Learn from This

In anticipation of the first week of fifth grade next week, Matthew and I reorganized and rearranged his room yesterday. We got rid of the little desk in his room, moved his bookshelf, and made room for a desk area next to his closet. According to the Nakai rite of passage, he now has our little camping table to serve as his homework desk until we buy him a real desk. He's excited about his new format, and I told him we should get a nice lamp for on top of the bookshelf so he can read in bed at night and also a light for his desk. Brian and Elizabeth were trail riding with the team early Saturday morning, so Matthew and I made plans to visit IKEA at that time.

After breakfast today, we rode over to IKEA and got there shortly after it opened at 10:00. I remarked how surprised I was that the parking lot was so full already. "Wow. Lots of people are already here, Matthew!" We parked far away, and as I approached the front door I noted that the restaurant opens at 8:00 so that's probably why it was already so full of customers.

We went up the escalator and began the walk-through upstairs. We looked in every staged room at the lamps and desks to see what might work for him. We were taking our time since there are always a lot of people walking through like a parade. Always. However, when we were about halfway through the maze, the fire alarm went off. The guy behind me dryly said, "Are you kidding me?," and the people in front of me didn't react. In fact, most people were acting like they weren't even hearing it.

Well not me. I'm wired differently.

I looked around for an exit sign, grabbed Matthew's hand, and headed towards it. He shook my hand off of him and said, "Mom, someone probably opened a door." I let go of his hand and told him, "We don't know that. I think we should get out of here as soon as possible." I didn't run. I didn't push anyone. In fact, I followed two exit signs and then didn't follow the third because we were on the upper level and I figured it led to a stairwell. I really am wired differently. I have the impressive ability to immediately think of a worst-case scenario for any situation. I considered the possibility that someone intentionally pulled it and might be waiting in a stairwell to kill people. So we stayed with the crowd and continued through the maze. We didn't stroll like everyone else, though. We passed a lot of people. We passed as many people as we could. Matthew was upset with me, but I didn't falter. We moved with purpose towards the front of the building. An announcement was made, but it was impossible to hear it with the alarm blaring, so we just kept moving at a pace quicker than everyone else.

There was a bottleneck at the stairwell, so that took some time to get down. As soon as we turned the corner on the stairs, we saw that the lower level of the store was filled with smoke. Matthew didn't shake off my hand this time, and we made our way to the door that two employees were holding open for the throng of people. 

a photo I found online this evening -  lots of people had their cellphones out

Just as we walked outside, the fire department was arriving. Relieved to be out, I quipped, "Well that was certainly the most exciting trip to IKEA ever!" And then, "I wonder what's on fire." Matthew said, "Probably my lamp." We looked at each other and laughed, but we never stopped walking. I wasn't going to watch the scene. I wasn't going to wait for the fire to be put out so we could go back in. We went straight to our car and drove home.

On the way, I told him that I learned a valuable lesson today. Whenever you're in a public place and the fire alarm goes off, find the nearest exit and get out. You don't know if it's real, but you act like it is until you know it's not. While we were passing people, I was a bit self-conscious that people might be thinking I was over-reacting by walking quickly past them. I wasn't running, screaming, or panicking, but everyone else was not the least bit concerned. They figured it was nothing. IKEA can't be on fire or Why would they have a fire drill and chase customers out of the store? I thought of those things, too, but--here's my super power again!--I also thought something might be wrong and the risk of dying outweighed the risk of looking stupid to a bunch of strangers. My only regret was following the crowd like a sheep and not going out the very first exit door I saw.

Learn from our experience. When alarms sound, follow the exit signs and leave.

Also, Target has a lovely selection of desk lamps and small table lamps that fit our needs just fine.

Pretty Place with an Earworm

We spent five nights in Kodachrome Basin State Park in southwestern Utah last week. It's filled with beautiful colors, so many that with the consent of the Kodak Company, they named the park after its new-fangled color film. That led me to sing this song in my head for nearly the entire time we were there.

Earworm aside, we had a nice time there. I mean after we used some ant spray to remove an ant colony in the dirt right by our site. And before some vermin ate through two of our four Camelbaks because they wanted energy chews. Then there was the campground thief who stole my headlamp from the restroom bathroom shelf in the middle of the night so I had to walk back to our campsite in the dark.

It wasn't a perfect trip, but I guess we've been pretty lucky in the past. Kodachrome is a lovely place, though, if you want to get away from it all. And I mean all of it. It's about twenty-five miles beyond Bryce Canyon and down a very lonely road. There's no cell reception to speak of even if you have an excellent provider, but there are plenty of grand views and hiking trails. On some trails you can even take your mountain bike, so Brian and Elizabeth took advantage of that option on a few occasions.

I woke up early our first morning there and hiked the Angel's Palace trail. It's only about 1.5 miles, but it goes up along a ridge and has awesome views of the park and Bryce in the distance. I was up before the sun, so it was neat to see the colors change as the sunbeams hit the rocks over the course of an hour or so.

After breakfast, Brian and Elizabeth hit the Panorama Trail on their bikes for a 6-mile ride, while Matthew and I hiked the shorter 3-mile loop on that same trail. We started around 10 am. The sun was high and blazing, so I felt a little like Chevy Chase in Vacation when he started walking to a gas station in Monument Valley.

Our hike didn't go as badly as his walk. We had awesome views all around us, even if it was a bit on the warm and sunny side.

Elizabeth and Brian's ride was just as challenging. The trail was quite sandy and not just in low washes. Some areas felt like we were walking up sand dunes at the beach, so I can imagine how difficult it would have been to bike it. But they were able to see the Cool Cave and other places we didn't venture as far out to see.

 After all that, we had some lunch and sat outside under the now cloudy sky.

Late in the day, we all decided to do the Angel's Palace hike before a storm rolled in. You can see what a difference the time of day makes in the colors of the rocks all around the basin.

the 747 Matthew saw in the rocks that it's impossible to not see now

A few days later, after spending most of the day in Bryce Canyon, we came back to Kodachrome in the late afternoon. Brian and Elizabeth tried to get a ride in on the Grand Parade Trail before the usual afternoon storm blew in. They didn't make it in time. It started pouring about fifteen minutes after they left the Airstream, and they were forced to find shelter in one of the alcoves along the trail for about thirty minutes. They returned as muddy clay messes but said it was awesome.

The following day, we decided to drive ten miles down Cottonwood Road, a dirt road right next to Kodachrome. We visited an arch in the middle of nowhere called Grosvenor Arch. I was afraid it wouldn't be worth it because the road was rough and the skies were threatening. The road is clay-based, so it's impassable when wet. We didn't want to get stuck out there, especially after all the rain we had had the day before, but things dry out fast around here so we were fine. We might have gotten stuck if we'd gone later, though, because yet another storm came through that afternoon.

The rest of the photos are of and around our site during our last evening spent in this beautiful state park. We had a nice time there, but I don't see us camping there again. It's just very remote and out in the middle of nothing. I think it's more of a one-time place to visit because we feel we've seen all of it after five days there.