The tale of the Skunks

After the joys of the marvels of Bryce National Park, I made my way up North, still on Route 89. The scenery started to change dramatically from these bare, red cliffs to the large plains with the mountains encasing the valleys. More farms. Still somewhat high country with sagebrush. I was following the Sevier River way.I went to a campground area north of Marysville. It was by the river Sevier. And I had a nice spot under the pine trees overlooking the river. It was a nice evening with thundershowers and thunder and lightning but after two hours, it went away and it was clear and sunny.
After a restful night, I got up the next morning to do some tai chi along the river bank. While I was in the middle of tai chi, I happened to look behind me to see two skunks hopping along five feet from me. I was still doing the movements but looking at them. This is the first time I ever seen skunks in the wild, alive. Very pretty and could see why children always chase after them. They looked furry, and I had the desire to pick them up to pet them. But of course, this would be very unwise.

As they passed, they stopped. One seem to become upset with the other and turned around threatening. At this time I stopped and was thinking, "Oh great, they are five feet from me and if that one sprays, I will surely get some of the spray." I inch away ever so cautiously, but they really did not take any notice of me. They made some noises at each other. Finally they parted ways, one went back the way it came and the other continued on to the bushes down by the river five feet from me and disappeared.

I thus picked up where I left off with my tai chi. Marveling how they took no notice of me. Like it was natural to see some human doing tai chi. I apparently was part of the scenery and was no threat to the skunks.