Running with Secrets

Untitled Part 41

They stood silent in companionable silence until Kristin abruptly ended their embrace, not looking at her traveling companion. "I'm hungry. Was that a Denny's I saw out the window?" She was already picking up her bags.

"Yeah, that was a Denny's, but I think we could come back and get our things after breakfast."

Kristin turned to face him for the first time since he came back from talking to Sally on the phone and sized him up for a minute before she spoke. "Okay, but I want to get going right away. We're so close."

Heath nodded in agreement. "Only if you agree to act like tourists at breakfast." A smile played at the corners of his mouth, noticing that she was trying very hard not to respond in kind.

"I guess so, right? Otherwise it's a gas station croissant, huh?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "If you like, but playing tourists---with accents---" he added, "would be boss."

Kristin wrinkled her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. "Boss?" She tried to stifle a snort. "No one uses the word Boss unless you're talking about Bruce Springsteen." she said as she dropped her bag on the floor.

"Fair enough. Fair enough." Heath said. "Let's go eat then."

Keeping in mind the earlier conversation he had with Sally, he ushered Kristin out of the room after he made sure his room key was in his back pocket.

*****

The drive into Sanpete county was uneventful, except when they stopped at the drugstore in Gunnison. Kristin decided to buy a new pair of sneakers and try out her new, unused credit card. thankfully it worked and after they topped off the gas tank, they were on their way again. Heath took the opportunity to call his grandmother, Kathleen Johnston, to let her know how soon they would arrive. She was continually amazed by the road trip that so many wonderful little things could be tucked away on the back country roads. Utah was no different. Well, it was, she decided, but that's the point of road-tripping. The mountains were somehow different here than any she had seen before. And true to any other place they had driven through, no one really cared about an out of state license plate. "It's a college community, no one really cares." He told her. Still, she was amazed and a smile played on her face as she watched out the window.

"You'll have to come back in the fall for the annual sheep run when that happens."

"What?" She stopped gazing at the different buildings, some new and some old and aged with weather, or time. "Sheep run?"

"Yeah, a lot of ranchers out here do cattle or sheep and they run them off the mountains in the fall and bring them back home after they graze all summer on the tops." His eyes danced with delight as he watched her from the side as she processed what was happening and what he was telling her.

"You mean they bring their livestock right through the middle of the town?"

"Yep."

"To get them off the mountain?"

"Yep."

"And the point is?..."

Heath reveled in that she didn't understand. "The ranchers take their cattle or sheep up into the mountains during the summer. That way, they don't have to corral them in a tiny space and they are grass-fed and healthier for it. When they come down, don't get me wrong, Kristin, this isn't just some small-time a couple hundred head. Sometimes it's thousands." His grin was enormous by now, remembering times when he was little an visiting his grandma. Somehow, she always knew that "tons of sheep" would always entertain her boy.

"What?" She was completely taken back. "I thought you meant maybe a couple hundred total!"

Heath laughed out loud. "No way. Ranching is a lifestyle out here. Kind of like farming is in the Midwest. Some have hundreds at a time."