George had headed out to NM for an ASLO conference, Frank was supposed to be there too, but he had a family issue, so he was delayed. It was decided that I would head out there towards the end of the conference so we could all meet up and begin our journey. Frank got in to ABZ a little ahead of me on 9 Feb 2007 and so he picked me up from the airport in a brand new, shiny red Chrysler Sebring... that poor bastard of a car didn't have a chance, but I am getting ahead of myself. Anyway, GB had been in Sante Fe for a few days and had already gone to Bandelier so FT and I headed out there to catch up.
We arrived late in the afternoon on a generally overcast day. It wasn't what I was expecting... but I didn't really know what to expect because I was only marginally involved in the trip planning (quite happily, I should add). So I was expecting to see the remnants of a fort... which we did see, but I was much more impressed with the cave dwellings. Frank and I climbed all over that place, up and down ladders, in and out of caves... even running into a weirdo playing a Native American flute (the music was actually quite nice and really added to the overall atmosphere, but she was a bit of a space cadet).
We were told that part of the park was closed to due to dangerous ice conditions... but as you will see in other postings, we generally laugh in the face of danger, so FT and I crossed streams and barriers to climb to the highest dwelling in the park. It actually wasn't bad at all, but we were very exposed there and I was nervous that we would start out our trip by getting ourselves banned from NPUs on the first day. Alas, we didn't get spotted (or no one cared) and we headed out of the park at dusk to find our friends (K.C., Pete, Ryan, and George) in Sante Fe. Because Frank had driven us there, and because I just love to be fair, I volunteered to drive us to Sante Fe. In writing this down now, I can feel this overwhelming sense of impending doom looming. I want to stop our heroes now, while there is still time, but the history would only change on paper... and anyway, all of that anger, heartache, and woe has already come and gone.
Anyway, we were in Sante Fe on our way to their domicile, thanks to Karen (that's Frank's GPS, by the way... scarred and scared little thing, she suffered (and continues to suffer to this day) tremendous psychological abuse from Frank, despite trying her best. She is sister to Emily -My well-cared-for GPS - who also made the trip). Well Karen was leading us to their place when we get a call saying (shocker) they are at a bar... so, given the pub's name and some quick directions, we reroute. Or at least we should have rerouted, what we did was add a via-point... if you know anything about GPS's, viapoints can make things pretty confusing to interpret on a 2"x3" screen. Long story "short" (arguably) I got confused, and from the left lane I quickly changed lanes to turn right... unfortunately there was someone there already (stupid Newtonian Physics) and I caused a little accident. Honestly I am getting a little worked up thinking back on it now, and I think I have already gone on too long. I'm sure FT will fill in the blanks on the incident, but I'll just leave it at this... it's been over 6 months since the accident and it is only now coming to a conclusion.
Despite the last paragraph or so this was the beginning of one of the best trips of my life... and it all started out at Bandelier.
P.S.
I recently found out that we didn't see all of the park... which is sad, because I thought we had, but cool because it gives me another reason to return to NM (if the statute of limitations is up, and I'm allowed back).
-Stefan
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