Monday, February 25, 2013

Havasupi, our sleeping arangements


I hope I finish telling this story tonight. It's taken me a while to get it out, but I'm really hoping that tonight will be the final night. So last I left you, I had eaten almost all of Matt and Hannah's chocolate Sunbelt granola bars because I did not bring much food of my own and was starving. Not only did I overestimate myself in thinking I could last a week with no food, but I also thought that my core body temperature does not need to be sustained above a healthy 96 degrees. I didn't bring a sleeping bag, only a small fleece blanket to try and cover my bones, but it didn't even completely cover my body. Then Brian only brought a tarp that has no warmth-retaining attributes whatsoever, so we were up creek without a paddle...

I don't remember what happened the first night, but I'm sure it involved little sleep. I was freezing. But I remember the 2nd night very well. I woke up probably a half hour or so into my sleep shivering and wishing I was some place warm. Then out of the darkness I heard a shivering voice, "Jonny?" It was Brian. He wasn't sleeping either. "Hey, maybe if we sleep next to each other we can keep each other warm," he said. I've heard of this kind of thing from survival stories on Discovery Channel and what not, and I figured we'd gather strength in numbers. So me and Brian huddled together on the ground and combined our fleece blanket and tarp together, hoping that with our combined strength we'd be warm. It was a good attempt, but it failed... A little while later, me and Brian were both shivering and seeing a bright light make its way toward us. Not ready to walk through that light, we lashed out in desperation at the first person we could find. Hannah.

Hannah is now Matt's wife, but she wasn't at the time. Although I had known her for a couple months, Brian had just barely met her, and we were quite uncomfortable asking for her help. I can't remember why we didn't ask Matt, but I think it had something to do with him not wanting to give up his comfy spot on the table where he was sleeping. So we woke up Hannah and asked her if she'd be willing to share any of her nice warm sleeping bag with us. Feeling very uncomfortable and a little pressured into the situation, she gave in, and the next thing she knew she was lying between two freezing future brother-in-laws that were using her for her warmth. We opened up her sleeping bag and put it over all three of us, and me and Brian cuddled up next to Hannah whose body acted as a heating system under our little makeshift bed. I slept just fine after that, but I've heard from Hannah after that it was very uncomfortable for her. I can imagine...

Well, I'm not going to finish this story tonight. An impending bed time and those bad carrots I ate two nights ago are making me tired and a bit weezy, so I'm going to have to finish this story another time. Think of this as the longest story I've ever had to tell on this blog...

1 comment:

  1. hannah said she was uncomfortable because she ended up sleeping in the dirt, but she wasn't uncomfortable cuddling with you guys

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