Chapter 5 - Adventure in New Mexico

Once again I need to attach a warning to this email – there are parts of this email which are graphic descriptions of things that may or may not be fiction – again I will let you decide.

When I left Brazil and headed for the US I did not think that there would be much that could outdo the experiences I had been through in Brazil. I have had a number of people ask me how my eyes and ears are doing, so I will address this first. As I write this email I cannot say that there has been any significant improvement in either, however I am also aware that healing takes time and both conditions have developed over a long period of time. What has changed, which is more important, is the way I see and experience the world and people around me and growing understanding of who I am and my place in the greater scheme of life. Can I express this in words to you now – probably not, change of this sort is always subtle.

I arrived in Dallas to spend a couple of weeks with my friend Israel. It was a peaceful and enjoyable thirteen days. I got a good amount of writing done, which I am very happy about. I spent some fantastic quality time with Israel and I got to spend some time with my friends from the company (Yum) that I have recently resigned from – catching up on all the office gossip. What a different perspective you have, when you are no longer a part of the structure of an organization. As an organization, Yum is way ahead of some many corporations in the world, and it was a privilege to have worked there.

In Dallas I was able to order and start reading a book that I had come across in Brazil, a book called “Love without End” by Glenda Green. It is a book that is changing my life with every sentence that I read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I left Dallas on a gorgeous day headed to my next destination on this great adventure. I been very fortunate to have been selected by the airline for special security screening – my boarding pass having the SSSS written on it. In another time and another place this might have read SS – but let’s not make those comparisons to quickly. Although I will comment that America is rapidly losing the freedoms is so desperately craves. This involved get buzzed all over with a magic wand, have my carry on luggage hand searched and getting patted down – by a rather handsome looking security guard – so who was I to complain!!! I was amused when one of the security people encounter my portable hard drive (used for backups – 20yrs in IT have taught me a thing or two) and he tried to open it, there was a quizzical look on his face which bought me much joy – oh the little things that amuse.....

I arrived in Albuquerque on the 13th June, it was so fantastic to see Rudrani and Eddie again. I meet this couple, along with some other fantastic people when I was in Brazil last October. They live on the outskirts of Albuquerque, in an Adobe style house, on a mountain, with three wonderful dogs, Bodie a black Labrador cross, Jake a golden retriever (Jake is LOVE incarnate – amazing animal) and the newest addition to their family a 10 week old yellow lab by the name of Sita – she is a little terror, but will grow into a beautiful dog.

On my first day with Ed and Rudrani, they took me north of Albuquerque to the Jemez (pronounced Hey-mez) mountains. I cannot describe the beauty that is New Mexico. I will send photo’s but I can tell you now that they in no way do it justice. Albuquerque is located at an altitude of approximately 5000 feet (sorry cant do the metric conversion), it is High Desert, hot, very dry – no humidity, cold at night, and a beauty that can only be seen to be believed. Even at this altitude, mountains rise out of the desert floor and ascend to 10,000 feet or more, Mesa are common. A Mesa (Table in Spanish) is a like a hill that rises from the desert floor – but the top of the hill has been sheared off – so it is a flat area – thus the name Mesa. The area my wonderful hosts took me to, was red rock, I felt like I was visiting Uluru in central Australia. We encountered beautiful mountain streams, natural hot springs and caves, just to name a few of the things we saw on that day.

Much of the land is Indian reservations, and while there is great wealth in this state, as is always seems to be, it is accompanied by much poverty as well. I was surprised at the military presence in the state, but this in the home of Area 51 and Roswell !!. I mostly noticed this as we were flying into Albuquerque. The Indian nations, have socialised medicine, I believe this is the only experience of socialised medicine in the US. Many of the tribes have established casino’s, which fund the eduction and health of their tribes. It is wonderful to see them establish such control over there lives and destinies. America, like Australia, has treated its native people abhorrently, I think our Aboriginal people could learn a thing or two from the American Indians.

The second evening I was their, Rudrani organised a small dinner party with a couple of her friends who were interesting in hearing my Brazilian tale first hand. So been the Leo that I am, never one to refuse a willing audience, I regaled them with my fictional tale of life at the Casa, scissors up my nose and incisions on my chest etc etc.... It was a fun night.

A new friend of mine, Craig, from Fort Lauderdale, whom I meet while in Brazil, decided to join me in Albuquerque, he arrived on Wednesday and we spent a good amount of time together over the next week. Some shared experiences that I think neither of us will ever forgot, but I am getting ahead of myself. I had been told that while I was visiting Albuquerque, there was going to be a Gay Rodeo. Having never been to a Rodeo in my life, I was eager to attend one and the fact that it was a Gay Rodeo made it all the more fun. What is a Gay Rodeo I hear you ask.... Well it is much like any other Rodeo, with Steer riding, calf roping, Bronco riding, speed trials with horse and riders, steer roping and Bull riding at the end of the day. Amongst these regular Rodeo pursuits there was also an event in which the participants in teams of two, had to place a pair of underwear onto a goat, in the quickest possible time – all I can say is poor goat, another event which I think is unique to the Gay Rodeo – was a team of two attempting to tie a ribbon to the tale of a Steer . I found myself cheering for the animals the whole day – the ones that evaded the cowboys and cowgirls – where my hero’s and the Bulls always get the last laugh. The Rodeo was over two days, Saturday and Sunday – Craig and I decided that one day of Rodeo was more than sufficient.

On the Friday before the Rodeo we visited the Petroglyphs on the outskirt of Albuquerque (you know, I just love writing Albuquerque). For those who don’t know what a petroglyph is, its a carving of an object directly onto stone, usually done with another stone implement. There are amazing pictures of animals, people, creatures, things that look like spacecraft – I think there will be a couple of photo’s so have a gander.

Sunday we decided to drive to a small town called Taos, to see a church call the St Francis of Assisi church, which is mentioned in the book above. It is a church built entirely in the Adobe style and is truly beautiful. We had a late start to the day and arrived at the church around 3pm (2.5 hour drive from Albuquerque), we arrived at the church to witness the end of a Baptism – the church has a strict no photo’s policy – but as the baby(s) were baptised the priest told the congregation that they could take photo’s – so who were we to argue and we took advantage of the moment to take some photo’s of the inside of the church.

We headed into the main town of Taos, which is an art community and a tourist destination, providing services to a nearby ski resort. The town was experiencing a black out, so we decided to continue up to the ski resort to find a place to eat. As we drove into and up the mountain the beauty that surrounded us was truly breathtaking – as we climbed the mountain, the road followed a small fast flowing stream, we stopped to test the water, it was icy cold and some of the best tasting water I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. There was still snow on the tops of the mountains and we later discovered that there is a mountain lake, about a 2 mile hike from where we stopped for dinner.

The scenery was stunning, the pine trees were mixed with the fluttering fine green leaves of silver birch’s. The cliffs and rock walls exploded with shapes and form, almost coming to life as we drive the winding road to the ski village at the base of the mountain. The ski village was all but deserted and there was nothing open, we by chance noticed a sign that said ‘Restaurant Open’ and followed our noses. The road became a dirt track, which in winter is only open to four wheels drives... But it was not too bad and I drove my Buick like a 4 wheel drive anyway. We continued to ascend the mountain not knowing where it would end and eventually found our way to the end of the road. There was a ski lift and a wonderful log cabin building which contained a Bavarian restaurant. The setting was ideal, the scenery unbelievable, we sat on the deck and listened to the sound of gushing, rushing stream. Several people came down the mountain, from the lake hike – one couple exclaiming that they had seen a bear, up by the lake. The next time I am in Albuquerque I will be returning to beautiful spot, hike to the lake and seeking out that bear, to shot him with my camera.

After consuming an extraordinary meal, we headed back down the mountain, to make it to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in time for sunset. We arrived around 7:45 I think, the light in the sky was beautiful and there was a near full moon hanging silently over the mountains we had just come from. We spent a fair amount of time, viewing and photographing the beauty of the gorge and the surrounding. It is not quite as breath taking as the Grand Canyon – but certainly worth a long look. It was a long way down from the bridge to the raging torrent of the Rio Grande river below. The bridge itself was of steel construction and built in 1966, it was a beautiful structure itself and its builders had designed small viewing platforms at various spots along either side of the bridge – so that as you walked across the bridge you could step into an alcove and get a better view of the beauty below. We had been told that there were a number of suicides every year from the bridge and it was easy to see why and how – it was a long way down and it was very easy access over the rail. I personally was thinking it would make a great place to bungee jump from....

We spent a good hour in and around the bridge – marvelling at the beauty of creation, enjoying the setting of the sun, the rising of the moon and peacefulness of this almost deserted place.

We had parked on the easterly side of the bridge in a parking lot on the right side of the road, the parking lot was a large area of gravel, a fence ran down one side, protecting you from a field of sage scrub and there was a chain link fence preventing you from going over to the edge of the gorge at the end of the parking lot – beside the bridge.

As we stepped off the bridge, to return to our car, a small red car pulled into the parking lot, out of no where from behind it a blueish/white old ford truck appeared, driving at breakneck speed. The truck was coming directly for us with no sign of it slowing down. Craig who was about a foot or two in front of me came within 2 inches of being struck down by the truck, the rush of air and dust that the truck had create clogged our lungs. I watched with stunned amazement as the truck careened on past us heading directly for the chain fence. It struck the fence as one might knock over a piece of paper, and sailed over the edge of the gorge.

I am not even sure I heard it crash on the rocks below – I probably did, but I can’t recall, the other thing that is strange is that in my memory the truck passed between Craig and I – yet he assures me, we were both on the same side of the truck within a couple of feet of each other. The mind does play some amazing tricks on you sometimes ... We raced back to our car to retrieve a cell phone and see if we had a signal, the people in the red car, had one as well and called the police and emergency services. Craig was very shaken, with his extremely close call, it has not occurred to me until just now – that if Craig had not stopped in front of me, I would have continued walking out into the path of the truck. Someone was watching over both of this day – I can tell you. I dropped all my camera gear and other stuff in the car, made sure Craig was physically OK – then headed to the edge of the gorge.

I don’t know why really, but I was compelled, I jumped over what remained of the fence and headed down the ravine into the gorge itself. The sun had set a half hour ago, so there was very little light in the sky, as I descended the rocks and slippery sliding loose dirt, I prayed like I have never prayed before. I clambered over boulders, around rocks, looking for stable rocks and solid ground to aid my journey down the side of the gorge. I later was to find out that it was a drop of about 240 feet, not a sheer cliff, but certainly not the sort of climb a sane man would do on a good day with bright light. Every step I took felt guided, there was a light around me I cannot describe. I had no idea if anyone could have survived such an accident, but if there was the slimmest chance that one or more people were down there and alive, I felt compelled to provide what aid I could. At one point there was a section of ground in front of me that was nothing but dirt, rough round tiny pebbles of clay dirt – I had no choice but to step onto it – the ground beneath my feet sunk a little like quick sand and then I literally surfed down about 3 metres of ground – I really don’t know how I remained upright, I reach another piece of solid rock and continued my descent.

As I descended, Craig called out from the bridge overhead to ensure I was OK – I yelled back that I was fine.

The edge of the gorge was staggered/terraces a little, as I came over the first shelf I could see the truck way below me, but could not make out any details – there was a fire near the truck. As I got closer I could see that the engine/transmission of the truck had separated from the truck and lay about 2-3 metres in front of it. The truck itself was crush beyond recognition. For the longest time I could see no person, I called out a number of times. When I finally reached the truck I found the body of the driver, I will spare you the gruesome details, except to say there was no sign of life, and the jaws of life were not going to separate him from the truck very easily. I looked around to see if there was anyone else, but by now there was almost no light at all. I did the only thing I could do, I said a prayer for him.

About this time I could hear the approach of the a police car, the siren blaring as it approached the bridge. I remember thinking how quickly they had gotten there, Craig mentioned to me later how he thought they had taken a long time – so I really had no perception of how long it took me to descend, I felt I was going fast, but my only thoughts were, where is my foot going next and the poor soul(s) in the car – linear time was in some ways suspended for the time it took me to descent – or I had no awareness of it at all. There was nothing more I could do so I began my ascent. I had no idea how far down I had climbed or even how difficult a climb it had been. But I certainly felt ever foot of it on the ascent, again I can only say my way was guided as I climbed the ravine. As I neared the top, the first of the police arrived. He was beginning his descent, and directed me to see the other officer when I got to the top. I was out of breath when I got to the top of the gorge, but otherwise unharmed, I had a couple of scratches on my legs from sage brush – which is an irritant, so my legs have been a bit itchy irritated for the next couple of days.

After writing out a statement for the police we got in our car and headed home, a 3 hour drive.

We stopped at petrol station to get drinks, some food etc. As I walked into the store, I noticed this guy was checking me out... Which under other circumstance might have been very flattering. He continued to stare and when I exited the shop I noticed that he was in his car, staring at me, it was now starting to get a little spooky. Craig got into the car, as I put my hand on the steering wheel, so did the mystery man in his car, as I put my car into gear, so did he, as I began to reverse so did he.... I was now just a little FREAKed out – after the events of the evening – now this. I could have been over reacting because of what we had just been through – but it was all just a little weird. I told Craig – hold on and just floored the car, headed for the road, drove over the curb, rather than through the driveway. I think he started to follow, but I just floored the accelerating and got the hell out of there.

The rest of the journey home was uneventful - thankfully . We arrived home about 1pm and crashed into bed.

Monday was a day of rest and recovery. Rudrani and Ed were a godsend, they took care of Craig and I, Ed cooking a hearty breakfast.

Tuesday Ed an Rudrani drove us to a place called Madrid (Mad-rid – not Ma-drid), an art/hippy village about 20 minutes from Albuquerque. We ended up heading on into Santa Fe – WOW, what a lovely place, all the homes and building in Santa Fe have to be built in the Adobe style. Craig and I wanted to see the Chapel of Lorreto, it has a staircase that was built without a single nail, it is 23 feet high, 33 steps, completes 2 x 360 degrees circles. The legend of the stair case is that the nuns of the church needed a staircase, they conducted a novena to St Joseph to find a solution to their problem – on the last day of their novena ( I don’t even know what a novena is) a stranger arrived at the chapel, with nothing but a few carpenters tools and began to build the staircase – it took him 6 months and then he left without asking for payment. The staircase is an engineering marvel – many have studied its construction and its self supporting circular design is a little like a bubble bee, which theoretically should not fly. So that was a marvel to behold.

Wednesday 22nd was a very early start for me – up at 4:45am to catch my flights to San Francisco – I cant remember the last time I got up at 4:45am....

I am now safely in San Francisco – and looking forward to catching up with various friend. San Francisco’s Gay Pride is this weekend – so it will be a big weekend in the city.