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Peter Miles Reginold Bergman
Ann and I are staying at Pete’s house in Denver at the moment. He and his wife Jess are taking care of our dog Jezze while we’re on the trail. They orginally planned to hike with us, and even though circumstances forced them to cancel those plans, they’ll still be playing a major role in…
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Lighter
We roll into Denver and head straight for our reserved 10×15 storage unit. We learn that it’s an upstairs unit, and that we have to squeeze through a small door and elevator to get there. The downstairs units are more expensive – but of course they don’t tell you that when you’re making your reservation.…
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Starry Night
At dusk we start looking for someplace along I-15 to spend the night. On the map I see a road leaving Leeds, Utah and dead-ending in Dixie National Forest. It takes some driving around and scouting in the Subaru, but we find a legal spot to camp a ways up a small dirt road. We…
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We’re Rollin’
We have mashed, stacked, packed, and jacked all our stuff into a 15-foot moving truck. Ann drives the truck south on 395 while I follow in the Subaru. We talk on the radios we got for long climbs. It’s exciting to be on the move with all our things. If all goes well we’ll start…
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Entropy precedes motion
Some things go in boxes, and some stay out. Some services end today, and some tomorrow. Some things are put in piles, then migrate to other piles. Each pile makes sense on its own, when you make it, but all together they look more like an abstract painting and give little indication that on Sunday…
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Wagonwheel Farewell Party
A variety of oddball climbers have been my family in Ridgecrest, California for the last two years. Many of them show up at Wagon Wheel for my going away party. My need to blow off steam after my last day of work seems contagious, and we howl and drink our way late into the desert…
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Movie: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
This is the Australian film that inspired the American remake, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. It had some things I had never seen before, like a flying blow-up doll, a woman shooting ping pong balls with her genitals, and a “cock in a frock on a rock”. You might say it goes…
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Last Day of Climbing / Alabama Hills
At first I’m disappointed that our group (Walter, Roy, Barry, Sean, Tom) decides not to go to Margaritaville, a place I haven’t been. Instead they opt for the familiar, chossy Alabama Hills. But we end up having a near-perfect last day of climbing. Ann starts off by taking the lead for the first time! In…
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Work Luncheon Going Away Gifts
At 11:30 today I go to the Sante Fe Grill for my goodbye luncheon. Ironically Ann is in Sante Fe working, and I wish she were here because I’m no good at these things. She helped me through a similar luncheon just after we met in 1996 in Los Alamos, when I left my job…
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Movie: The Serpent and the Rainbow
When I was 15 I met Wes Craven, the director of this film, just after he had filmed it in Haiti. I didn’t realize then how truly chaotic the country must have been. The story takes place during the build-up to the flight of president Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. Almost as we watched, President Jean-Bertrand…