A Visit To Bandelier National Monument and a Chance Encounter With An Old Friend

Fizzy

Today, I’ll be changing-up the format of the blog because, after returning from Bandelier National Monument to Santa Fe, where I’d be staying the night, I ran into an old college buddy, Randy McFizzlebottom, while I was checking into my room. The line to check-in was long, phone calls were coming-in, and there was only a single guy behind the counter. He was having a hell of a night, so, despite how long the day ended-up being for me, because of the GPS telling me my destination was 20 miles closer than it actually was, I felt for the guy and wasn’t getting heated about the situation.

The person behind me sort of chuckled and under his breath said, “Poor bastard.” And, when I turned to affirm his sentiments, I found myself locking eyes with good-old McFizzlebottom (or “Fizzy” to his friends, like me) who had an ear-to-ear, shit-eating grin on his face. My jaw dropped, it was impossible. What was he doing here?

After some fist bumps and a brief hug, we spent the next 15 minutes catching-up, while we waited our turn with the frustrated desk clerk. Fizzy was headed in the direction that I had just come, down to El Paso to start a job as the head “Entertainment, Trending Reporter” for the El Paso Times. Upon getting the cards to our rooms, we agreed to meet at a bar down the street to catch-up once we got settled. When he heard about the trip I was taking, he thought that it would make a fun story to begin his new job, so he performed a sort of interview with me about what I’d done today and my feelings on the trip so far. Below are a bit of the raw transcripts.

The Interview

Fizz: So that it’s on the record, I gotta say it’s good to see you, dude. We haven’t really been in touch for a while, but whenever we hang-out, it’s like it was only yesterday.

Me: Oh yeah, totally, no doubt. I guess when you’ve gone through the shit we went through, back in the day, it’s kind of like a bond that sticks or something. Still can’t believe it, did you know it was me when you said that about the guy at the counter?

Fizz: For sure, you have a way of slouching a bit that’s unique. You gotta fix that one of these days.

Me: …

Fizz: I’m just messing with you! Anyways, so you’re on this cross-country trip, and today you came from Alamogordo, New Mexico, to see Bandelier National Monument?

Me: Yeah. I’d never heard of Bandelier before I saw it on a calendar that my brother got me that used old timey postcard images for each month, and one month was for Bandelier. When I was stitching together my path in New Mexico, I think I was considering Los Alamos or something regarding the atomic bomb project during WWII, and saw Bandelier on the map, so I made it a destination. Originally, I wanted to visit the Trinity Site, where the first bomb was exploded, but you can only visit it twice a year and the timing didn’t work-out.

Fizz: Huh, really, you can visit that place? I’d think it was radioactive or something.

Me: It is a little, but it’s like getting a chest x-ray or something. Anyway, thought it would be cool to see it. There’s like, the sand has turned to green glass in places. Figured it would be a unique experience.

Fizz: You mentioned you’d been sleeping badly. Think it’s cause of the time change or the long hours? How’d you sleep last night?

Me: I slept really well last night. Actually, even with little sleep, the fact that I quit caffeine prior to the trip has helped a lot. I can just jump out of be and pretty much be totally awake now. It’s great, and I don’t have to make a bunch of stops while I’m driving to use the bathroom.One thing I haven’t mentioned on my blog is that I caught a cold a few days ago.

Fizz: Oh shit… did you think you got covid or something?

Me: It was on my mind. I brought along the covid tests I got from the government and burned one on Tuesday morning just to be sure, and it came out negative. But I’m definitely not right. My friend says something’s going around and it’s probably gonna be a good 5-7 days before it clears-up. I’m waking-up in the middle of the night with a sore throat and it sucks balls. I’ve actually been wearing a mask when I go inside of places, wore one when I toured Carlsbad Caverns. That was a pain in the ass. But, anyway, I think dehydration is an issue, too. My sinuses feel like the dried-up landscapes I’ve been driving through. After I got back from White Sands, I think I drank a half gallon of water and more the next day, and I feel a lot better, but there’s still something there.

Fizz: Well, when was the last time you got sick?!? Going out on the road was gonna expose you to a lot of shit you haven’t run into in a while…

Me: Yeah, I knew that would be a possibility, probably even something likely to happen. I mean, if I get covid, I’m not gonna be upset. Shit happens, no matter how hard I’m trying to keep my hands clean. I’m just running into so many people. When I toured Mammoth Cave, I rode in a bus with 30 other people for a half hour and followed them in a single file line for two hours. That really skeeved me out. Ugh, whatever, I think I’m getting better.

Fizz: Good, good. So, how was the trip today? I read up on your travel blog in my room before I came. Sounds like you really like driving. What was it like today?

Me: Dude. There was this stretch, I think it was Route 3 south of Encino, New Mexico… it was like a dream. I came over this hill and before me, for as far as I could see, it was just flat, golden lands. Absolutely stunning. And a road that stretched straight to the horizon in front and in back of me. That’s the shit I love when I’m driving. There was noone in front of me and noone behind me, for… I don’t know, forever. I actually just stopped the car and just sat down in the middle of the road and took pictures.

Fizz: What the fuck… what the fuck is wrong with you?!?

Me: I know! I don’t know, it’s just a weird experience. You ever see that movie “My Own Private Idaho” with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix? I think it starts with River asleep on a road in a location like that. Maybe I was trying to recreate it or something. I do that a lot, you know, play music that fits a situation and try to live-up to a scenario or something. I don’t know, I just love the openness and huge skies. It was brilliant out there today, sunny and blue skies. I bought sunscreen, finally.

Fizz: Did you get burned or something?

Me: Of yeah, of course, like the fucking second day or something, had the moon roof open. Burned the shit out of my bald-ass head. Thing completely peeled over the past two days.

Fizz: (laughing) Your head peeled?!? Hahaha!

Me: You don’t get to laugh, asshole, you’re 47 and have a full head of hair. Shit’s not fair, you don’t get to laugh. But, yeah, the entire right side of my head peeled-off. It was disgusting.

Fizz: Oh shit, my bad, haha. Anyway, so the drive was good. How was Bandelier?

Me: Well, the GPS gave me a false end to the drive, so it was like, “You’re here!” and the signs on the road say “Bandelier 25 miles” and that’s the worst. You’re like ready to get out and take care of business, and now you’ve got 25 more miles to go, and it’s National Park miles which means it’s going to wind a lot and be like 35 miles per hour the whole way. I was pissed. I’ve been having trouble getting my blog posts done at a reasonable hour and that set me back.

Fizz: So’d you see anything or just stamp your passports and leave?

Me: Oh, you know about the passports? Yeah, I didn’t get one on my last trip, thinking I’d be too obsessive about it. But I got a deluxe passport from the Cuyahoga Falls National Park visitor center about a month after returning, thinking I’d be going on more trips, then the pandemic shut my idea down. Then, my dumbass bought a regular passport as well, so not I’m stamping both at each spot. I hate my brain sometimes. But, no, I stuck around and hiked the Pueblo Loop Trail, which was only about a mile and a half and took me past some cliff dwellings you could climb into, which were amazing. I really like that stuff. It reminded me of Mesa Verde National Park. I’d do that over a cave any day.

Fizz: You like that more than going down in caves? Caves are sweet, dude.

Me: I guess. They’re alright, but, I don’t know, it gets tiring, and then you’re down in a cave with all these other assholes around you and I just wanna get out. Just get away. I like seeing the old, ancient stuff and thinking about how people lived. That’s why I liked San Antonio Missions a lot. I can’t imagine living that way, it’s fascinating.

Fizz: Alright, you have your reasons. So, let me ask you two more questions and then we’ll do some shots and go rule that Galaga game over there. First, what is one thing that you got wrong when it came to this trip so far?

Me: Oh, that’s easy. I’m still packing too much shit into a single day. On my last trip, I had no idea what I was doing or what was along the path I was going. I just wanted to get from Akron to San Diego, and the only things I HAD to see were Badlands National Park and Devils Tower. I had no idea about the parks in Utah and everything else in-between, so I’d have a 8 hour drive scheduled and then see Arches and Zion and Bryce along the way. It sucked because I was getting to my hotel at 10 PM and it wasn’t fun at all. This time, I thought I was spacing it out with 4-6 hour drives based-around destinations, mostly National Parks and National Monuments, but it’s still too much. And, I’m also working, so it’s just been kind of a nightmare at times… no wonder I got sick, haha.

Fizz: No doube. And, last question, on the flip side, what has made you happiest about the trip so far?

Me: Ummm… well, I think it’s just the overall part of, you know, finally doing it. I’ve always told people, I’m not complaining about my shit getting messed-up because of the pandemic. People died… my parents both got really, really sick. My inconvenience is, I mean, who gives a shit? So what? But, that being said, I mean, I bought a new laptop for the trip in 2020 so I could process all the 4K video I was shooting and all. So it sucked to drop that kind of money on a laptop, then get shut down for two years, and just have a laptop, and expensive laptop, age and not get used. So, it’s just cool to finally get to use that and put it all into practice. Even though the approach of working and traveling hasn’t worked as well as I thought it would, it’s been a fun experience, and it beats the same… four walls, three floors, etc. of Akron over and over, you know? I mean, I actually camped in a tent, finally! And, really loved it. I can’t wait to do Joshua Tree on Monday.

Fizz: Great stuff. Well, thanks for doing this interview. I think I have enough. I mean, I’ll embellish it plenty, make you seem like a normal person, not a fucking idiot and…

Me: Hahaha, yeah, please do that. I can use the help.

Conclusion

Fizzy and I spent another hour or so at the bar, hammering the Galaga video game console the place had in a corner. Afterwards, we said goodbye and made a promise to stay in-touch a little better. Who knows? Maybe he’ll call me up to do a follow-up on the story towards the end of the journey. That would be fun. For me, I still had a lot of work to do, getting my photos and videos organized and getting all of this down for the blog post. It’s probably going to be another late evening and early morning, because I’ve got a bit of work to do as well.