Crookinshank

‘Whole life’s are spent working to devise a plan that will help us get all the way through it and all the while this wonderful world works to devise it’s own plan against it.’

Old Crookinshank couldn’t work.  Disabled in a forgotten war.  So he took his $300 a month disability check and built a mule-drawn covered wagon upon a old trailer axel he’d found.  Bought a mule and traveled forgotten highways from state to state.

I met him in ‘01’ while broke down in a campground in western Colorado.  We drank some beers over a campfire and discussed many things.  He said his biggest worry in life was 18 wheelers barreling by and impatient drivers honking and flipping him off.  He said it scared his mule and a runaway mule usually meant he’d end up stuck in a ditch or turned over.  I said my biggest worry was my broke down car and not knowing what to do or where to go.  He advised me to buy a mule to tow the car and follow him over the Unita Mountains to the coast where I could get a job as a fisherman.  I laughed but he was serious.

The next morning he got kicked out of the campground for not paying the nightly fee.  I waved goodbye and later got my car running, found my own way but occasionally I wonder what would of happened if I had followed his advice.