One week

Okay, so it's been one week TODAY that I've had Colin staying here. The first few days were nasty - for him. He decided to detox himself. Egads, he had a seisure on Monday nite, after we had gone to bed. He showed me his tongue the next day. All purple - back where his molars had bitten it. Eeeeeewwwwwww. And then the shakes he had... holy smokes! His hands were just vibrating! And he didn't have enough strength to even manage the stairs - so he has stayed downstairs for almost the whole week. I'd bring him food and liquids (he drank LOTS of Gatorade and orange juice and cranberry juice) But it's been a week, and already he is looking better. And walking more, rather than just shuffling like an old, old man.

Onwards and upwards......

Today, the dear sister that I am... I dragged his sorry ass down to Writing-On-Stone. I was hoping to see some antelope, or eagles, or even a coyote on the way down there. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. (hunting season, ya know!) And by time we got down there, the wind really decided to blow, and man, it blew!!

But we hiked up and down the trail to the west, and saw the pictographs (rock paintings) - barely, and saw a few petroglyphs (rock carvings).



These are not natural steps, or even ancient steps. LOL They've been carved into the rock on the path that you can take. But they looked really cool, so I had to take a picture of them!


This is a view to the west - you can see the trail we took....


This looks like a cool cave... okay, so I can get my entire body inside of it, but it doesn't go very deeply into the rock.


According to the Self-guided trail brochure:
Native people came here for more than berries and shelter. On the cliffs above you, petroglyphs (rock carvings) tell of the spiritual lives of the native people who once camped here. If you look carefully, you will see animals, including two Bison (I think that's the pointy shape on the left), and several bear paws (top right) or tracks incised in the sandstone. The bison and bear were both sacred animals; perhaps native elders carved these petroglyphs as part of a ceremony.
WOS was a sacred place for the Blackfoot People, and they often claimed the rock art was the work of the spirit world. The strange hoodoos, and the mysterious carvings on the cliffs filled the people with reverence, and even fear. They came here to seek spiritual guidance, and to determine their fate by interpreting the rock art. Much of the rock art may have been created as part of rituals and vision quests.

(and I read somewhere years ago, that perhaps it was just "teenagers" from ancient times, who did grafiti on the rocks, nothing "sacred" about it at all - which I thought was hilarious when I read it!)



When we got back to the campground, he went to the washroom. Now I get to see a bush bunnie and a mule deer. But by time he got back to me, they had gone.

I seriously had plans to do a smudge with him / on him. But damned if there weren't other people there! Jeezzzz............!!

I started a fire in the cookhouse stove - meant to bring some weenies with me, but forgot. And I threw a smudge stick in the flames, just before we left. So I guess you could say we smudged.

But get this....
As we were loading stuff back up into the car, he takes his "safety" bottle, the one with that last ounce, out of his knapsack, and throws it in the garbage that we are parked beside. A symbolic gesture for him. I was pleasantly surprised at it. Good for him! Crossing my fingers that THIS time, being sober "takes".

TTFN