Makoshika State Park, Glendive MT 
The Badlands

 The eerie landscape is an anvil for the sun.  Even color hides from the mid-day light.  It is only at sunset and sunrise that the mineral hues of ancient volcanoes and sea-bed muds squeeze into this drip-castle netherworld.  We are the only campers in the place. It’s kind of spooky.  That and the stark terrain tell us that this is a planet unlike any other we have visited.

 That night, just as we drift off to sleep, a light appears over the dead black sky.  It projects shadows across our tenting and the hills beyond.  It sweeps through the camp again like a searchlight and finally settles.  We fall back into an uneasy sleep.

 The next morning the UFO has morphed into the mundane.  "Caravan" it says on its dull red and dusty side.  A tiny being less than 5 feet tall shuffles from the vehicle on three appendages and reaches out one of his two forelimbs toward me.  "I'm Leo from Mysora, and this is Dallas", he grunts and points to an even smaller companion. 

 "Hi", I said.  I probably would have spoken something more meaningful had I known that it would be my last spoken word for the next 48 hours.  Leo and Dallas claimed to be 80 and 78 year olds, respectively, who left the retirement condo behind for a few MONTHS in Cody, Wyoming.  That should have been clue enough of the alien nature of our visitors.  Who vacations for two months in Cody?  When Dallas announced that she left town because of all the people dying off where she was, I began to suspect the special nature of these visitors.  She straightened the wig covering the characteristic egg-shaped head.  Nancy and I were being interviewed as potential alien abductees.

 Now I would have suspected that I would be pressed for information in such a situation.  Fact is Leo and Dallas did all the talking. They must have received information by bouncing words off of us and sensing the reflected vibrations - kind of like the way bats see the hard body parts of their prey inside dark caves.  Oddly, Leo and Dallas talked to Buddy about as much as they talked to Nancy and me.  Here they are from intergalactic space, traveling in a small ship at an exceedingly old age so I figured, what the hell, maybe I can learn something from them.   So I listened.

 Leo and Dallas had been married 63 years.  They had been high school sweethearts and were married as teenagers (15 and 17).  They were retired since Leo was in his mid fifties.  The visit to Cody was part of their 28th visit to Yellowstone.  In prior visits they had traveled in, besides their spaceship, a truck camper, tents, mobile home and the Caravan. 

 What is the secret to staying together for so long?  How did you cope with marriage and children as not-much-more-than children yourself?  What have you done to keep retirement interesting?  What have been hurdles for you in retirement?  How do you best like to travel and why?  How the hell do you camp in a Caravan (no tent or even a cargo rack)?  Questions filled my head but never came out my mouth.  I swear, one of them did not take a breath except that it was an opening for the other to speak.  I became utterly resigned to listening and hoped that somewhere in the outpouring words my answers would come. 

 At times the conversation was just white noise.  There was the second telling of the story about the drug addict grandson who took advantage of them.  There is the ‘$3 rack at K-Mart’ story and the list of all the fun things to do at Wal-Mart.  It eventually dawns on me that it is not in the details of the stories that I will find answers.  It is how the story is told. 

 Leo is self-effacing and defers constantly to on Dallas.  Sick and worn out as he is he must rely on her.  Then somehow you begin to sense that it is she who needs Leo.  Despite his frail body and gentleness, he keeps them from folding to the pressures of 9 medicines a day, each, family crises, stretching money, and their mental fitness.  Dallas busies herself tending their daily needs.  Leo warns her to work less and limps about on two bad hips trying to help.  There is no complaining, only two people trying to find a way to help each other.

 Dallas starts a story and gives Leo the cue to finish because it "makes me too upset."  Leo takes over for a line or two before Dallas, now recovered, goes on to complete the tale.  The transition is seamless.  They both smile easily and laugh at parts of the story they have doubtless told and laughed about a thousand times before. 

 For two days our adopted "alien" companions pour their conversations on us.  My questions go unasked.  But within the blanket of verbiage from these simple, wise, and ancient beings the answers come: 

 ·          You can always make do with less if you do it with good cheer.

·          Laugh a lot, especially at yourself.

·          Take joy in the things you like and damn the opinion that "K-Mart sucks".

·          Do what you have to do, do your best and move on.  Not everything is your fault or in your control.

·          Be joyful.

·          Take care of each other. 

Our abduction ended, we find ourselves free to leave the campground.  We leave it to the visitors from planet Mysora, near St Louis.  Their journey has been longer than ours.  They are tired.  They worked hard to answer the unasked questions.  They shared the secret of life.

Life is good.

ECD