From Wednesday July 24 to Thursday August 1 we did a family reunion trip for Eve's side of the family in Mesa and Snowflake Arizona. This was for the Camp Silver Creek reunion that has been a regular tradition for Eve's family. The last time we and many of Eve's siblings attended was in 2018, so it was fun getting back together at the camp with our older families (and more kids for some) and also seeing that the camp has had some improvements over the years (new volleyball nets and court, new metal tables, bathrooms better stocked with supplies).
While the camping didn't start until Monday, we decided to go down to Mesa early because Eve and Waylon signed up to go to the National Down Syndrome conference, which happened to be held in Pheonix this year, just 20 minutes from where we stayed with Raul and Gloria in Mesa. Hanging out in Mesa for I and the older boys, Cameron and Landon, was pretty low key. We played a little pickleball with Raul... Cameron and Landon spent some time at Bonnie Jean and Kevin's playing games with their kids... and we got together for a few meals.
At camp the weather was thankfully on average about 20 degrees cooler than in Mesa, but still rather hot, ranging between low 60s to mid 80s. As usual for years past the highlights were eating all together tons of food at the pavilion, playing lots of different board games, and some time in the creek on canoes and kayaks.
Our family brought two inflatable kayaks we had recently bought and were eager to try out for the first time. Because the camp already had some canoes and several others also brought kayaks, I only tried out one of our kayaks on one day to test out. It was nice and light and was relaxing to use and I even almost got in a nap during a quiet part of that afternoon.
Although I'm not as into the plethora of board games and cards as Eve and most in her family are, I did bring our new and never before used Liar's Dice game. I was pleasantly surprised at how many in the family enjoyed playing it over the course of the 3 days we were there, especially Joseph, Daniel, Kevin, Michael (Heather's fiancée), and even Cameron and Landon at times.
Waylon was rather bothered by the yapping dogs... there were 7 dogs at camp with us this year, Gloria's two dogs, 3 puppies from the Bottoms, Heather's white dog, and Ruth's black dog, Prince. The puppies were also fond of playing outside and up against our tent in the mornings, which Eve and I were not fond of.
And one unfortunate encounter was the "angry trucker" at our first gas stop on the way to Mesa on Wednesday. For some reason I still do not know, a truck driver came along side of us honking angrily just after I turned to leave out of the travel center. I honked back as I continued down the road to find a place to u-turn to get to our freeway entrance. The angry driver pulled in front of me, slowing way down in an obvious gesture of defiance towards me. As I pulled around to the right lane and passed ahead of him, again honking back at him, he got even more angry and gestured and shouted he wanted to fight. I stopped ahead to make a u-turn, having to wait for oncoming traffic. As I waited, the giant-of-a-man trucker stopped right in front of me at an angle and got out of his vehicle. At this point I knew he was serious about fighting me and after locking our doors quickly made the u-turn at the first chance I got. The angry trucker was close enough to our van to pound a hit on it as we sped off, hitting our vehicle in between the right side and back windows but not causing any damage or marks. But he was obviously extremely angry at something I had or he thought I had done. I can only imagine I might have cut him off or caused him to slow down as I pulled out of the travel center, but I was checking intently for traffic and do not remember his huge blue semi truck being anywhere near me when I pulled out. And even if I had blatantly cut him off, it still bewilders me why he would gotten so extremely angry as he did. What a horrible display of road rage from a man suffering from some type of problem that I will never understand.
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