River Day

The temperatures finally cooled down. Last week it was still in the sweltering 90s, and this week we're barely breaking 70. The low Tuesday morning was 43. We can't go from air conditioning to heat in one week, we just won't do it. So we piled another blanket on the bed and laughed about how there is no climate change. We know that transition from season to season isn't always incrementally easy, and we try to explain that rationally to our tomatoes and peppers. They don't listen. Neither does the corn. Blah blah blah, humans are so full of words.

We took advantage of the cooler temps to finally get out to the river. We hadn't been there since we took my mom the day before she flew back home last February. What happened after she left was a late WINTER, that was followed by a relentlessly hot SUMMER. We seem to hardly have spring and fall anymore.

So we came to the river. It was flowing so low at the end of a wicked hot, dry summer. And yet it is still so beautiful and so calming. We hiked in on the dusty trail and arrived at the "clothing optional" Hoyt's Crossing. Three people were already there. A naked woman was reading a book, perched on a beautiful slab of granite next to the green waters. A man was across the river, sitting contemplatively on a big rock. Another man was walking across the river, from the far side to ours. We met him as he came ashore. His pants were rolled up, and yet all askew, one pant leg much higher than the other. He was smaller than we expected as he approached us. I was actually taller than he was. He started exuberantly describing the tunnel on the other side of the river. He had hiked it once before, 28 years ago. He found it again, but didn't go all the way through this time. He was beautiful and small. He had a pronounced hunchback and a stunningly magnificent face. We listened and were enthralled by his excitement. Then, we walked down river a bit, and he went to sit with the naked woman reading.

I took pictures, but find photographing the river a very challenging thing.