Navajo Nation – Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat

So after talking to that strange Vermont man I decided to go check out Monument Valley. I don’t even know what to say… it is the most gorgeous scenery, so profoundly huge and beautiful that I don’t think my words could ever come close to describing it.

Imagine topless flat mountains made of rock whose form and vibrant color were so startling they looked like they could be alive. Imagine green, yet oddly plantless plateaus, and brilliant red towering to the sky. Imagine rocks whose form looked like giant melting marshmallows and imagine a landscape so immense and so humbling as to take over all other thought. I couldn’t take enough photos because every time I drove even slightly around each formation the light would change and a whole new personality would come out.

Monument Valley was full of robust formations, some even looked like castles in the distance. Valley of the Gods contained many similar formations, just different shapes. There was an episode of Doctor Who filmed there. All geekery set aside I found the Mexican Hat quite by surprise. It just happened to be on the road that I was on so I pulled over and took a photo. It indeed looks like a rock supporting a giant red Mexican hat. It was all so amazing. The scenery just kept getting more beautiful and complex with every blink of my eyes.

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May 31, 2011 0

Four Corners Monument (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah)

I decided to go to the four corners because who wouldn’t at this point? I mean really, its there, might as well go. I sort of figured it’d be this lame monument in the middle of nowhere with nothing much going on around it. I also figured it’d be free. No, you do have to pay a few bucks to see it, nothing too extravagant though. I drove in and found it quite busy. People filed in and out, the vast majority were Americans this time. People came in and took photos of each other touching all four states at once. The usual staged touristy photos were taken.

Around the monument itself there were a few dozen little stands, all with Navajo craftsmen and women. They were selling everything from tacky little four corners memorabilia to hand crafted sand paintings, gorgeous pottery, and lots and lots and lots of jewelry and beadwork. The people selling the stuff all said hi and were very friendly. I talked to a few and one woman told me that the sand paintings were all made of locally collected pigments, taken from various rocks. This was amazing as they were so colorful. I ended up buying one (a depiction of a pot – unique from the other more traditional designs) for $15 as well as a magnet. I have a magnet for a number of my destinations now. It would forever remind me of the irony of the situation – a meaningless monument set up and run by Native Americans for white people to show them the lines they drew in the dirt for their states. I mean whoever thought of that was genius. Props to them!

It was sweltering and hot and I was hungry so I tried some “fried bread.” Turns out that this was just the local way of saying fried dough, which is fine. It marked the end of my fried food tour. I was eating it with cinnamon and sugar in the car when I heard a knock on the window. I looked up and there was a guy that I swear to God looked like the father on one of those crappy 80’s sitcoms, Family Ties, I think. Anyway, that’s aside the point..

“What town?” He said without even coming up with a proper greeting. I recognized his Yankee accent. He was either from New Hampshire or Vermont. Since there was a moment of confused silence the man repeated his question and I answered.. Turns out he was from Bennington Vermont and had been traveling for 16 years. He told me about the book Travelling on a Shoestring and a number of locations I could check out including Monument Valley, just an hour down that road there.

I ended up taking his advice and good thing or else I would have missed Valley of the Gods which would become one of my favorite destinations.

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May 31, 2011 0

Roswell New Mexico

I ended up in Roswell New Mexico because I’m just that fucking adorkable. I didn’t expect to see much but apparently main street has turned into an adorable alien mecca. There are clothes stores there who have alien masks fixed on their dummies and doleful looking wooden alien statues sitting out on the side walk. There was even one place who had little green alien footsteps running up the sidewalk. People had constructed their own little crashed UFOs and gift stores abounded. There was also a museum, however like most small towns everything closed at 6 and I drove in at 7. Only one gift store was open so I checked it out and awed at all the cuteness and fluff and geekery. It was too much – I had to come home with something. I ended up with a T-shirt reading, “fly it like you stole it.” That amused me way too much. I also ended up with a bumper sticker reading, “Buckle up, it makes it harder for them to suck you out of the car.” I mean… how cute is that?

I left laughing. It was such a dorky place to stop but so amusing. Even the local McDonalds was sporting aliens on their advertising and their parking lot and the bank as well! I like to see a town with a sense of humor.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 30, 2011 0

Big Bend & Border Control – Texas

I have no idea why I ended up at Big Bend. It was on the list of destinations for some reason but I never could remember why. I think it was just a random national park. Or perhaps I had it confused with somewhere else that had fossilized dinosaur footprints… in any event, after passing the worst border control ever I wasn’t about to drive back.

I started my trip to Big Bend pretty well. Driving through the desert I saw a lot of wildlife living aside the road that I was not familiar with including eagles, prairie dogs, vultures, wild boar, weird stocky-looking desert deer, a coyote, jack rabbits, you name it. I was having quite a bit of fun until I hit a immigration and drug checkpoint. “Oh crap.” I said. “I hope they don’t search me, I have too much crap to put back together if they do.” This was one of those things I dreaded and somehow knew would happen. Murphy and all.

I drove up in the 105 degree weather and patiently waited while their dog circled the Jeep. “Can you please pull to the side.” This of course was followed by, “could you please get out of your vehicle.” I was barefoot. I figured it’d be somewhat suspicious if I took five minutes to exit the car trying to find and put on my shoes. I felt the tar. It was very hot but I have been saying I needed to toughen up my feet… I left my purse, and the sun block, in the car, as I was instructed.

We were taken aside and questioned. Apparently the dog had signaled our car was somehow off. “Do you have any drugs in your vehicle?” “No, I don’t have anything.” “No prescription drugs either?” “Just birth control.” I said, taking an inopportune moment to be a passive aggressive bitch. Despite my motives this was a 100% honest answer to the question if I had prescription drugs, for another stupidity often deceives into making people believe in innocence and thirdly I just liked making my inquisitors as uncomfortable as I was. Of course in this case I really was innocent. “Oh I’m not interested in any of that.” The man seemed for a second a bit embarrassed he probably could have worded his question better. Success.

I’m cool in these situations, though my heart may be pounding and I may be at the verge of an anxiety attack I have learned to feign an almost distracted indifference. This was currently working for me. The dog circled the Jeep over and over, panting in the excessive heat (it was 106 degrees that day.) The poor mutt’s paws were melting to the pavement and he kept lying down, not to alert his handlers but because he was fucking sick and tired of working today. I looked at this pathetic mutt and sighed. “Are the dogs ever wrong?” “No! Never!” Well this one must be an ass then. I watched as everything I owned was taken systematically out of the Jeep and was put on the ground for the dog. Everything was manually searched through the heaps of trash that had piled up in the past few days. Note to self: clean out the Jeep, I’m a vagabond not a garbage woman. That’s when they spilled a box of condoms all over the place. I rolled my eyes. Now who s going to swallow them? They’re covered in tar and dirt. JUST KIDDING. **Author has never been or will never be a drug mule. Drugs are bad kids!**

By this time they’d realized I was barefoot and offered me my shoes. I declined. The pavement was fine, it was the hot metal stairs I was sitting on that were bothersome. They continued to question me. “Has anyone ever smoked in your car?” Again with the vague wording. “No, no one’s ever smoked in the car.” “Sometimes the smell gets stuck in the car for awhile.” The guy seemed very unsure if he should believe me or not. Sometimes his expression would soften, but I think he honestly believed himself the dog was right. I asked what kind of dog it was. He said it was a moth. I have never heard of such a thing and wondered if this wasn’t an accented way of saying mutt.

After half an hour the men put my stuff back, came to greet me, smiled and sent me on my way. It was a tense experience. I was a bit nervy afterwards and very tired. It is bad enough to be accused of something which you are guilty of, but to be accused of something you have nothing to do with is even worse. There’s always that air of mystery hanging above it. What had the dog caught? Was he just tired? Did he smell the odd critter smells I probably still have on some of my clothes and was curious? Did his handler misread him? I’ll never know.

About an hour later I found myself driving through yet another deserted looking village. It was odd how even the gas stations seemed to have no personnel, only offering a slot for credit card payment for the desperate. There were three cars in this town, a car, myself, and a cop, who immediately pulled me over for speeding. Sixty miles in hour in a thirty mile and hour residential zone is generally frowned upon. Whoops. Somehow I’d missed the signs. He seemed friendly enough and let me off with a warning, probably intrigued by my story, thank God, that would been a hellova fine!

For hours after this I travelled the roads surrounded by canyons and on the top of each a border control car was parked. I saw less and less cars until I was the only one on the road except for a few passing trucks going the opposite direction. The desert stretched on for miles and miles and miles with no variation until I had forgotten how long I’d been on the road. It felt like a lifetime. I had this weird feeling I’d been driving this road for longer than I could remember, perhaps a lifetime or so. The only animals I saw were dozens of vultures circling the roadways in the hope of a scrap to eat. How welcoming.

I got to Big Bend after nightfall. There was an entrance building but no gate. It had a little bulletin board that told us how to pay seeing as there were no personnel there. So I did what the sign said, I drove another half an hour or better into the nothingness until I came to the welcome center. This park must be HUGE. It was deserted but I was able to use the bathrooms. I was also able to pay with the credit card and a dial-up internet connection. This area was a cellphone and wi-fi dead zone in the middle of a godforsaken desert still being circled forebodingly by vultures. It was another 25 miles to the campsite. Rio Grande Village. You could throw a rock into Mexico from my tent. Save for three tents this campground was deserted. The little box that was used to pay was so stuffed I could not fit my payment envelope in and this was not a little box! It stood at least three and a half feet off the ground. This place looked completely abandoned. On each picnic table was a flyer stating beware of wild pigs, they’re vicious beasts that will scavenge for your food. I knew I’d have to be careful of bears at some of these campgrounds but ferocious pigs?? A metal cabinet was provided to store food in to keep it away from the evil hogs. At the bottom of the notice there was a statement that if we had problems we should contact park personnel… I’d find out how hard that would be later.

Putting up the tent was a challenge to say the least. It was so windy that it had to be secured while I was holding it up. I was so tired by the time I got done I didn’t even bother to put out the little occupied sign on the campsite’s pole. I just crawled in. I was desperately hungry so I ate an apple sauce cup and left the cup sitting at the feet of the air mattress. A few minutes later I heard something outside. As I put my foot over the mattress it hit the tent wall and something else that quickly skittered away. “I think I just kicked a pig! I felt it’s snout!” I squealed. What a way to start the evening. I still fell asleep and slept well in the heat which was blessedly dry. Heat is nice if you ask me, as long as it’s not muggy. Muggy is gross and uncomfortable and reminds me of being mosquito bait in the Deep South. It’s pretty bad when you sweat so much you can hear the air mattress squick when you get up. Showers. They have to be the one modern invention I was really really missing and forever grateful for.

I got up way early, 7am so I could get a move-on… and a shower. It’d been way too long since I’d been afforded the opportunity and I had laundry piling to the ceiling as well. Because if there’s anything that makes not having a shower even worse, it’s having to wear your disgusting clothing over and over again as you sweat like a peasant. I was seriously grossing myself out. I found the bathrooms but they didn’t have any showers, as promised. I had to ask an Irishman with a multi-cultural group of tweens and teens. He instructed us to go to the store, the showers were across from the store… because where else would they be??

The store was five miles down the road and appeared completely abandoned. It was locked up and dark. There were no buildings anywhere near the store, much less across from it. I managed to somehow find one park ranger who reeked of manure and asked him. In somewhat choppy English he told me the showers were in the store and it was open 24-7 except for cleanings. Yes, that’s right, I chose to go to the store during the one hour in the morning it was not open. I waited and eventually took $1.50 coin-operated shower. It was amazing! The feeling of being CLEAN! Totally worth the creepy setting. I also did the laundry before setting out.

Big Bend is a strange and wild place. Aside from the cleaning lady and the one park ranger I found there were no staff to be seen anywhere here. To make it creepier they left old buildings completely abandoned with little plaques inside, “This used to be a store.” It was like some sort of twisted joke… Like someone had a lot of useless arid land and decided, “lets make it a park and lure unsuspecting tourists! We’ll leave the ghost towns up as a testament to those who came and FAILED.” We met an Irishman, a few Germans, and an Australian couple, no Americans, coincidence? This place was lawless, there were signs everywhere saying not to leave you car unattended, that they will get thieved from, and not to deal with the locals… yet there was no guards, no security of any kind, or staff to be seen anywhere, just more circling vultures. I did leave the Jeep to see the hot springs, though I did sort of deal with some locals. I drove to a overlook of the Rio Grande, and there I could see the squalid little river, with a squalid little shanty town across from it. There was a canoe and sitting on the bank and fresh donkey poop at the bottom of the overlook. I knew I heard donkey braying the night before! Then I saw the strangest thing.. a bunch of jewelry and bead creations sitting on a series of rocks with a little sign reading prices and a collection jar. Though it was ageist the rules I decided to support non-violent means of making money and bought a little scorpion off this impromptu craft stand.

The last thing I checked out in the town was its collection of fossils…. Which were replaced with replicas and completely unimpressive. I was thrilled only when I spotted some sort of odd desert chipmunks and the most adorable waddling baby skunk trying to outrun the Jeep. I had the Australian couple take my photo to memorize this crazy place and decided not to go to the actual ghost town because it was fifty miles away, still in the damned park! That was how big the place was. When I drove out I saw yet more abandonment. The welcome centers were still all shut up and dark and even the gate to leave the park was completely unattended, meaning we could have easily just not paid anything and gotten away with it. I spent the next few hours traveling through the same strange desert that seemed to go on miles and miles without stop. It plays with your head… I once again had to go through a different border control but all they asked for was the usual paperwork and they flagged me through.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 29, 2011 0

Alamo – Texas

Since I was in Texas I had to go see the Alamo, it’d almost be sacrilegious not to. I wasn’t expecting much… knowing full well that the Alamo is very Texas in the sense it is the biggest practice of backwards logic I have ever encountered in a national monument. Admission was free, any more than that would been a crime. I was a bit confused by this but walked in anyway. It was a rather smallish fort, set up with all sort of archeological stuff and guns, lots and lots of guns and swords and other primitive weaponry.

I walked in and first saw an elaborate full scale model of the battle. It’s a little daunting to see how outnumbered those poor bastards were, even more so to know that they’re forever remembered for basically getting slaughtered. This wasn’t about a battle won, this was about… fuck, what was this about?

I admit I didn’t know much about the Alamo… but the more I read off their little signs the more I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. I guess Texans have been Texans since the very beginning. Apparently the fort was built as the living quarters to a handful of missionaries, who of course expected the local Indian population to spontaneously see the light and start worshipping the one and only true god. Not surprisingly the Indians got a bit pissy and a fort had to be built around the living quarters. Nothing got much better after that.

I walked around the courtyard and the barracks looking at things. This place had a number of kids and one father, bless his heart, who actually knew how to control his kids. I almost walked up to him and complimented him but I figured that might be a little awkward. There was a speaker telling people about the Alamo in an excitable Big Fish sort of manner. I soon found out why the admission was free… They charged for an audio tour, whose line started outside the building were the final siege took place, you know the one part of the fort everyone wants to go to. Lucky for me I couldn’t rouse enough interest to even want to bother. I kept my few dollars and wandered off.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 29, 2011 0

Congress Bat Bridge – Austin Texas

Congress Bridge is the home to the largest urban bat community in the world and every night four and a half million of the little beasties come flying out to fetch dinner. I battled the sun trying to get there before the big event. I parked a half mile away believing this was such an attraction there couldn’t possibly be any place closer. As it turns out there is a parking lot right next to the bridge that is pretty much for the bat people who gather every night. You have to get there early though because it was full.

I was thrilled to see people of all types walking towards the bridge and gathering both on the bridge and under it in a little park. I went under it and picked a spot on the grass to sit and wait. As dawn drew in a handful of bats, maybe 20 or so all together, started to file out one at a time, swooping down towards the crowd. After a few more bats came out the crowd suddenly got up and left. I wanted to stay and keep watching because the cacophony of squeaking was still overwhelming. More people left until there were perhaps ten people under the bridge still. I’d been having trouble with the camera which didn’t like the night photography. I got up to take a closer look and walked to the end of the bridge… now this is where all the action is! If you go to watch the bats go to the fence bordering the water. The bats were coming out of that little area like water, thousands of them swooping by in seconds. The people above this one particular location were also getting a show, and the only people left on the bridge. We walked up there and watched awhile too. It was amazing. I can’t believe how many of the little boogers were still pouring out. It made me so happy to watch them. I didn’t really think I’d get that much of a kick out of it but how cool is that, that these bats are living, in the millions, under a bridge, in the middle of a huge city, and people are gathering in support of them? It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I was practically skipping back to the car.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 28, 2011 0

S & S Exotics Pet Store – Houston texas

Texas is an odd state where you can have almost any pet without too much (if any) trouble. And when I say any pet I mean things that should be in zoos… monkeys, lemurs, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! I also had seen this one pet shop in Houston online that seemed to have the most bizarre things, little mammals I had never heard of (and I’ve been in the hobby a looong time, it takes a lot too stump me!) People seemed happy with this place too according to the reviews. I thought Ishould visit at least one pet shop on my travels anyway.

I did not expect it to be situated in the middle of a trailer park. The place was small, much smaller than I expected, it was… a normal pet store. I walked around anyway. They had such a lovely variation of reptiles, including the cutest baby tortoises you could ask for and a lizard that I swear to god just skittered in from Jurassic Park. Reptiles were the one kind of house pet I’d never had. Still lizards fascinate me and the snakes were rather cool too. Too many pythons though, I really don’t like the idea of selling a little snake that grows up to be aggressive and 18 feet long. Sigh.

Finally I wandered to another corner and found the mammals. This is what I was here for! There was someone here handling some sort of Asian ground squirrel. In cages there were a couple degus, another squirrel, some very healthy looking furless and furred rats, some skinny pigs, a kinkajou and a lemur. Texas is the only state in which lemurs are legal to own as pets as far as I know. Kinkajous are only legal to keep in a handful of states. I was slightly disappointed. I sorta wanted to see some of the really unusual things this place often had on their website… like capybaras, pacas, or maras, or something I’d never heard of and couldn’t identify (like the one fossa fossa I found on an ad one day.) Still it was sort of neat…

Then I saw what I came to see. Just outside, behind a fence, there was a young lion, no more than 3 or 4 years old, and apparently his mate, a large orange tiger. apparently hybrids were legal here too. It was pretty amazing, seeing two large cats living not only in someone’s back yard but in a trailer park in Houston. I’m all for exotic (domestically bred) pets, but even this is too far for me! Still, the animals at the shop, including the cats were very robust and healthy. Everyone looked great. They even had classically fussy animals like chameleons and sugar gliders that looked very healthy. And let me tell you the furless rats didn’t have a scratch on them! That’s an accomplishment! And I know because they were my favorite breeding project once.

I left the shop only to find a large tortoise wandering the yard and the three micro-mini potbelly pigs in a pen. They were so cute! She said they only got to be about 35 pounds. Man if I had a place of my own, with a nice yard, and this little shop were closer that would have been super tempting. The largest was a salt and pepper gray with a little white star. So cute. Its been way too long since I’ve seen piggies.

On the way out I got to witness one of the funniest sights I had yet seen – it was a couple, the man obviously a stoner, grinning ear to ear, a lemur on a leash going bat shit crazy in his car, his girlfriend looking disgruntled like, “Why did you just buy a fucking monkey?! Now I can’t even get into the car!”

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 28, 2011 0

Old Spring Town Texas

So I decided to go to Houston because there was a store there called The Little Dutch Girl and a pet shop I’d found. I went to the Little Dutch Girl first, because buying one of those might be useful. Just kidding! Don’t buy children, it’s wrong. Anyway, it was situated in the middle of this little strip mall called Old Towne Spring. It was adorable. They had a little German shop, a little Dutch shop, and across from them was The Texan Shop, like “HEY! YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE LOCALS!”

I entered the Little Dutch Girl and was greeted first by a whole wall full of licorice. This I’ll never understand. I can’t imagine any licorice could possibly taste different from another. It’s really fowl stuff… but then there was a small section that went to dry foods and a little fridge with cheese. The rest of the shop was touristy things… wooden shoes, windmills, and blue chinaware.

Today I was looking for candy flakes, the kind you put on toast. I don’t know what they are really called, but they are these little flavored flakes you put on bread and eat. I got some chocolate and some fruit flavored and couldn’t pass up the Stroopwafels. It’s really funny because I decided after eating one that my own home-made versions somehow had surpassed this. Perhaps because I spent four months perfecting an intensely simple recipe.

When the woman at the register rung up these choices she smiled in a sort of strange way, perhaps reflecting on the fact these were odd items, not usually bought by tourists but rather by someone whose eaten them before. I guess I’ll never know.

There was a little German shop next to the little Dutch shop (surprise surprise.) It was cute, though it didn’t please the realists here. Apparently nut crackers, cuckoo clocks, and everything else here wasn’t actually a German thing… I couldn’t care less… As far as I am concerned Germans had me at, “Hey look! An ADORABLE roundy car that allows you to punch people!” Funny enough there wasn’t any VW memorabilia. Shame.

I stopped at a little fried food place. Out of morbid curiosity I got a fried Snickers bar. The fried Snickers bar was rather disappointing. The melty gooey part was wonderful, the batter wasn’t so much. I had to peel it off like I do my fried fish.

I left after this but appreciated this artistic and adorable little enclave of creative spirits, where people walked around wearing full jeans and sweaters as I melted into a puddle.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 28, 2011 0

Fried Pie – Texas

Local foods are… just so tempting… and I saw a big sign reading, “Fried pie!” Who the hell fries a pie? What does it taste like? I decided to find out and pulled off an exit. I ordered a blackberry,wishing later he’d tried the coconut cream. It was delicious! I am not a fan of pies… especially the crust… but the frying process made the crust not so dry. It was fantastic! And there was a little thing on the paper bag reading, “start your own franchise!” Might have to.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 28, 2011 0

Eisenhower State Park Texas

I decided to stay at Eisenhower state park for a night, being tired of sleeping in the car and aching for a shower, as well as hoping for a Laundromat. As it turns out it was Memorial Day weekend and the park was full. I was sent to the “overflow” camping plots, which were “rugged” in nature. I bought a bundle of wood to burn as the collecting of firewood in the park was prohibited. I ended up situated next to a large and very loud herd of teenagers who did not shut up all night. I smoked them out for awhile… once I got my wet bundle of wood to burn. They gave me the saddest amount, a bundle with only five pieces of wood for $5 and it wouldn’t even burn… I waited way too long to eat and was agitated at the lack of coals. When I finally did get around to eating I devoured the whole package of turkey dogs, save for the one I dropped on the ground. But the wood was all burned now, at 6pm. SIGH.

I checked out the showering facilities and was too freaked out by them to actually take advantage of them. In the women’s room there were three stalls for the toilets, clean, and a clean sink, though there was no soap. The showers… were two infinitesimally small stalls with a half wall separating them, that didn’t even shield you from the other stall. The showers were in full view of the rest of the bathroom, there was no privacy curtain and no where to put anything like clothes or soap… I took a nice sponge bath in the tent.

I intended to stay and rest awhile but this place was blargh. Armadillo Hill didn’t even appear to have any armadillos! Though there was a nice stash of fossils lying about… not sure what they were. I think they may have been some sort of Cambrian snails. The coolest part about that was there were pill bugs EVERYWHERE, like little living fossils themselves! I was thoroughly amused picking them up by the handful and watching them drip through my fingers. In New England you really have to search for pill bugs, maybe prying apart a dead tree or something, but here they were as common as dirt! And rolling up wee insect armadillos!

The other interesting thing was the stuffed animals they had in the welcome center… they had a very fat beaver, a coyote, and something called a paddle fish that was just bizarre looking. I fell asleep to the psychotic yipping and yelping of coyotes which was actually a comforting sound, something I had gotten used to as a small child.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 28, 2011 0