I think maybe it is easier to find Internet access in Mexico than in the American Southwest. I have received many requests for an update, so here goes.
Well, to continue where I left off, that night we went and soaked in the very hot springs. The next day was clear so we went on an all day hike up above the tree line and saw marmots and deer. Then, on through Durango ( I drove, they took the scenic narrow-gauge steam train) and east to my favorite place in the world, Great Sand Dunes National Monument. We spent a great few hours rolling around in the sand and then drove north to go rafting through the Royal Gorge near Canon City. Not all of my passengers rafted, so I drove the rest up to a few viewpoints of the canyon and then we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. That night we went to the movies and then hung out in a bar playing loud heavy metal music. The next day we took a dirt road over the mountains, did a little hike at over 12,000 feet and then went to the Coors brewery so they could all enjoy the free beer at the end of the tour.
That trip was finished and I had a week until my next trip left from Denver. It was time to head back to Telluride and visit my five cousins there. I took the scenic route and made a nice day of the drive. I went through Leadville and then took some nice dirt roads over the mountains. In Telluride, I went for a great hike with Susan and we also went out for Sushi and saw a movie. I read a good Tony Hillerman book, did a little paperwork and basically just enjoyed a little mini-vacation in the Colorado Rockies.
Then it was back to Denver to do a Southwest Trail, a quick ten day trip to Los Angeles. I took them over the mountains on a dirt road and we stopped at the top for a little high altitude hike. Those who had been at sea level the day before quickly realized how tiring hiking with no oxygen can be. Then it was on to the Royal Gorge for another ride down the river. This time it was amazing.
Right at the top of the biggest rapid of the day my raft got stuck. The boat just filled up with water and started spinning in circles, and one of my passengers fell out. I bounced around the boat for about two rotations and then I was washed out. The rapids are so much more fun without that big rubber boat between you and the water. I swam the rest of the rapid. I bounced off rocks (feet first) and also got sucked under a few times. It was great.
The next day we headed back to the Telluride area and went on a hike up past the dead deer and abandoned mining equipment. During our second day in Telluride, we went on a most amazing 18 mile, mostly downhill, bike ride down the mountain, across streams and around lakes. That afternoon I went and visited Susan again and then took my group to those really nice hot springs near Ridgway.
On the fourth day of the trip we drove to Mesa Verde and climbed around the ancient Puebloan ruins. That night, my two passengers from Singapore cooked an amazing Chinese meal. They cooked one of the best meals I have eaten on a trip while standing in the mud under a leaky rain tarp. The next day we went on a jeep tour of Monument Valley and then spent the night at Slim and Kody’s cowboy camp. We went on the nice horse ride, ate the food cooked over the fire, learned to throw the ropes around the metal cow, did some line dancing and had another cowboy party. The next day they let us shoot the .22 rifle and pistols. As you can imagine, a .22 is not powerful enough for a modern cowboy, so they broke out the 9mm semi-automatic Ingram. It is just like an Uzi sub-machine gun and is very loud when you shoot it. So we chased the horses out of the way, set up some cans, and proceeded to impress the many foreign guests with the amount of destructive fire power that Americans feel is necessary in order to feel safe at home.
When we ran out of ammo, we headed to Lake Powell for the afternoon and then on to the Grand Canyon the following day. On the way we stopped in Seligman, Arizona for ice cream. In Seligman there is a very interesting old man who turns buying an ice cream into a five minute comedy show. The next morning I started at about 7:30 and made the eight miles down to the river by 10:30. It was my first time going all the way to the bottom. I hiked back up to the rim and was out of the canyon by 1:30 pm. I ate lunch and then waited in the van for my passengers to show up so we could go watch the sunset. Before everyone showed up, the snow started. It was the first week of October and it was cold. That night three inches of snow fell and covered the tents, the van, the trees, the ground, pretty much everything. There was no sunset that day. The next morning was very cold and we had to shovel the snow off the roof of the van before we could load the frozen tents.
We took our nice flight over the Grand Canyon and then headed for Las Vegas. Then we took our limo ride down the strip, watched some free shows, rode the new roller coaster at the New York, New York casino and then I called it a night. The next day we drove to Los Angeles and that was it for that trip.
In Los Angeles, I looked up an old friend and hung out with her for the day. Stephanie and I went to some art galleries in Beverly Hills, went to the strangest museum I have ever been to (The Museum of Jurassic Technology) and saw two very unique French movies (unique because they were French, yet there was no sex). I had a good five days or so in L.A. and then left on my next trip around the Southwest.
In super secret Trek America lingo it was called a Westerner 2 - a two week trip around the west. We took the coastal road up to San Francisco and then took a sunset sailboat cruise on the Bay. We went around Alcatraz and then saw some seals playing in the water. The next day I gave a quick tour of the city and then we went to Alcatraz to look at the old jail. Then we headed east to Yosemite National Park and I took a few of them on a 17 mile hike, almost to the top of Half Dome. That night we saw a bear wandering around the parking lot, so they all got some bear pictures.
After a slow start the next day, we headed over to Death Valley. The night was cold, but the next day it was nice to finally be able to wear shorts again. I took them for a half day drive through Titus Canyon. We stopped a ghost town and then had lunch in a narrow part of the canyon. Then it was on to Las Vegas for two nights - the limo ride, the free shows, the roller coaster, the usual. The next day I took three of my passengers out to Red Rocks State Park and we did a few short hikes in canyons and looked at the red rocks. Following our two nights in L.V., I took a few of them skydiving and then we headed over to the Grand Canyon.
It was still bitterly cold at the Grand Canyon and half of my group went across the street to the hotel. I did not feel like hiking so, after dropping everyone off at the rim, I went for a drive in the woods. I bounced my van way off the paved roads and explored a bit of the Kaibab National Forest. About a mile past the road closed signs the road got really rough. Eventually, I left the woods and went back to my passengers hotel room for a nice shower and some relaxation. Later, I picked them up and we went over to Yavapai Point to watch the sun set. It was another extremely cold night, so I was forced to ask A.J., another tour leader, to join me in my van. I should have invited a few more people because A.J. was just too small and did not really do much to help me warm up the van. At least I had someone to talk to whenever I woke up shivering.
The next day we headed south to a cowboy camp near Phoenix, Arizona. Rusty and Betty’s camp is at the end of 30 minute drive over some very rough roads. We got there in time to set up the tents and take the canoes out onto their small pond. There was two other Trek vans full of people there so it became a big party night. I got tired before the party ended, but they were using the radio from my van to dance to so I could not sleep in my usual place - the back seat of the van. I took my sleeping bag and headed off into the night. I walked until I could no longer hear the music and slept in the middle of the desert.
To get us off to a good start the next day, Betty cooked some eggs, biscuits and gravy over the fire. Then I took two of my passengers on a couple hour hike. We followed the horse trails through the desert and looked at all the Saguaro cacti. Then I tried to find a short cut back to camp and we found out that every bush in the area had sharp thorns. We survived the hike, had lunch and spent the rest of the day and early evening driving to San Diego.
In San Diego, I dropped people off at Sea World and at Horton Plaza (for shopping) and then took the rest down to Tiajuana, Mexico. They shopped, we ate lunch, explored a bit of the area off of the tourist strip and then came back up to the U.S. That was Halloween night, so I put on my skydiving jumpsuit and we headed down town. There were thousands of people wandering around in some very imaginative costumes. The line for the haunted house was too long, so we just people watched and then called it a night.
On the last day of the trip, I took them up to Disneyland and then went to the library and checked out some books. I spent the day reading while they chased Mickey. Then I picked them up, we went out to eat and that was the end of my worst trip ever. Some of the passengers were a bit childish and I made a few mistakes in running the trip, so by the end tensions were a bit high. For some reason, at the last night party, everybody relaxed and we had a great time - finally. I spent three days in the office getting over my poor performance and then it was back out on the road with a whole new group of people.
On 6 November, I took my twelve passengers, from nine different countries, on a brief tour of Hollywood and Santa Barbara. The next day we went up to San Francisco and picked up a thirteenth passenger. I gave my best tour of the city ever and then we met A.J., still with her group from the Grand Canyon, for a sunset cruise on San Francisco Bay. There was no fog and we had picture perfect views of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, Sausolito and downtown. That night we went out dancing and I got to enjoy one of my favorite pastimes on my trips.
Naturally, when I walk into a bar with about ten young foreign women we (they) get a lot of attention. So, at a bar, since I don’t drink alcohol, I need some other entertainment and my passengers provide it. They are all dressed up for the evening and spend the night fending off advances from their many instant admirers. My entertainment is watching them shoot down one pick-up artist after another. Then when they are having trouble getting rid of the bar scene men I go and ask four of five of them to dance. I guess they think I am safe and all agree to leave their new found men and head out to the dance floor with me. Then two o’clock comes, the bar closes, and we head back to the hotel.
On the fourth day of the trip, the two Korean men told me that their visas expired the next day and they had to fly home. So then there was eleven. I sent my remaining passengers off to Alcatraz and to see the city for the day and I went back to Hayward to visit my Aunt Charlene, Uncle Lenny, and cousins Isaac (6), David (4), and Josh (2). We went to the Oakland Zoo, rode the rides and looked at the animals. Then we played with my cousins toys for a while before we went out for some good Mexican food.
The next day we headed out to Yosemite. This trip was from the winter brochure, which meant that only three of the first 13 days were camping. So after three days in San Francisco hotel, we moved on to two nights in cabins in Yosemite Valley. I was a bit sick, so while they hiked in the rain, I read the new John Grisham book, The Runaway Jury. After they finished hiking, we drove up to the giant Sequoia trees and took a walk. I wore all of my winter clothes, except shoes and socks. I learned that if you hike in snow with sandals your feet will turn red and hurt. I guess growing up in south Florida did not prepare me for everything.
Tioga Pass was already snowed in, so we had to take the long way around the Sierra Madres. It took us all day to drive south around the mountains and then north up to Death Valley. There was a full moon in the empty desert so a short night hike was in order. Then, finally, on my fourth visit to the Park, I had a full free day to spend hiking or exploring. Unfortunately, my passengers were not really hikers. We went for a short hike up Golden Canyon and took pictures of the natural stone bridge, the nicely eroded canyon walls and Silvie. Silvie is a young German woman who reminds me of the Nanny. She always wore her very stylish clothes, including shoes with four inch soles, and full make-up. Needless to say, she looked ridiculous whenever we were hiking or camping. After the hike, we went down to Badwater (285 feet below sea level). Then we ate lunch and they had had enough nature for the day. We went and split the afternoon between the pool, showers, the bar, the post office, and the telephones - in the middle of Death Valley.
On our way out of the Park we stopped at Dante’s view and looked down over 5,000 feet into the valley. Lunch in Pahrump, Nevada and then Las Vegas for two nights. Thirty thousand computer nerds were in town for COMDEX, a big computer convention. They had booked all of the limos, so I got to pretend the van was a limo and conduct the night tour myself. Two of them were interested in skydiving, so I drove them out to Boulder, NV for a jump and then dropped them off at the factory outlet mall. On our one free day in Las Vegas, all of my passengers spent the bulk of the day shopping. Strange people, in my opinion.
Gavin, an Aussie bloke, decided that Las Vegas and San Francisco were much more interesting than the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, so he left the trip early. Then there were ten. We headed over to Zion National Park and hiked up Angels Landing, a nice 2.5 hour hike straight up the canyon walls. The next day we stopped for lunch next to Lake Powell and then continued on to Mexican Hat, near Monument Valley. We spent the night in a Navajo Indian Hogan. The Hogan is traditional Indian dwelling. It is round and made of wood covered by mud. There is a stove in the middle and a large hole in the ceiling for spiritual reasons. Thanks to the hole in the ceiling it gets very cold at night. All of us slept on the floor of Hogan and I only had to get up three times in the night to put more wood and coal into the little stove.
The next day we took a jeep tour of Monument Valley. One of our Indian guides sang a traditional Happy Birthday song for me in Navajo. I just love when the Indians take us out to a cave or an arch in the valley and sing in Navajo. They have us all close our eyes and just listen to their chants. After the jeep tour we continued on down to Tucson. For you foreign people that is pronounced TWO-SAN and not TUCK-SUN. We got there late and had a campfire. My Swiss passenger had decided that she liked San Diego and needed some beach time, so I drove her to the train station that night - and then we were nine.
We spent the next morning at the Arizona-Sedona Desert Museum. This is an incredible outdoor museum where they have all of the plants and animals from the desert region on display. We saw big cats, trees, cacti, rodents, birds, cave animals, and many docents. That afternoon we hung out near the University. I never realized that there were so many hippies, punks and freaks in Tucson, it was a nice change.
The next morning we headed up to Phoenix, had lunch and then stopped at the liquor store (bottle shop) so every one could stock up for the cowboy camp. We went on up to Rusty and Betty’s in time for a horseback ride among the cacti before sunset. Then we had some good steaks cooked over the fire and got down to the normal cowboy camp party activities - lasso, line dancing, riding the metal bull, and drinking. When the party started dying down I took my sleeping bag and headed for the hills again. After a good night sleep in the desert I went back to the camp for breakfast and some shotgun practice. We shot a few mean looking cans and then headed west to Joshua Tree National Park. We spent the night at a place with some hot springs and soaked off all of the cowboy camp dirt. The next morning we hiked to Forty-nine Palms and played on the rocks before heading off to San Diego.
In San Diego, my Spanish passenger had to leave the trip to catch her flight home. Then we were eight.
The next day I dropped half the group off at Horton Plaza for some shopping and took the rest down to Tiajuana for a bit of Mexican culture, or at least a bit of shopping and looking around. Then I cooked a nice final night dinner and got ready for an early start the next day. On the morning of 26 November, we went up to Disneyland. They braved the heavy rains and I went to the library and the office. They rode Space Mountain and I got laid off.
Thanks to what I see as a great deal of inefficiency and mis-communication in the Trek America office I was laid off for (at least) seven weeks. I had asked for less than two weeks off around New Years Day for my cousin Dori’s wedding. So my boss told me that I would be spending the next three work days cleaning my equipment and doing all of that end of the year paperwork. Bummer, but hey, what can you do?
I went back to Disneyland, picked up my passengers and went back to the hotel. The Austrian woman had to fly out right away so me, and my seven remaining passengers went out for Thai food and our tearful good-byes after three fun weeks.
The next day was Thanksgiving. My friend Sue showed up and we hung out for the day. Sue is the woman who traveled with me for two months in New Zealand and Australia. I had been carrying pictures from our trip since June, just hoping to run into her and share them with her. So I finally ran into her and we had a chance to visit. Then that evening, I went over to visit my Aunt Marty, Uncle Gary, and cousins Rafaela and Yitz. I let Yitz climb all over me for a few hours and then we had to be quiet because Marty’s parents were visiting and trying to sleep on the living room couch.
During my trips I make a great effort to learn the native languages and cultures of my passengers, especially Japanese. Gillian, from Australia, and Lynn, from England, were extremely generous at the end of the trip and presented me with a Japanese phrase book, a German phrase book, a Star Trek calendar and a nice tip. Now I can speak English, get by in Spanish, say about 30 basic things in Japanese, speak almost as much in German, say a few words in Swahili, French and Hebrew and say thank you in twelve more languages.
Gillian is a very special person, and luckily for me, she decided to stay in L.A. for a week before she headed down to Baja California, Mexico. The two of us cooked dinner at a friends house, ate ice cream, hung out in Santa Monica, saw a few movies, took a walk on the beach, took a drive in the hills north of L.A., went to an all-u-can eat sushi place that had a live DJ who played loud rap music and generally had a good time for my last week in L.A. It was a very good week.
Then I flew home to Fort Lauderdale, and for the first time since 1988, I was home for my birthday (4 December). My Grandmas Celia and Lillian and my Grandpa Al joined Suzie, my mother, and me for a birthday dinner. My mama made a most excellent chocolate cake and I ate off of it for days. Then I sat around and read a book until Sunday when my cousin Dori (Dorky), the guy she is shacking up with (but will marry on 4 Jan 98) and his parents came over for brunch. My mama made another, slightly different, chocolate cake and I ate off of it for days.
Yesterday, I went down to Miami and visited with Michele and saw Starship Troopers.
Now I am hanging out at my mother's and waiting for both sides of my family to descend upon South Florida for the Channuka - New Years week. Then near the end of January I will fly back to L.A. I start a trip from Mexico City on 1 February and have a series of three trips in Mexico until 4 April. My first trip in Mexico will take me through central Mexico to areas which are new to me. The next two trips in Mexico will take me back to Xcacel - my favorite Caribbean beach. I am looking forward to heading south of the Tropic of Cancer for my third consecutive winter. I think that all of America north of Orlando, Florida is uninhabitable due to the cold for much of the year.
I hope to work from the end of January all the way through August or September. I know that is a ridiculously long time to work, but I am trying to save enough money to spend next winter in Nepal. I know it is north of the Tropic of Cancer and cold, but I want to wait until after monsoon season.
So that is the latest from me. Sorry it was so long between updates, but it is amazing how time flies when you are having fun. Some people have e-mailed pictures to me from the trips and I will try to work them into my web page soon.
