gangs. Time would tell and as for right now I had no interest in entering any of the remains of civilization.

  On the morning of our third day Charley told us his scouts were headed in and had been involved in a fire fight with strangers and one was dead.

  He didn’t show much but I could tell he was both very angry and saddened to loose one of his young men. I just hoped it wasn’t one who had been with us when we fought the cannibals as we had all gotten close in that mess.

  Around mid day they arrived in an old dust covered truck with their friend wrapped in his blanket. Sandy and I stayed away while the People did what they had to do. I had no idea how the People performed their ceremonies and didn’t want to offend.

  That night Charley came to tell us what had happened. He said they located Joe and Willies group and watched from the hills but really didn’t see any trouble. He said the group looked to be doing real good and had built a very nice home place.

  He also said they had built fighting positions all over the area and from the description had interlocking fields of fire. The scouts didn’t see any sign of any weapons outside the rifles they all carried everywhere they went.

  Also their canyon was filled with twists and turns and the group had fighting positions all along the rim and could control anybody coming by water. After they had watched a few days they decided to head back and report what they knew and what they thought.

  They were only a few miles from their watch point when they drove into an ambush and just blew thru it because the men setting it up were caught off guard and only got off a few shots and bad luck one of the young men was hit and died instantly. He had been in the back of the truck and returned fire causing the shooters to do more ducking then shooting.

  There was no pursuit and the scouts thought it was because the people at the ambush weren’t interested in an old truck with some Indians in it. Meaning they were maybe looking to ambush our friends.

  And that was something I just wasn’t going to allow. It was a pretty good distance from here to there so we decided to haul everything with us and get as close as possible and hid the rig and ride into the area low and slow.

  Charley nodded and said day after tomorrow first light. I agreed since I knew they were dealing with their loss. Sandy and I would get out what we needed. And told Charley we could haul their horses or they could ride the other mules. He smiled and said thank you but we will ride horses, but you can haul some of them, We would leave all the pack mules and have room for three horses.

  Fires burned long into the night and drumming and rattles with other sounds from afar. We just slept thru it all. It was a sad time but then again we have been living in very sad times for a good while now. Having no idea what
the Navajo burial ceremony consisted of we stayed in our camp until Charley showed up.

  We made no mention nor did he of the burial and waited for him to initiate the conversation.

  After sitting with coffee for a while he said we would leave tomorrow morning early as it was a drive and parts were real rough.

  I did say that I had no plans of charging in guns blazing like some action b movie. He agreed and added that he was wondering why they would be setting an ambush so far from the people they wanted. I think Charley was wondering if maybe the whole thing was a very bad and sad mistake caused by jumpy people startled into firing.

  We were going in as a scouting party not a war party so we didn’t haul out the heavy weapons just sticking to our usual carry stuff. Charley headed back to his duties such as they were and we started checking our equipment.

  Sandy was bouncing back and forth on what rifle to take and the MP5 was just not an option since any shooting would be longer range.

  She smiled and started digging around and came up with her AK and I smiled too. It brought back memory’s of our time together. How romantic! An AK for a warm memory. But she did love it as did I before I gave it to her. And it looked good on her. It accented her cammie pants and dusty desert boot. Such a fashion queen.

  I was taking the 308 bolt gun and of course we put our 45’s on when our feet touched the ground. We packed saddle bags with ammo and dried foods. And our favorite home made pemmican, Jerky ground up and mixed with home made pecan butter, dried berry’s and rolled in powdered sugar and.

  How long one could live on it I had no idea but it was damn good and stuck to the ribs.

  One day I’m going to add some to boiling water just to see how it tastes. I’m betting damn good and if it’s cold it will be like a soup …kinda.

  ***

  Here’s a secret I’ve never admitted to anybody. About 20 years back I was hunting up in Elk country and towards mid day I was further from the truck then I had planned to be. And hungry, the kind of hungry that gives me the shakes then a headache.

  I had my old beat to hell pack on that I’ve carried hunting for the previous 20 years, one of those cheap nylon types made in Japan before they got too uptown to make our cheap junk.

  Anyway I found a spot out of the wind and opened the pack and dug out the big zip lock baggie that had, well easier to say it didn’t have a kitchen sink but that was it.

  I dumped it out and I swear a cloud of dust billowed out ( I’m really prepared ) looking the mess over I got my GI canteen and took the cup out of the carrier so I had water and something to heat it in.

  Now I needed fire and that is never a problem because I use a handy little tool called a Blast Match. Best fire started this side of gasoline and a match.

  I got some twigs and broke them up and rubbed them back and forth between my gloved hands and made some nice bark dust and small fibrous material, I put that between some rocks and hit the sparks to it with the fire starter and I had a small flickering flame.

  I never even had to move to get what I needed for my fire because it was all around me. After the fire was going a bit and I was warming up I set the cup on the rocks about 2/3 full of water. While that was going I laid out the treasures I found from god only knows how long ago.

  Two instant oatmeal packets different flavors but who cares. Two of the small snickers bars like you give away at Halloween. They were so old they were white chalky looking but WTF say’s I tossing them into the water that was starting to boil.

  I added the oatmeal which was oat dust but again WTF. And the super find…A tin of C ration peanut butter from ages ago. And! I even used my P-38 can opener ( issued to open C rations )as issued to me a young Marine Recruit back in the last ice age!.

  Adding the peanut butter I used the one of two thing you never go anyplace without. A small towel and a spoon.

  I won’t explain it but ask somebody who’s old and was a grunt a long time ago.

  I stirred that mess until it was all dissolved and I leaned back against a rock and just sipped a drink from heaven. Of course I was cold and hungry and tired and 50 miles from Mickey D’s.

  It was delish and worked but I never again went off for a day hunt without taking a lunch and I did replace the stuff in the pack but first I had to patch the inside bottom with duck tape. I said it was old.

  ******

  When we had everything loaded to our own idea of perfect we loaded the three horses. Then our two in the back. The other truck was pulling a four horse trailer with five horses in it.

  Indian ponies seemed to be smaller then the ones white men breed but I bet their horses would thrive on the stuff growing here long after the Rab starved to death but then again the Rab is a desert breed.

  Of course I didn’t say anything to Sandy about her horse being too citified to be here in this country. I don’t like sleeping alone since I got used to company.

  We took our heavy coats and warm hats because the high desert will fry you all day and freeze yer ass off come sun down. We also each packed along a thermal blanket that would keep us warm plus our GI issue ponchos plus the poncho liners.

  Before first light we were up and loaded and ready to roll, we had a good breakfast in the café with good strong coffee all cooked in an old iron kitchen stove that looked 200 years old but still worked like it was new. That old woman could really make it hum at cooking time.

  We rolled out with Charley riding with us and the rest in the big crew cab truck they hauled out for this trip. I think it went to the fight in NM with us.

  We followed the other truck and trailer with another truck a mile ahead of them. We weren’t burning the tires off but we made good time.

  Sandy curled up and slept in the back seat. Must be nice to be small enough to make a truck seat look like a queen size bed.

  We rolled all day long and were on so many different roads both paved and dirt or rock. Finally about dark we slowed down and turned into a dirt track that headed down into a bowl where the trucks were out of sight.

  A couple of the young men had bailed out back at the road and when they got done it looked like nobody had been on this road since the last rain. 1929 I think Charley said.

  Sandy made dinner for the bunch opening quart jars of some kind of stew from back home. She made biscuits in the oven and we all just sat by a small fire and chowed down washing it down with hot coffee laced with sugar and cream.

  For living thru the end of civilization we were doing pretty damn good. I asked where dessert was and damned if she didn’t jump up and haul out a big box of Miz Sheri’s triple thick and chewy death by chocolate Brownies! We needed to lose the world more often!

  Before it got dark two of Charles’s lads saddled up and rode out to scout the area where the gun fight took place. We put the fire out just at dusk and everybody headed for the bed rolls. Except us, we had a nice comfy bed in the trailer. And no I wasn’t ashamed nor embarrassed to be sleeping in a real bed. I’m old and wounded. Kinda.

  I woke up to a small light shining and the smell of coffee and hearing the sound of the percolator makes. she was really making a feed for the bunch and we might be a while getting another one like it.