Passion in the Park

One third of the campers in the Camp Ground at Zion are young people, and about two thirds are old goats. As an old goat Kadizzle got up to sit in comfort in the Earth Module surrounded by windows drinking hot coffee. Outside it is overcast and a bit chilly. Since The Commander would not share the computer Kadizzle had nothing to do but watch the young lovers camped next door. Rodger had reported doing the same over on his end of the campground. As the two young lovers prepared breakfast just about every motion involved a hug or a kiss. Here is your tea, a little lip smacker. Now here is your hot cereal, a hug and a kiss. Very few task were accomplished without some show of affection. Oh, those were the days. Spending the night in a tent with your sweetie on a cold night is not a bad fix to get yourself in.

Kadizzle just passed his 35th year under the command of The Commander. Instead of a kiss with his coffee, all he gets is a lecture on less sugar, more stirring and no spilling. The Commander is nice about making breakfast. She asks if Kadizzle wants toast of Decon with his eggs.

White man tells many lies.

Lord Kadizzle wandered into the lounge at the RV park after a long days hike and sat down by an old Indian chief. After a little conversation the chief asked Kadizzle where he was from. Kadizzle told him he was from North Dakota, the land of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. The Chief said he knew of those tribes and how they had helped Lewis and Clark. The Chief asked Kadizzle if he was known among the tribes. Kadizzle told him indeed he was famous among the Indian women in North Dakota, and they called him "Long Arrow". After hearing this the chief grabbed Kadizzle's arrow and proclaimed "White man tells many lies".

Fooled by the Ghost Arch

Always breaking into new territory the Kadizzilites headed out for the days adventure at Zion National Park. Wayne, and Ruth took the day off, but Kadizzle, The Commander, Myra, and Rodger made the trek. When the group reached the farthest point in the wilderness ever reached by senior citizens it was time to make a decision. Where next should we push the known boundaries of those with dementia? Kadizzle wanted to go toward the Virgin river and peer into the canyon. However, he lost to the rest of the group that spotted a huge arch off in the distance. The decision was made to head for the arch. At the beginning there was debate as to if it really was an arch. After some trekking the band finally got close enough for a clear view. There was no arch. The sunlight had cast itself on the rocks to create an illusion. Not one to give in easily The Commander thought perhaps we had not gone to the right place, but even The Commander finally admitted we had been fooled. As the angle of the sun changed it became apparent how the sun shine had fooled us. It was a crystal clear day and a premier hike. On the way back to base camp we saw a momma Big horn sheep and three triplets beside the road. The day had a wonderful ending as the explorers cooked on an open camp fire. The mesquite smoke seeped into Kadizzles steak for a wonderful flavor. Kadizzle played a round of horse shoes with the guys next door, and ended the night sitting by the camp fire. Does it get any better?

Boots on the ground

Wayne, and Myra Axtman joined us at Zion. Now we have more boots on the ground and may be able to conquer the virgin East side of Zion National Park. Yesterday we did a couple of short leg stretchers to get ready for the big assault today. With favorable weather it looks like we can bust back up into the unexplored area. Few people know there are actually two branches to the Virgin River. The southern branch is little seen or explored. Kadizzles suspects the area is full of Indian artifacts. However, getting down into the steep canyon is not easy. Looking for hikable routes into canyons is fun and there may be some of that today

Dissappointment at the Indian Cave

Two days ago the Kadizzlites visited the Indian Cave high above Zion National Park. Few people know of this cave, but even a few seems to be too many. Years ago we made our first trip to the cave. The cave was special because it appeared to have human bones embedded in the rock in what looked like resin from the fire. Since the cave was known to few the bones were undisturbed. On our recent trip the bones were gone. Sadly this is what is gradually happening to the heritage of the southwest. As more and more people visit these sites they are becoming completely destroyed. There are not enough resources to protect these sites.

Traveling the southwest you see people displaying the material they have looted from these sites. Most of the worst looting took place many years ago. The Mormons were some of the worst offenders. Last year there was a big scandal when someone turned in some of the old time Mormon artifact looters.

We love visiting these sites and it is distressing to think that these places that have existed for hundreds of years will soon be overwhelmed by too many visitors. Perhaps we are part of the problem. Often Kadizzle wonders if his children and grandchildren will be able to see the site he has seen.

62 Times around upside down

This is the day Kadizzle turns 62. Kadizzle has ridden the planet around the sun 62 times. This is the day the Earth stands vertical. This is the day in 1976 Kadizzle married The Commander.

Kadizzle's biggest revelation today is the world he has been ridding around the sun is upside down. A big bonus for the Kadizzles will occur in about an hour. Kadizzle will walk over to the Zion Park office and get his pass for ten dollars that will entitle him free admittance to all national parks and half priced camping. This week will be half priced. Although Kadizzle will love the bonus, it is a prime example of our upside down world. Why do old fat guys get half price when young people trying to pay their way through college pay full price? Sure some old people need a break, but the vast majority are doing just fine in their pricey RV. Why do people who make over $106,000 dollars quit paying social security, while those making less pay the 7% ? Why would any country give 700 billion in tax breaks to the richest 2% while forty million Americans have no health insurance? Yup the world is upside down. The average person in India uses two gallons of gas PER YEAR. Kadizzle like most Amricans goes through that much in thirty minutes. People spend millions on a fancy church when there are people living in poverty within a mile of the church.

Maybe on this trip around the sun the planet will flip and we will care more about the poor than the rich, maybe we will realize what we have done to our young by robbing them of a future, maybe we will care more about the others that share this planet, maybe we will quit with our phony religion and actually care about our fellow man. Maybe this year we will spend more time paying attention to reality and less time watching sports. Hopefully year 63 can be a year of change. Maybe Kadizzle could lose some weight. Well here we go on the next trip around the sun.

The Flaw

Trickle down has blown up, and turned into trickle up. THE FLAW is a documentary about how the right wing has destroyed our economy. This is a trailer from the film.

This is a quote from David Sington who made the film
" I actually changed my politics by the end of this film. I had always thought: “Don’t worry about how the cake is divided up; just worry about growing the cake.” But for me, it was absolutely shocking to realize that the cake has grown a lot in the last 30 years, but all of the benefits of that growth have gone almost literally to the top 1% of Americans. For 90% of Americans, their piece of cake is no bigger now, but housing costs, medical costs have gone proportionally up more than general inflation, so they’re really squeezed."

This is such a simple concept, why don't people get it. You set up a tax system that lets this happen, then you wonder why the economy collapses. The income of the right has risen by 120% meanwhile the working class has gone backwards by 15%. How is this going to work?

Saint Kadizzle on Saint Patrick's Day

Springdale, Utah at the entrance to Zion National Park has a wonderful St. Patrick's day parade every year. Kadizzle got drawn into Wildcat Willie's barbaque with a free sample and then bought some the best ribs ever. After all the locals marched down main street it was the usual Irish live music, beer, and, green jello sculpture contest. The Commander's favorite float was the hotel that had a giant Bed Bug dancing on a bed.

The Green Beer did have some strange effects on Kadizzle. As usual there was the Springdale Women's Drill Team. Crazed women with hand held electric drills dancing down the street.

Get rid of Click and Clack? Is this Libya?

You have to watch this video to see how truly pathetic the Republican Party has become. NPR is a wonderful source of radio everyone of my conservative friends loves, but NPR has a bad habit of exposing the fallacies of the right wing, so they must go. Almost all civilized countries have a national radio program that tries to be straight forward and a good source of honest news. However, this creates a lot of problems for the right wing liars on Fox, so NPR must go. Kadizzle would not argue MSNBC is not biased, nor would he claim a host of other programs have no bias. In our country there are some organs of communication we can trust. Consumer Reports is a magazine we all trust. NPR is the Consumer Reports in our country for news. Because in the category of truth and lies the Republicans come out on the short end they want to destroy it. It is ironic that during a time when countries in the middle east are trying to establish freedom of the press, we are subject to right wing assaults on the free press in our country. The Bible says "Know the truth and the Truth shall set you free". This is a proverb Kadizzle lives by. Unfortunately the Republican version is "Know the truth, and you will vote Democratic", so they have pledged to destroy NPR.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn: "It is a wealthy, educated listening audience. If people want this programming, they're going to be willing to pay for it but the American taxpayer has said, 'get NPR out of our pocket.' They have some sponsors that land in the $1 million plus category." So we need to destroy NPR because it has a wealthy educated audience? What if poor people want to hear what wealthy educated people get to hear? Yup, poor people could become smarter, and nothing presents a greater threat to the right wing than poor people getting smarter. If poor people get smarter, then you can't trick them with the guns, gays, and god jazz, and god knows it might get harder to bambozzle the poor about tax cuts for the rich. So let the poor watch Fox and get as stupid as they want.

Rodger Earns Angel's Landing pin

Every year we make a hike up to Angel's Landing. Years ago Megan had the courage to go all the way out, but Erin stopped before the nasty part. Erin got ribbed about not getting her Angel's Landing Pin. Last year neither Rodger nor Kadizzle were dumb enough to go out. The path was covered with snow and ice. The likelihood of return was small, but this year Kadizzle, The Commander, and Rodger made the trip. According to Zion Park management the hike takes about one life per year. In many places if you slip you will fall an astonishing 2,000 feet plus. When you see people out in the bad areas with kids five and six years old it makes you wonder, but sure enough that was the case today. Of course you also get to see the macho college guys going faster than they should and not hanging on to impress the ladies. As Kadizzle made the treacherous trip he was panting, groaning and grunting. A pert young lady expressed concern and asked old Kadizzle if anything would help. Kadizzle answered yes. A good back rub from a young lady would help a lot, sadly no help was rendered, but another old goat did compliment Kadizzle on his technique. At a campfire ceremony tonight Rodger will have the Angel's Landing pin put on his chest. Rodger has not been told it is pinned directly to the skin.

Unlimited Sex for Life

As Rodger and Ruth walked out onto the precipice Rodger threaten to jump unless he could have unlimited sex for life with Ruth. Ruth grabbed him and pulled him back from the edge. Apparently she agreed. Seeing what happened Kadizzle walked out on the cliff with The Commander and made the same threat. The Commander began to push Kadizzle toward the edge. Quickly Kadizzle said "How about on our aniversary", The Commander relented and let him walk back from the edge.

Down from the Mountain.

The Kadizzles have been visiting Zion National Park every year for about the last eight years. In all that time we never were up on Gooseberry Mesa. This year we met a senior mountian biker in Mesa who told us about the Mesa. We just spent two days up there. It is some of the best mountain biking in the country. We hiked six miles yesterday along the rim. Seeing where the mountain bikers ride is amazing. There are several place where the bike trail is withing two feet of a thousand foot cliff. The view at the southwest end of the mesa is probably one of the most spectacular in the United States. There is no way to to describe all the things you can see from one vantage point. The Grand Canyon does not compare. Now we are down in Zion. This year the weather god has smiled on us. During the last three months we only had one rainy day, and the rain was at night. The string of warm sunny days has set a new record. The Axtmans from Hazen will join us next week.

Living on dreams isn't easy.

After a couple days camped by the American Legion Post 853 in Borrego Springs we returned to the Earth Module after a hike. Parked close to our home was a peculiar green truck. Soon Ray emerged from the ex forest service maintenance truck and explained that he needed to move through where we were just about to park. Ray's plan was to back into the tamarisk trees and set up camp. The sheer volume of stuff in the truck was amazing. The passenger side of the front seat was stacked as high as the window with paraphernalia. Under the drivers seat were two fifteen pound exercise weights. Across the front of the truck was strung a long sack full of water bottles. The truck had a special rack built on top for camping in grizzly bear country. Ray explained how when he slept there the bears head and shoulders were just about the height of his floor. Bear company made him nervous, but the rangers had supplied him with pepper spray that could shoot forty feet.
Ray gave Kadizzle some pointers on dealing with grizzlies. “Don't look them in the eye” Ray warned, “ It makes them think you are aggressive”. Most grizzles would be looking at the other end of Kadizzle as he ran and would only see one cyclops eye where the grizzly had chewed the back out of Kadizzle's trousers.
After getting to know Ray better Kadizzle found out about his bike project he has been working on for thirty years. Ray is developing a bike that is very energy efficient for the rider and has several unique systems to make sure no effort is wasted. From Kadizzles limited engineering knowledge Ray seemed to have some interesting ideas.
Greeting Ray in the morning he appeared to be grinding coffee with a small old fashioned coffee grinder, but it turned out he was grinding wheat to make crackers. Ray said sometimes he goes days without eating.
While we spent a wonderful morning hiking up Alcoholic's Pass Ray was in the back of his truck fighting mold. Ray explained to Kadizzle that he had tried everything to remove the mold. According to Ray brake fluid worked best. He had tried some acetone. A spark at the right time would have destroyed our little camping neighborhood.
Somehow Ray is getting by on $500 a month and still manages to buy old used tents to give to people worse off than himself. Towards the end of a long day of scrubbing the interior of the topper on the back of his truck Ray stopped to chat as he went to wash the paint brush he said he has been using for thirty years.
Kadizzle has been clueless his whole life about the American Legion, but after staying here for a week you kinda get the hang of it. The poor guys who got chewed up by our war machine have somewhere to go and be left alone. The main rule seems to be live and let live. Kadizzle is not a vet and is only staying here by the grace of Roger who served our country in the Air Force. Ray when asked said he was in the Army. Ray asked Kadizzle what service he was in and Kadizzle gave him the answer he had prepared since he figured this might come up. Kadizzle was in the “Secret Service'. In fact it was so secret even Kadizzle is not sure if he was in it. So far Kadizzle has not been thrown out.

It takes a lot of water to wash away Kadizzle's sins

Yesterday the crew took a wonderful hike up Barrego Palms Canyon. The waterfall were numerous and spectacular. It was a rock scrambling difficult hike. Kadizzle and Ruth were smart enough to turn around before the final push. The Commander and Rodger tried to go the last mile to the 30 foot water fall. As Ruth and Kadizzle returned the cool water was too much to resist. Kadizzle jumped in twice. Roger and Cissie caught up.

One part of the trail required the hiker to squeeze down into a narrow crack. As Kadizzle got into the crack a strange sound struck him. It was the first rattlesnake of the season. Ruth and Kadizzle did not know what to do since Roger and The Commander would be coming the same way. They figured the snake would be gone by then, and must have been right.

A bum is a noble profession.

Today the Kadizzlites and the Dennyites had a wonderful hike near the California town of Borrego Springs. The weather could not have been better, nor the hike finer. As we hike up to the waterfall and the palm oasis it just kept getting more delightful. At last we reached the twenty foot water fall which was running at a nice pace.

With the joy of hiking Kadizzle felt like some singing. For some strange reason the old Halalujah I am a Bum song came to mind. Kadizzle has always prided himself as a good bummer. Bumming a smoke is an art. Always offer to pay for a bummed smoke, the person will insist you take the weed for free. Life is good for bums. Old Mr. Smoot who lived across the street used to tell us stories about railroad bums. Perhaps that is what inspired Kadizzle to go into the profession. One story Mr. Smoot told was about how the railroad bums used to drink a drink called "Open Switch". According to Mr. Smoot "Open switch" was made by mixing gasoline with buttermilk. The bums drank the stuff, and Kadizzle is sure it opened their switch. In those days they used leaded gasoline, so the drink probably also closed their switch. Somehow even as kids we had enough sense not to drink gasoline.

Work just doesn't agree with bums. A bum will go to great lengths to avoid work. Anyone could get from point A to point B by working, it takes a real talent to get there by doing nothing. So the next time you see a bum show some respect for someone who has chosen a different route. Hallalujah I am bum.

Kadizzle solves long standing mystery

The knock came on the door at our little Earth module camper in a small town deep in the Sonaran Desert. The old fart at the door explained he was from the local tourism bureau. The gentleman related to Kadizzle how the town used to attract a lot more tourist when he was younger, but things seemed to be going down hill, literally downhill. According to Snuffy the mountains were getting smaller. Snuffy had heard of Kadizzle's mental prowess and asked if Kadizzle would investigate. Reluctantly Kadizzle took the job. To Kadizzle the simple solution seemed to be a stake out. Kadizzle took The Commander and headed for Rainbow Canyon. It was a beutiful place full of colorful rocks. Both hid carefully in some crevices in the rocks. It wasn't long before they heard a feminine voice "Oh, look, I want that one, it would look so nice in the garden, put it in your pack dear".
Looking out from a crack in their hiding place they saw a petite woman and her husband weighed down with a heavy pack. "There's one I could put by the flowers, pick it up dear". To Kadizzle it was pretty evident, rock thieves. It was time to act. Kadizzle jumped out from behind the rock and demanded "Where are you taking those rocks?". "North Dakota" replied the little lady.
Now many things were evident. Why was there continental uplift in the Rocky Mountains? Why did the continents drift? It was obvious. Rock thieves from Pick City North Dakota had made the continent so light in the West it was drifting. The weight now in a garden in North Dakota had once held down the Rockies.
As Kadizzle hand cuffed the couple the husband thanked him. "You saved me Kadizzle, do you know what it is like to carry a backpack full of rocks?". Back at the small town jail the rock thief who called himself Rodger the Rock, and his wife who called herself The Ruthless Rock Thief, both confessed to many rock crimes. It turned out the meter crater in Arizona was not a crater at all, but just a place where Ruth liked the rocks.
Geologist are eating crow as this new explanation of many canyons, and valleys has to be accounted for.
At the trial both plead guilty, and the judge was lenient. Since it was Ruth's birthday, she was sentenced to only a week working on the rock pile. As the judge pronounced the sentence Ruth had a subtle smile, and Rodger cried. He knew it was like sentencing an alcoholic to work at a brewery.

A Hike to Oriflamme Falls

With great weather our weary band headed on a mission to find the falls at Oriflamme Valley. Even with four GPS it was not easy. Kadizzle and Rodger both managed to enter the waypoints in a manner that directed them six thousand miles away to somewhere in South America. After some adjustments the band drove down a questionable road. The road became more than questionable as it turned into a running stream. The time to abandon the pickup and hike was upon us. After hiking awhile an older couple caught up with the Kadizzlites. Luckily they knew the route to the falls. The trail was faint and hard to follow, but the end result was well worth it. After the falls we returned to a wonderful grove of cottonwood trees that had been a favorite encampment of the Indians. This was evident from the remanants of the grinding areas.

Gold Makes you stupid, here's proof

Bob the gold miner just explained to me how gold makes you stupid. As I walked back to our camper it occurred to me Bob himself may have been struck by the stupidity. Bob had just shown me the gold he found. Even at today's prices it may have been worth ten bucks tops. After days, perhaps weeks Bob had ten dollars worth of gold. The flecks were smaller than dandruff, and there were just two.

Last night it looked like an all out search would be started for Bob. That is how Kadizzle got to know Bob. The camp host had mentioned to Rodger that he was a little concerned because Bob had not come back to the campground for two days. Bob is in his late sixties, and has a bum leg. When Bob failed to show up last night the camp host called the Sheriff. When Kadizzle saw the sheriff show up at Bob's trailer he wandered over to see what was up. The Sheriff said a helicopter was on it's way and they were going to begin searching for Bob the gold miner. Kadizzle was a bit amazed they would even start a search out here in the middle of no where in the dark, but the Sheriff said it was required.

Shortly after the sheriff left, Bob showed up. Kadizzle explained to Bob they were about to start a major search for him and Bob took off to let the camp host he was back. Luckily the sheriff was still at the camp host residence. Bob to his credit has one of the new fangled Spot locating devices. If Bob does get in a bind he can send a satellite signal to his wife or 911. Unfortunately Bob did not tell anyone he had that capability. As Kadizzle left Bob was heading back out to the desert to spend hundreds of dollars to find another ten dollars worth of gold. Yes, gold makes people stupid.

All Peacans go to heaven

Lord Kadizzle is not a religious man in the traditional sense, so by some quirk of fate it seems odd that he is parked at an RV spot in a monastery. However, it quickly became apparent how God works. As we pulled into the monastery it became clear their calling was pecans. The monastery folks were busy trimming the pecan trees. Kadizzle quickly figured out how the lord works. Each pecan is a soul. When the pecan falls from the tree, that is the fall from grace. At the reception area the kind lady with an angelic face and an attitude to match was a dead give away. Once the pecans fall from grace they must be gathered and cleansed of sin. After Kadizzle got the camper parked it was not long before he noticed the machinery for cleaning the sin from the souls not far behind the camper. After awhile some fellow turned up and appeared to be sorting through the pecans in the machinery. It turned out to be the lord. God explained to Kadizzle how the machine worked to cleanse the souls of sin. The first machine shook up and gently squeezed the souls to remove the lighter outer coating of sin. The next machine blew away all the easy sins. Then God gave the souls a going over and removed the rest of the sins the machine could not easily take off. God put all the souls with the final layer of sin in a five gallon bucket. In the room where the hard shell of sin was removed God showed Kadizzle how it was done by taking the machine apart. God had a clever machine that straitened the souls out, and laid them on a little conveyor. The lord explained it did not matter which way they faced, but they had to be straight. I think he was telling Kadizzle all that nonsense about Baptist, Jew, Muslim and so on did not really make a bit of difference, you just had to be straitened out when you got the hard sins removed. On the sin conveyor each soul was lined up and given a sharp tap on either the head or the ass depending on how you got straitened out. Apparently for some it was a head problem, and for others they just needed a hard kick in the ass. Once the final layer of sins were loosened another series of machines blew away as much of the evil as possible. This morning God explained to me that for the final treatment the souls were taken to a group of angels that picked away any imperfections in the souls. At this point Kadizzle's curiosity got the best of him. Kadizzle pointed out that none of the souls went to hell. God laughed, and told Kadizzle that was all just a bunch of nonsense. "What kind of God would let anyone go to hell he said?". So here we sit in paradise watching the sins get washed away, and God seems much nicer than he was ever portrayed in all those silly books people wrote about him. With all the religious paraphernalia all around the lord never suggested to old Kadizzle to pray or go to church, he just said enjoy our bird walk. The good news is God has a sense of humor. After explaining to Kadizzle how he sorted the souls, God said I got to take a bucket up to the nut house. That is where the angels give the pecans their final cleaning. Kadizzle said to the lord "I never heard the term nut house used like that". The lord said "Well we call this the crack house". I told him "Oh, I get it now, first you go to the crack house, and then the nut house". Yup saith the lord.

I spit on you Mexico (only because I can)

The Kadizzalites are hunkered down about fifteen miles from the border, maybe closer. The wind is so strong that if Kadizzle did spit it might hit Mexico. Actually Kadizzle is a fan of Mexico and Mexicans. They are good people and our policy toward them could hardly be more insane. We buy their drugs and then blame them for selling them.

We are camped at the White Water Draw bird refuge. Tomorrow morning ten thousand birds will alight from the nearby slew. It will be a sight to behold. We were here last year. Last year an illegal migrant sat on the bench as the tourist milled about. Perhaps tonight we will get a knock on the door. The Commander is in charge of defense. Should an illegal attack, The Commander will make him do the dishes and shake the rugs, in no time he will head back across the border.