Colorado - Episode 1

My family had a favorite vacation spot and that was the state of Colorado.  It was everything you wanted in an adventure including distance.  The trip from the Gulf coast of Texas to Colorado was almost a thousand miles and took us two days by car.  It was a long trip, but nothing about the car trip was monotonous to us as children because we got to watch the scenery unfold before us in an ever changing geographical transition.

First there came the flatness of our coastal lands which gradually turned into the rolling hills as we took Highway 71 through Austin.  The land remained hilly and became more and more dry the further north and west we traveled.  By the time we were past Amarillo the land was very arid and desert like.  This eventually transitioned into mesas as we entered into New Mexico.  By the time we saw our first glimpses of mountains we were nearly vibrating with excitement.  Here was a place so utterly unlike our own home it was like a dream.

We went to Colorado over so many summers and varied our travel and destinations so often that it is impossible to tell the family Colorado experience in one story, so this will be just be the first episode, one of the earliest I can remember.

Now, it is important to know that we never went to Colorado to stay in some building.  We went to there to camp out.  This meant tents, sleeping bags, cooking fires and primitive bathroom facilities.  Nobody liked the camp toilet experience, but it was somewhat mollified by the fact that we weren't asked to bathe for an entire week, so for us kids it was great.  We were stinky but it was great.

We also went to Colorado to fish and this was fishing unlike anything we had in the salt waters of our coastal home.  This was fresh water fishing and it had entirely different rules. The fish were wily and set in their ways, so we had to entice them onto our hooks with stealth and cunning.  Fishing in the fast running streams and rivers called for different tactics than dropping a line off a boat in the comparatively placid bay waters of the gulf.  My father taught us the ways of this experience.

On one of our first Colorado camping adventures that I can remember we had set up camp in one of the many National forest campsites.  This was a lovely place with a small stream branch from a larger river system running right through the campsite.  We were unable to get a spot right next to the stream as it was already claimed by other campers, but we did get a great spot surrounded by huge trees.  We set up the tent and I was practically vibrating with eagerness to go fishing.  I was about five years old and already an avid fisherkid so as soon as possible my father grabbed a fishing pole and he and I set off to the river.

He carried the single pole over his shoulder and we walked down the campsite road to the river and past the small stream and campsites beside it.  A couple of men were at the stream doing various camp things and as we passed they called out, "Heeeey!  Gonna go get a big one huh?"  The smirked and laughed and it was even apparent to me at that young age that they were teasing us.  My father just smiled at them and said, "We sure hope to."

We went down the road and off onto a trail that took us close to the river.  The trail opened up onto a clearing right at the edge of the river and although the ground was clear for about twelve feet in all directions the huge trees arched overhead keeping the clearing in shade.  The river was fast flowing but only about ten feet or so across from bank to bank.  There was a log in the center of the flow and the water was probably only a few feet deep at its deepest point.  The water was crystal clear and splashing with a soft rattle against the smooth river stones that lined its banks.

As we got within about six feet from the bank we stopped and my father began to speak to me in a whisper.  "Let's get the bait ready here.  We have to go up very quiet because if the fish see us they will swim away."  Being a veteran of many fishing encounters I understood exactly what he meant.  He baited the hook with some red colored fish eggs, a bait we purchased especially for Colorado fishing.  He told me because of the speed of the river we were not going to use a cork and we would just cast it out and see what happened.

We crept within a couple of feet of the bank.  He made the first cast and as the bait entered the water it was quickly whisked into the current, the line pulled by the swiftness of the water.  He reeled the line in and handed the rod to me.  "Now you cast. Try to aim for that log."  I had been practicing casting for several weeks in anticipation of this trip so I gave it my best shot.  My first cast was very short of the mark and fell well in front of the log only to be whisked away quickly.  I reeled it back in and my father told me to try again.

On my second cast the bait actually landed on the log itself and seemed to snag.  I looked at my father in surprise and alarm, but he nodded to me that it was okay.  "Just pull it gently a couple of times," he whispered.  I did just that and with the second tug the bait popped off the log and into the water.

Immediately there was a huge yank on the line and I instinctively pulled back.  The rod tip bent down nearly jerking the rod from my hands.  My father grabbed the pole to steady me and said, "Reel it in," now making no attempt to keep his voice quiet.  I set to reeling in the line but the fish fought hard.  My father finally helped by pulling the tip of the pole upward and bringing the fish out of the water.

It was a large rainbow trout nearly a foot long and its beautiful spotted skin glistened in the dappled sunlight.  We were both breathless and excited with this catch.  My father was very surprised and in fact had not at all anticipated us catching a fish, so he had no stringer or any way to carry the fish.  He told me with all the commotion this spot wouldn't have another fish right now so we might as well take this one back to camp.  He searched around until he found a tree branch and used the end of the branch through the fishes gills to carry the fish.

As we came up the trail and back onto the road leading to our camp he had me pause.  He whispered to me, "Here you carry this fish over your shoulder and as we pass by those campers don't say anything and let's see what they say."  I took the heavy fish and held the stick over my left shoulder like he showed me while he carried the fishing pole.  He had me walk by his left side as we approached the camping area and he began to whistle a little tune as we walked.  I practiced walking as nonchalantly as I could with a heavy fish dripping down my back.

The campers we had passed on our way to the river were still there.  It hadn't even been a half hour since we passed by them before.  My father nodded to them and as we came almost past them they let out a whoop.  "Whoa!" one man exclaimed, "Did you just catch that fish?"  My father turned and smiled at them.  "Oh no," he said shaking his head, "I didn't catch it, she did."  They just stared at me and I smiled at them and nodded my head.  "Yeah," I said, "We got a big one."

We turned and sauntered away while the men began to scramble for their fishing gear and run down the pathway we just came from.  We laughed all the way back to our campsite.

Fish Heart

I have always been wildly interested in science.  I could not get enough of nature shows and documentaries.  Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was a weekly favorite, but almost any show that shared insights into the natural world were a great find.  My favorite books were a set of encyclopedias my cousin's had that showed the various stages of life on earth.  I poured over those books as well as our own set of encyclopedias at home, especially anything on snakes or other animals around our neighborhood.

I remember watching one show that was going into great detail about how the human heart worked.  It said that heart muscle was unique.  Other muscle would contract only if the nerves leading to our brain were intact.  Heart muscle was different.  All it needed to contract was contact with other actively contracting heart muscle.  They showed a microscopic view of one heart muscle cell contracting and then another heart muscle cell that was still.  They then touched the two cells together and both cells began to contract in rhythm with each other.

I filed this information along with all the other information I was collecting about the world.  In my brain was a whole bunch of space devoted to interesting tidbits of knowledge.  The unfortunate thing about all that knowledge I was collecting was that it was in no way organized.  I could read about something or watch a show and if I was asked to tell you what I had read or what I had watched I wouldn't be able to remember it in a way that I could describe.  My mind had absorbed the information but it was not at my beck and call.  The information would just rise and fall of its own accord and suddenly I would be thinking about how snakes shed their skin or in the next minute how seeds were pollinated.  Sometimes events would occur and a relevant piece of information would come floating to the top but it was usually trivial in nature.  For example at a family gathering when my aunt was startled by a whole bunch of daddy long legs  crawling out from under a bench I was able to say "Daddy long legs aren't really spiders," which did nothing to stop her from freaking out. "I don't care what they are," she shrieked, "Just don't let them crawl on me."

So there I was filled with abundant, but functionally useless information.  It was sort of like a savings account that I could put money into, but couldn't withdraw money from.  It was there and it was mine, but I couldn't consciously access it.   Occasionally this savings account would randomly spit out money but this would be like money from the game Monopoly - useless except for a vary narrow window called playing the Monopoly game.  In this game having a lot of Monopoly money means you can buy all sorts of things and play the game well but it does nothing for you in any useful, real life sort of way.  Unless playing the game of Monopoly somehow teaches you how to deal with the crushing disappointment that comes from dealing with high rent or exorbitant taxes and fees.  All I know is that each time my sister and my cousins and I played the game we would get very tired and very angry at each other.  That was quite similar to the effect my knowledge had on others.  They would get very tired of me and sometimes angry.  This was because my wealth of knowledge was useless except for a very narrow window of application.  This was rather dramatically demonstrated in the following incident.

We were on a fishing trip and my sister and I were on shore checking out some crab lines that we had baited and so far had not produced much result.  We all had caught several fish and since it was the end of the day my father was cleaning the fish in preparation for us leaving.  Two of the fish we had caught were sheep's head which were a fairly large fish between 10 to 20 inches.  These were a bony, robust fish with black stripes on a silver body.  One of their most distinctive features were the stubby teeth they had, so when my father beheaded the fish I took it and was examining its mouth.

My sister came over to me with something in her hand.  "Look," she said, "It's a fish's heart."  In her hand she held a very small red organ that was completely still.  "It isn't beating," I noted.  My brain began to itch and I felt compelled to reached down into the fish guts my father had just cleaned and find the heart of the sheep's head.  It was still beating.  I touched the beating heart to the one in my sister's hand and that heart began to beat again.  She was shocked.  "How did you know to do that?!" she exclaimed.  I just looked at her because I knew she had watched the same program with me.  "That program that talked about hearts," I said.  "But how did you know that was going to work?" she asked.  Well, the truth be told I had not known it would work, it was my unconscious mind that had known.  However, I didn't want to tell her that since she was so impressed with me.  Usually she was the complete opposite of impressed by me and seldom missed an opportunity to let me know.  "I just knew," I mumbled, but really it didn't matter what I said because she was busy showing my father and mother the two beating fish hearts and telling them I was going to be a surgeon or scientist or something.

Now I was happy to revel in any positive regard from my sister, but I am not sure her words were taken all that seriously considering how morbid it was for her to be carrying around a couple of disembodied hearts.  Beating or not it was sort of creepy.  Luckily my parents talked her down.  "Yes," they said, "It is very interesting and yes, how fascinating and how typical that your sister would know how to do something so very strange and icky, but wouldn't it be better if you put the fish guts down now?"  Thankfully, the hearts eventually stopped beating so my sister finally abandoned them.  It would have been fine if she had just left it at that, but later when some friends of hers were visiting she recounted the tale again.  Now instead of them marveling about how smart I was they were grossed out by the whole ordeal.  They began to speculate on whether or not I would become some sort of mad scientist.  When they left my sister was over being impressed with me and went back to her old tormenting ways.  From then on whenever I did anything remotely smart she said it was more proof that I was going to be another Dr. Frankenstein.  

This did not stop me from learning and I continued to add to the pile of knowledge in my brain as I still do today.  So far, I don't feel compelled to create an underground laboratory and conduct experiments on reanimating the dead.  However, if you come to me with a fish in cardiac arrest I might be able to help you.