Tsankawi

(click to see in Google Earth)

The next hiking day we were in Los Alamos (Lost Almost) and we went hiking around the ruins of Tsankawi. e later said that one theory about what happened to the Chacoen culture (the ruins of which we saw in Chaco Canyon) was that they dispersed to places like this.

North Mesa

(click to see in Google Earth)

There was almost half a day left after that so we went out to the end of Horse Mesa to look at the view. Actually I said “edge” when describing the place and e’s ears perked up.

Falls Trail

e rightly insisted that we get up early for our next hike, which was the Bandelier Falls trail. I forgot to bring my GPS, so I can’t show you the route we took, but to describe it, I would say that it was a breathtaking trek through the end of Frijoles Canyon that dumped us onto one side of the Rio Grande. There wasn’t much shade, but we managed to find ourselves a little rabbit hole to have lunch in.

Coyote Trail

(click to see in Google Earth)

I used to drive past the Valle Grande all the time, but it was always private land when I lived in New Mexico. Now it is a park with some odd legal traits, but they let people come in and go hiking now. I got to see the caldera from the inside for the first time ever, but apparently you have to book in advance to do any of the hikes inside the caldera. Instead we opted to take the Coyote trail which affords some nice views of the remains of one really big volcano.

Chaco Canyon: South Mesa Loop

(click to see in Google Earth)

The last big hike we did was in Chaco Canyon. I picked the South Mesa Loop trail, because the last time I had been to Chaco I had done the trail on the north side of the canyon. There are ruins all over the place in every direction and all over the place.

Sandia

(click to see in Google Earth)

Our last day in New Mexico found us in Albuquerque which is best known for being that place that Bugs Bunny took a wrong turn at. We took the tram up to the top of Sandia peek, where we did a little hike out to a little stone hut. I learned the Russian word for pine cone.

Vasquez Rocks

(click to see in Google Earth)

I have been wanting to go to Vasquez Rocks for a while now. For those that don’t know, many a TV series and movie has been filmed here, the best known example is arguably the episode where Kirk fought the Gorn in “Arena”. The rocks featured in the background of this episode (and many others) are appropriately named “the famous rocks”.

The next day I drove the rest of the way up to Bangor and found a note on Megan's parent's house directing me to the lake. Part of the directions included a notation which said "Big Crazy Intersection. Just keep going east toward Bar Harbor." When I got to the actual intersection I wasn't exactly sure which way was east, or which way was Bar Harbor, but I guessed left, and I was right. After a while I thought maybe I was wrong, so I turned around. Then I realized I was right the first time and turned around again. I managed to make it to the lake where Megan's mom came over and said hello. Megan, Justine and Matt were out kayaking in lake. I was about to jump into the lake for a swim when Megan's father found me and said hello. I asked him which one of the distant kayaks Megan was in.

I had been worried all the way up that I would not be able to differentiate between Megan and Justine, because the last time I had seen them together was about three years ago, and at the time I had only just met them, and being identical twins, they looked exactly alike to me. We walked around to find where they had landed the kayaks, but I missed seeing them actually get out of the craft, so I couldn't use the intelligence Megan's father had given me to identify Megan.

"Hi Megan." I said in a stilted kind of way, as if to emphasize that I might not be sure it was really her or not. The amazing thing was I could. Megan looked like Megan, and this other person therefore had to be Justine by process of elimination. "Hi Justine." I said with the same stilted speech pattern. Then as an afterthought, I said "Hi Matt." It hadn't seemed necessary at first because of course matt looked like Matt and there was no chance of confusing him with anyone else.

We hung out at the beach for a while. I caught up with Megan about various things, including, not surprisingly, what would happen to "The Group" now that Joanna had left the Hudson Valley to go Berkeley. I then discovered that Justine was a graduate student at Berkeley also and had met Joanna. I think there is an implicit: "That Janna sure is a trip." tone to any conversation you have with a mutual acquaintance of Joanna. Apparently she had been going around Berkeley saying "Wow, everyone here already knows that Wal-Mart is evil!" Maybe this would put an end to her un-ending tirades on the subject.

We also talked about Sherry. I told Megan about her excessive schedule and her assertion that she hadn't gotten serious about school yet. Megan pointed out that she was experiencing a lot of negative pressure from her parents who don't seem to express pride (or enough pride) in Sherry, who is, by all accounts, a successful Engineer and a hard working student. "Somebody ought to tell her how proud they are of her" Megan said, "I mean, aside from us."

We went back to Megan's house. I showed everyone my portfolio, which is still in a paper grocery bag, to be replaced soon with a portfolio box. We had fresh lobster for dinner. I was having difficulty getting into my crustacean.

"I just realized; this is the great equalizer. Usually you eat super fast." Megan pointed out.

I was really sweet of Megan's parents to put me up, and to feed me lobster. Megan and Justine were of course family, and Matt is Megan's boyfriend and family by association, so I am just a friend, but lucky to have Megan's friendship.

The next day, we went to Acadia and did a short hike. The views were mostly obscured by fog. I brought my camera, but there wasn't much to photograph. We found a construction vehicle (which was not a constructicon), which was open and had the key in the ignition. Luckily, half of the instructions were torn off so we could not start the thing, and worse yet, the seat instructions were in Japanese.

After that, we went into Bar Harbor and had lunch. I attempted to eat my food as slowly as possible, but still tied for first place. It's just really hard for me to eat slowly.

"I tried to eat mine slowly." I said at some point in the conversation.

"Is that because Megan called you out on it last night?" Matt asked.

"Yes." I admitted, smiling.

Next we had ice cream, Megan's treat. I thanked her, to which she responded "Thanks for coming!" This is a really nice way to respond to saying thanks. Megan and I repeated this pattern a few more times during my time in Maine.

While we were consuming our ice cream, Megan and Justine recognized somebody from high school and they chatted briefly. Although I was not much a part of the conversation, Megan introduced me. This is a polite and proper thing to do, although many people, for some reason, do not do it. Again, this pattern was repeated many times as Megan and Justine ran into people they knew from high school during my time in Maine. If Megan wasn't around to introduce me, then Justine would.

The National Folk Festival started that evening and we walked down to the festivities from Megan's house. This was the purpose of our trip up to Bangor. Megan quit The Company almost a year ago and is living in Boston with Matt, and Justine is a graduate student at Berkeley, so even though Bangor is their home town, this was a distant vacation for everyone. Two years ago, Megan had invited me, and several other employees at The Company up to Bangor for the first National Folk Festival to be held there. The Festival is great, but my primary reason for being up there was to be with my friends.

The highlight for that evening was dancing to zydeco at the dancing stage. There were lots of people handing out things little bits of paper. Some of them were legitimate - handing out schedules for festival performances, and the like - some of them were not. At one point somebody handed some religious dogma. It occurred to me at the moment we had identified it as such, that I didn't know if Megan and her family were religious or not. I hadn't ever seen any indication that they were, but sometimes the religious types are not overt. Megan looked visibly annoyed, walked back and returned the pamphlet to the offender. I never take anything from strangers, but if I did, I would probably just throw it away ASAP. Here, I saw Megan was showing Principal, which I can respect, especially since she did it with extreme grace. Although I could tell the episode had made her angry, she never lost her cool. I don't think I have ever seen her loose her cool.

We walked home with one of Megan and Justine's high school friends. Ben is a musician working as a pianist on a cruise line for the last year or so. He had all kinds of interesting stories about the underworld of cruise service. He had been doing a country themed show every day several times a day, which Matt later described as the "Third Level of Hell." Apparently the piece concludes with "God Save Texas" with a rainbow of lights shining on a large Texas flag (are there any other sizes for Texas flags). The rainbow was apparently a inside signature joke by the gay stage manager.

When I went to sleep that night in the back room of Megan's house, I thought wrongly for a moment it was Saturday and that I would have to drive home tomorrow. When I realized it was actually just Friday, I thought to myself "I have an entire other day in Maine!" with glee.

The next day, Megan and Matt went on a bike ride and Justine and I went on the "Bog Walk." I think Megan had gone to some thought to make sure that I had something to do while she and Matt went bike riding, which I think was awfully sweet. This was nice because it gave me some time to talk to Justine alone and get to know her a little better.

We got back at about noon and it was time to go back to the festival. There were two highlights on this day: Jerry Douglas, who was just amazing with his Steel Guitar thingie, and dancing to the African/Cuban band at the dance stage. The latter had an incredible interaction with the crowd. I am going to have to find CDs of both these artists for the car.

The next morning it really was Sunday and I really did have to drive home. The festival was to start up again at noon, but I had a seven hour drive ahead of me, so waiting till then was not an option. I said goodbye to everyone, getting hugs or handshakes from everyone. They all waved to me as I drove off in my little white civic hybrid.

The Point of all of this, aside from documenting my wonderful little vacation in Maine, is to illustrate what a wonderful person Megan is, and what a lovely family she has. Although Megan is my friend, she is also my hero, because of the qualities she has evidenced in this story: grace, principal, generosity and kindness.

Also, just to say, Maine Rocks!