There and back again: 2.5 days in the car with EJ

Four year old EJ and I went to Utah this weekend for a football game, a wedding, and some father-son bonding. We drove out early Friday morning, destination Logan and the Logan High Grizzlies football game. EJ was a little reluctant to go when we woke him at 4:00 Friday morning, but once in the car, he forgot it was sleepy time and became Mr. Talkative. His first discussion topic was Kodiak bears. He asked me several times to describe a Kodiak bear--how big they were, their color, if they ate people, if they would chase a person who was running away from them, etc.


There are several national forests between here and Utah, and every time EJ saw a cluster of trees, which was about every five minutes, he would inquire whether there were any Kodiak bears in them. I assured him several times that Kodiak bears only lived in forests in Alaska. I wondered where this sudden fascination with Kodiak bears came from. In the preceding weeks of discussing this trip he had never mentioned anything about Kodiak bears. Now he seemed obsessed, and I had no idea why.

Once assured that no Kodiak bears would eat him if he ventured into the forest, he switched the topic to mountain climbing. He pointed out mountains to me and continually asked, “Daddy, can we pleeeaaase hike that mountain?” He asked this for nearly every mountain between here and Logan, which is at least 134 mountains. Perhaps the Kodiak bear thing was really about climbing mountains and not being eaten while doing so. If so, I could certainly respect that. I noncommittally assured him we might stop on the way home to do a little climbing (must get to Logan in time for kick-off).

As we passed Provo, the Kodiak bear mystery was solved. He asked if we could go to the Bean museum (on BYU campus) and see the Kodiak Bear. Then it dawned on me that he was remembering our last trip to Utah, which included a visit to the Bean museum. I had forgotten all about which animals were on display there, but obviously he had not.

I warded off the Bean museum request with a non-committal “We’ll see if they’re still open after the wedding tomorrow.” Just then he saw the Y mountain and asked if we could climb it. Of all the mountains he had asked about, this was the one mountain I could confidently claim to be able to take him on. I had done it before, and there was a good trail, well marked and everything, and we were less likely to be eaten by something there than at some random mountain in the middle of Utah.

So, I decided that the next day, after the wedding at the Salt Lake Temple, we would excuse ourselves from the rest of the wedding festivities and head to Provo to visit the Kodiak bear at the Bean Museum and hike the Y. EJ was thrilled at this decision. I was too, because four hours of wedding was about 3 ½ hours more than I could look forward to. We did the bear and the hike; he made it to the Y in 40 minutes, not a bad time for a four year old. As we sat up there surveying Utah County, I thought to myself how much easier it was to hike at 4-year-old pace than it had been at 18-year-old pace those many years ago.

After that we spent the night in Cedar Hills, where EJ played with friends and reprised his role as Spider Man (see "Comings and Goings, Summer 2007"). We drove home Sunday, both exhausted and happy to be going home.

All in all, it was a worthwhile trip, in spite of the 25 hours of driving over three days. The only downer was that Logan High lost their football game by 28 points. Naturally, it was their first loss of the season in four games. Oh well. At least the cousin we came to watch played well.

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Between questions about bears and hiking, EJ made some other interesting comments during the drive, three of which I remember well enough to write about:

-After EJ petitioned me for a snack, I rummaged in the snack bag and passed back a granola bar. Apparently unimpressed with my offering, he quipped, “Try looking in the bag again, Dad.”

-While crossing through the mountains between Panguitch and Beaver on highway 20, EJ noticed a cattle crossing sign with no farm in sight and remarked, “Dad! I didn’t know there were cows in the wild!”

-Around lunch time we were about 10 minutes outside of Beaver, with plans to stop for lunch at McDonalds. EJ asked, “How much longer until Beaver? My feet are tired of sitting in this car.” Then, in a high-pitched squeak, he voiced the opinion of his feet, “We’re tired of sitting in this car. We want to get out and run around.” I replied that we had ten minutes. The feet cheered, “Hooray, only ten minutes until we can get out of this car!”