The Caves of Anubis

I stumbled across a book and the reference of a National Geographic article online about the Caves of Anubis when I was researching Oklahoma pan handle caves with the hopes of a good spring break road trip. I went to the National Geographic website, but I couldn’t find anything. I did find The Hitching Post Ranch which offers historical tours of the area. They take you to different caves on their land that have Celtic and Anasazi petroglyphs, a petrified tree, the tri-state marker and some dinosaur tracks. I asked Mrs Apple about the Caves of Anubis. She said it wasn’t on her land. At the end of the tour, she said she could show us the Caves of Anubis, and that she didn’t think the owners would mind. They seemed to be friends. So we got to see them!

There is a problem with caves being vandalized. No spray paint, but people carving their names , dates and pictures on top of the petroglyphs that have been there at least 1200 yrs or more. And because these were not her caves, Mrs Apple didn’t want to be responsible for leading potential vandals to someone else’s petroglyphs. So we were careful about parking the car. And I will follow suit and not give directions to these caves.

From a distance, there is really not too much special about the cave. Compared to other rock formations in the area, it doesn’t even look worth climbing into. The caves are set above ground level and we had to climb a ledge that was about 5-6 ft to get into them. It’s an easy climb.

There is a variety of petroglyphs in these caves. We saw Celtic drawings similar to other ones in the region. We was the same tally marks that Pigeon cave is covered in, but here I saw that they were crossed like we do our fifth tally mark. There were also animals, plants and people. The sun was there, and I thought that some looked like stars.

The first cave was the most impressive. It was actually the most impressive cave I saw in the whole region. There were people, there was a buffalo, a horse with a rider. There was a tent with two people next to it, the woman is thought to be a fertility goddess. There was what looked like an Egyptian jackal wearing what the Egyptian Pharaohs wore as a crown. Hence the name “Caves of Anubis”. And the jackal was facing a sun with an eye like shape. Which brings the Egyptian sun god Ra to mind.

t

The second cave has 2 “windows” connecting it to the bigger cave. But I’m not small enough to fit so I had to rock climb around the dividing wall. It was exciting to know that my time at the rock wall payed off in a practical way. Not to mention the third of my childhood that I spent in trees. Actually, come to think of it, working out at Thrive has really helped on this trip too. But back on the subject of the caves: there were alot of tally marks in the second cave, not so many pictures. Well, there were pictures. But they were more shapes. Almost like letters to a primitive language. But nothing as interesting, varied and preserved as the first cave. The second cave was connected to a third cave. It was like a basement cave off to the left. The shape and the crevices in it reminded me of the inside of a human skull. I took anatomy in collage and I work in the medical field.

l

The petroglyphs were a little easier to see in life. The shadows made taking pictures a little hard. the jackel is at the top of this last picture. Ironically, the sun is in the shade. You will have to look really close to see it. There is a second animal at the bottom. He’s outlined in chalk but is still hard to see.

The road trip was exhausting but it was totally worth it. It would have been worth it without seeing this cave. But this cave made it even more memorable. When I walk through museums, its going to be so much more fun to walk through the early human history parts because I’ll have seen stuff similar to what they’re talking about. And maybe I’ll run across a museum that will help me understand these particular petroglyphs better. It’s still crazy to think that Celtic, Anasazi (Native American) and Egyptian like petroglyphs are all within a 10 mile radius of each other, if not in the same cave!

Black Mesa/ Cimmaron petroglyphs. Part 2

For spring break in 2015 two of my siblings and I went up to the edge of the Oklahoma pan handle and took the historic tour offered bye the Hitching Post Bed and Breakfast/Ranch. This is part two of of our 6 hour tour. Going on this tour was like being in a living museum. In a museum you walk from one exhibit to the next and look at them from behind glass. But this tour was even better because you had to drive, hike and even do some rock climbing to get to the different caves. It felt like you were exploring, and to know that there were more out there made it even more exciting. And there was nothing to keep you from touching the petroglyphs. If I owned them I probably would have said “do not touch”.

We started the tour by going to different caves on the Hitching Post Ranch. After Pigeon Cave we drove over to a small, nearby mesa. We had to drive very carefully because there was cacti everywhere and we didn’t want to get a flat tier. For this spot, we had to hike uphill, then do some rock climbing to get to the Celtic petroglyphs. Above the rock drawings there was a large crevice in the rock and about 6-7 feet up there was a petrified tree. There were more petroglyphs in the crevice as well. I have seen petrified trees before, but none that were in a rock wall. My brother loved bounding around the rocks. Nia and I did as well, but we had other things to see before sun down so we limited ourselves a bit more than Cristian did. 

Now it was time to drive to the dinosaur tracks! To get there we drove almost to the state line. We passed the parking lot were the hiking trail that goes up THE Black Mesa starts. Mrs Apple said that the hike would take roughly 4 hours. It had rained recently so some of the dinosaur tracks were filled with water and mud. They are on private property but they’re right off the road. It would seem the owners don’t value them as much as others might because they let them fill in. Mrs Apple said that at one point there was a different set visible as well. This trail of tracks appears out of the mud and disappears back into the mud about 20 ft later. I don’t know much about dinosaur tracks, but they looked like the ornithopod (duck-billed dinosaur) tracks that are at the Picketwire Canyon land set.

After the dinosaur tracks we went to the tri-state marker. It wasn’t very far. I was expecting to be at the southern corner of the panhandle. Nope, we were at the northern corner. It was fun hopping around in three states: Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico. I think Cristian enjoyed it the most. He stood in Colorado and called a friend who is from Colorado. He also stood on the marker and did the Karate Kid crane pose.  

I did forget one stop that we made. In the 1930’s, the  WPA (a program started to create jobs during the great depression) was building a road in the panhandle and they uncovered a dinosaur! Now there’s a huge hole in the side of the hill, literally right next to the road. And on top of the hill is a life size replica of one of the thigh bones that was found. Its 6 ft. tall. Jane Apple didn’t know what kind of dinosaur it was, but said it was 2 stories high and now resides at the Sam Noble museum in OKC.

The last thing we did was go to the Caves of Anubis. There is enough that I can say about them that I’ve decided to write about them separately. There are other things to do in this area. You can climb the Black Mesa. With permission you might be able go hiking and explore caves (look for more petroglyphs). There is the Hitching Post Bed and Breakfast as well as the Black Mesa Bed and Breakfast. I was told that this part of Oklahoma has more bird varieties than any other part of the state. There is the Elting Lake and fishing is allowed. People go hunting around here. It is also a great place to come and watch a meteor shower from. This part of the pan handle is where the rocky mountain terrain meets the great plains, so you have wildlife and plants from both regions. We had great weather that day. But I’ve been in the dessert during the summer. I would suggest you come visit during the spring or fall. If you are within a day’s drive of this place, I highly recommend it. It is a great road trip, you’re out doors, its historically educational and exciting. The historical tour does cost $100, but if you split it with a few other people, it’s really worth it. This was a fun and unique experience. And Mr and Mrs Apple were very nice people.

Black Mesa/Cimmaron Petroglyphs. Part 1

Last week was spring break. Only one of my collage age siblings, went somewhere or did something fun for the vacation. So, I came up with a road trip idea. I did some research and made a phone call. We decided to stay in Oklahoma (mostly) and go look at some petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks in the tip of the pan handle.

I found the Hitching Post Bed and Breakfast/Ranch online. The owners give historical tours of the area and take you to see the petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks, petrified tree and the tri-state marker. They recommended that for the tour you wear jeans and socks. They should have recommended hiking boots (not that I have any). I did not realize until we were on the tour that the petroglyphs are:  1. all on private property and 2. scattered in caves all across the black mesa region. There are quite a few petroglyphs on the Apple’s (the owners of the Hitching Post ranch) land. So its alot of driving, walking and we did not see them all. Jane Apple doesn’t know were all of them are and she and her family have been hiking these hills since the 1800’s. She said her son found some more writing in caves around Mummy’s Cave. But she did not know exactly were. A person, or even a team, could easily spend a whole summer exploring the caves in the area looking for cave writings. One thing that upset Mrs Apple, was that people like to write their names on the rock wall. There is recent writing over/on top of the really old stuff. And by recent I mean a few from the 1800:’s and turn of the century, but after the 70’s the number of “recent dates” dates skyrockets. Its kind of cool, but they should have picked a different spot.

Our first stop was Coronada’s Signature. Which didn’t mean anything to me until she started speaking of a Spaniard searching for the 7 cities of gold. Yes! Then I remembered. Cibola. The fabled city of gold that the Spaniards had gone on expeditions to find. They came through the pan handle and carved Coronatta 15_7 into the rock wall. I was a little distracted when when Jane said the specific date, and I had trouble reading the 3rd number of the date. It was either a 0, a 6 or a 4. But she’ll tell you when you go. This location is the most easily accessed place we went to, other than the dinosaur quarry.

On the other side of the rock there were some Celtic petroglyphs. Wait, did I say that right? Native American? Nope, not Native America. People who know what they are talking about came out and took a look at the writings and said that they were Celtic. There are several universities who have come out to study geology, fossils and to look at the writings. Mrs Apple said that they are in the process of preparing a place so that Universities can bring groups to study the area. Actually, most of the petroglyphs in the area are said to be Celtic. I did hesitate to believe this. But they’re there. There are theories to explain them that involve land bridges, peninsulas and the theory that alot of this area was at one point underwater and the Celtics sailed over.

Here is a side note. If you like rock climbing, you will love this place. It is a rock climbing playground. Its great for kids and anyone who likes adventure.

Our next stop was Mummy Cave. It was about a mile walk one way. This is when I realized I should have worn boots, the cacti were hard to avoid. On the way, I asked how it got its name. In the mid 1900’s (its scary that we can say that now) some local kids were hiking and came across a mummy in one of the caves. It was a Native American woman and her baby. Being curious I asked a few questions about the mummy. The description that I got sounded very similar to the burial practices of the Inca and Nazca of South America. A burial jar and the body buried in a fetal position. The mummy might have been Anasazi. This cave had petroglyphs as well, but they were Anasazi, not Celtic. The Anasazi cave writings were red. And in this cave they were right above were the body had been buried.

On our walk back we stopped by some corrals to get a drink of water. Windmills were invented to pump water from the ground, but this pump uses a solar panel. It made me realize that in Oklahoma, it is very windy, but its even more sunny.  The water was really good. It was clear, cold, and tasted really good.

The next cave we went to was Pidgeon Cave (guess why). This cave was covered with lines. There are rows of tally marks lining the ridges of the cave walls. It is thought that it was a calendar of some sort. Or that someone was keeping track of something. Jane Apple doesn’t usually bring people to see Pidgeon Cave. She took us to see them because we were interested, and were in good enough shape to add it into the tour. And she thought that we would like to see a variety. After seeing Pidgeon Cave, I started to recognize the tally lines in the other petroglyphs as well.

The Historical tour took us 6 hours. Now, we did go to more places than she normally takes people. But its alot to write down. So, I’m going to end this for now and continue on in another blog post.

Swimming with Manatees

In 2011 I went down to FL to visit my grandmother and sister, Ashely, for Christmas. I had visited the year before for Christmas but we didn’t do anything other than go to the beach. So, of course I thought it would be fun to do something new. I love animals. We were in florida: dolphins! In the process of doing a web search for places that allow you to swim with dolphins, I came across  the option to swim with manatees! I’d never heard of people going to swim with manatees so I chose that option. I called a few places and decided that Crystal River was the best option. The tickets were expensive. If I remember correctly they may have been about $75 apiece. We were warned on the phone that the manatees are not in captivity and there was no guarantee that we would get to swim with them.

We arrived at the visitor’s center for the first tour of the day. They have a small gift shop area with lots of cute manatee souvenirs. To start the tour off, the group watched a video that basically said: 1. manatees are endangered so you can’t touch them and 2. you can touch them if they initiate contact 3. here is the body language that would encourage a manatee to come to you and 4. the generic “do not feed the animals”. We went to the changing rooms and got into our water clothes and wet suits. It was December, and even Florida has a chill in the winter (it gets down to 60 degrees). Then the bus drove us down the road to the docks. When we got to the docks, we were told that the tour would be delayed. There was a manatee rescue going on and our tour guide was helping out. A mother cow had gotten hurt bye boat propellers. Her (little) baby weighed about 800 lbs.

After the two were sent on their way, we all loaded into the boat. It was a little shaky but nobody fell overboard.

We got into the water three times. And that doesn’t sound like much but we were out all morning, past noon. The first time we went into some waterways that went into a neighborhood. In Crystal River there is a neighborhood set in the water, like Venice Italy. The houses are on land, but the edge is bricked down into and under water.  They were really nice houses, quite a few of them had boats and docks and some had bridges. This was were the manatees spent part of their time. We went slowly, looking for the manatees as we went. There was a small dark bump raising above the water and our guide yelled “there is one!”. We stopped the boat, put on our snorkeling gear and the guide went over the rules as we all got into the water. It was about 60 degrees out, and while I’ve had colder diving experiences (47 degrees?), I strongly prefer warmer water. Speaking of water, this water was really murky. There was only a few feet of visibility with our face masks on. But the manatees came over and let us pet them! Their skin was really rough. According to evolutionists, the manatee is related to the elephant. I don’t believe in macro-evolution, but I have ridden an elephant before so I can see how they came to this particular conclusion.  Manatee skin is the same color and the texture is similar to that of elephant skin. Elephants, however, do not have moss and barnacles growing on them, but that didn’t make petting the manatees less of an experience.

Our second dip in the water was more pleasant. We stopped the boat in an area were there were alot of people swimming and on jet skis. We were at the edge of the Venice styled neighborhood. The water here was crystal clear and it was warmer. Our guide told us we were going to  snorkel to the Three Sister’s Spring. But first we “danced” with some manatees. Some of them were sleeping on the bottom of this shallow area. They kind of looked like torpedoes laying on the sandy bottom. At least I think they were sleeping. There were quite a few manatees in this place. I was surprised that they weren’t as shy as the first group we encountered. They didn’t seem to mind sharing their space with loud, rambunctious human children.

To get to the Three Sister’s Spring we had to swim through some big parking lot-ish bars. I think they are meant to keep boats out. We were led up the creek into a pond-like clearing which is often mistaken for the spring. But its not the spring, so we found the creek that flowed into this “pond” and followed it until we got to the Three Sisters spring. The water was beautiful and there were fish swimming around. Fish look different when you’re in the water than when you look down at them from above or through glass at aquariums. The 3D feel is completely different and so much more lifelike. And we got to see were fish spend alot of their time, a glimpse into their world: under the river bank. We normally stand at the edge of the water and watch the fish disappear. They can do that because the tree roots form a ceiling and a maze for them to swim under and in. That was the best part of snorkeling in the Three Sister’s Spring. It was also fun to swim over to the deep part were it was a darker blue and try to dive down to the bottom. There was a fallen tree underwater that made for some good pictures. When we swam back  we were given some time to socialize with the manatees. One of the babies swam up to me and kissed my face! He swam up slowly and put his wiskered “little” face in between my eyes and nose. I didn’t feel much because I was wearing a face mask over my eyes, but its still a special memory to me.

While snorkeling around I saw a large percentage of manatees that had a pattern of scars on their back . Manatees are slow, They can’t really turn their heads, nor can they  turn their bodies easily. They have very low maneuverability, like a submarine.  This makes it very easy for a boat to run over one and cause serious damage. Like the pair that we saw at the beginning of the tour. This is a problem that contributes to the manatee’s position on the endangered species list. Another problem is trash, pipes and tossed fishing line. Manatees are curious. They get stuck in pipes, they eat stuff they shouldn’t, and they get wound up in old fishing lines. If they get caught in fishing lines, the lines act like a rope on a tree. The lines tighten, cut through the skin and go deeper and deeper. Manatees found like this will often need surgery to have the lines removed and sometimes they loose limbs, Manatees don’t have to worry about predators, they have no natural predators. Their meat does not taste good. Another problem that contributes to their low numbers is that they are very temperature sensitive. When it gets too cold they go into shock and just stop moving. The cold can and does kill them. They are lucky that there are so many people who care about them. But more people need to be aware of how their actions (like tossing fishing line overboard) hurts these gentle giants.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that our guide was married without children. He talked about manatees, his wife, manatees, some of his life, manatees. And when ever he spoke about manatees, he spoke of them with a depth of affection that very few people ever display (unless speaking about their children). It was easy to see that these creatures were more than a job to him, but the love of his life as well. This was a man who chose to work a low paying job, giving tours, because he truly loved and cared for these animals.

On our way to the last official stop, we drove bye a manatee sanctuary. It is a “manatee only” area that is roped off. The only people  allowed to drive their boats in that area are the people who live there. The manatees know that they’ll be left alone there. We saw more manatees in there than any other place. Most of them were sleeping but a few were going in and out. Our guide got in the water and tried to entice one to come over, but the manatee was having none that.

Before our last stop, the guide pulled out hot cocoa. It was water based but after getting in and out of  sub 60 degree water  for a few hours, it didn’t matter. That November I had taken advanced scuba diving and one of our out dives was in 47 degree water for 45 min. That was just the first dive on that particular day. So I often say “I’ve done my time in cold water”. Having said that, I skipped out on the last dance with the manatees. But not Ashley. I honestly think she enjoyed the trip more than I did (and I’m the big animal lover of the two!). She had never been snorkeling before, and of course the addition of some adorable manatees made it even better.

l

I was really glad that Ashley got to go snorkeling for the first time, and that we both got to swim with manatees. It was a cold, but good day. Not to mention a really fun and interactive way to learn about an endangered specie. And to top it off, we stopped bye Down Town Disney on our way home to say “hi” to an old friend of mine from my Disney Collage Program days.

The Antelope Hills

The Antelope Hills are on the South Canadian river south of Arnett and north of Roll. The towns are small and smaller. I grew up seeing the 3 plateaus from a distance. And I always wanted to climb them. It was child hood fantasy: “I want to climb that mountain that  I see everyday out my window”. Oklahoma has beautiful sunsets, and the antelope hills make those sunsets even more beautiful.

One fun fact about the Antelope hills is that they were a landmark during the famous cattle drives of the old west. If you’re north of the river on highway 283 you’ll drive bye a historical landmark sign for the Chisholm trail. There may be several landmarks for that. Highway 283 also goes through Packsaddle, which isn’t much of a place. Its more of an intersection with a bar and grill. My grandmother told me that Packsaddle was given its name because when Custer and his army rode through there, they dumped their packsaddles there. About an hour’s drive south is were Custer slaughtered an indian village. The Washita battle field is fenced off, and there is a museum called the Washita Battle National Historic site. Anyways, there is plenty of history in the area. Obviously not all of it is good. Back to my favorite landmark.

One of the pioneer women who lived on the original 160 acre homesteads in the area had been an artist. There is a museum dedicated to her art (Metcalf museum). Granny and I had nothing to do so we went over for a visit. On the way I asked if we could stop bye the antelope hills. FYI there are no signs. And I’m pretty sure its private property. But we drove around until we found them. I was so excited. One child hood dream checked off the bucket list! At least this child hood dream is physically possiblity.

The road curves around a single plateau. If you look up, you might see a barb wire fence that looks like a graph of the 1930 stock market crash. I was impressed that someone even bothered to put that fence up there. Evidence that someone got a good workout the day it was built. Granny and I stopped the truck when we were on the side facing the river. I scampered up the clumps of grass, rocks, an occasional barrel cactus. Granny took a picture while I savored the moment and enjoyed the view. I tried to see the ranch on the other side of the river, but all the river bends and cliffs over there looked the same. Come to think of it, I need to go back there and climb them again. I was surprised at how short the hills were. I’m more often looking up at them from the river basin, or seeing them from a distance. So they always look big. But up close they really aren’t too big.

In summary, I love the Antelope Hills. Its always disappointing to drive bye them at night when they aren’t visible. For obvious reasons. They sleep too.

Before I end this, I need to make something clear. There are NO saguaro cacti in this part of the country. NONE. You have to go further west to see those. Maybe Amarillo has them, maybe you have to go further west than that. But saguaro cacti do not grow naturally in western Oklahoma. I saw a western print of the antelope hills in an antique store. The angle was about from were I normally see them from, and the artist had put in saguaro cacti. If you are an artist, remember this little rant.

Picketwire Canyonlands – dinosaur tracks!

In 2013 my whole family drove up to Trinidad Colorado for a wedding. If you’re ever passing through Trinidad, or spending the night, they have an amazing (and fancy) Italian restaurant were the waiters will sing to you. It might be called Rino’s. Give it some thought when you do drive through. Since we were driving all the way up to Colorado, I thought we should do something fun as siblings. Mother said something about dinosaur tracks and after spending some time on google, I found the Picketwire Canyonlands.

As I understood, the tracks are one of the largest sets of tracks known. The signs made it sound like it was on private property and that the owners allowed people to hike down to them. They were found when some people were out horseback riding when the creek/river was low. If the creek has been running over them this long, I wonder what they would have looked like without all the water damage.

We left Trinidad around 8 am and drove NE towards La Junta. There are several towns on the map between Trinidad and La Junta. But they aren’t really there, they’re mostly ghost towns. So, make sure your gas tank is full when you leave either of the two towns that are actually there. In 2013 there were no road signs saying “Picketwire Canyonlands turnoff” or anything like that. There may be now, I don’t know. We had printed the directions out from map quest and after driving about the right distance we started looking for signs. I expected a sign, but I had the feeling that the road number given by map quest would match up with the county road number. And that’s exactly what it was. Luckily it was on top of some kind of red octagonal sign that helped it stand out a bit.

 After we turnded off onto the dirt road, it was back roads, picket fences, cacti and jack rabbits the rest of the way. At the end of the road, the very end, there was a camps sight. That means you keep driving, you drive down the hills towards the cedar trees, over the cattle guard, and past the “private property signs”.  The tracks are on private property. The owners are kind enough to allow people onto their land to see them. At the campsite, all the camping spots were arranged in a circle and they had a circle drive to go with them. After driving the complete circle and having no other place to go, we decided that this must be were we get off. Near the bathrooms there was a plaque that gave directions to the dinosaur tracks. It was permission to hop fences. Except it was a metal bar that kept people from driving down the road instead another barb wire fence. 

We’ve been hiking before. And this IS the dessert. So we too alot of water. ALOT. And we drank it all. We also knew we’d be there during lunch time so we took 2 or 3 boxes of kashi cereal bars. According to the plaque, it was 5.4 miles to the dinosaur tracks, one way. That means that the whole trek would be 10.8 miles, and you might as well round that up to 11. But we are young, right? We were all in decent shape. And we’d be walking so no big deal. It takes no effort to walk. And in normal circumstances, it doesn’t. The hike took us 8 hrs (including all the horsing around we did). We were exhausted bye the end.

From the campsite you have to walk down a rock and shale hill. It kind of felt like it could be turned into a broad stair case, and there were some steps built in with a few old rail road ties. Then we walked the first half of the way on a sandy path. We ran across some hikers and they said that the trek was nothing (lies!). We had alot of fun getting creative with camera. Actually, we took 3 cameras and only 1 of them had enough energy to take pictures bye the time we actually got to our destination. The second half of the journey was up and down hills on a rocky path. Somewhere close to the half way point there was an old mission and a cemetery. Of course we stopped to look at the old head stones. There were some faint images on one but other than that, nothing. The mission looked like it had been a one room adobe/brick building. And there wasn’t much left to it. While we were snooping around, some interesting ppl came walking up with hiking sticks. And wearing something that looked like ponchos. In a very remote place like that, it is always wise to aproach/be aproached by strangers with caution. They said they were flute players and they were walking around the canyons looking for spots with good echos. That explained the funny looking pouches on their backs. Low and behold, they pulled out their flutes. Their group had a name and they had a recorded cd too. They turned out to be nice people.

After the cemetary, I mean the mission, we came across some pretty cool boulders. Yeah, boulders, bigger than houses! So, we stopped. Taking pictures was one of the most fun aspects of the this hike. We got some fun ones.

There are signs along the way telling you how far away the dinosaur tracks are and the original ranch house. When you see the bathrooms, you’ve reached the dinosaur tracks. Get off the main track and follow the smaller one that lead down into the river. There is a sign showing the different prints to look for. Two different sizes of Theropods (predators), Sauropods ( the one with the long neck) and Ornithopod (duck billed). One sign said there was a herd of sauropods and they were being chased/followed by the theropods. And looking at the tracks, thats what it kind of looks like. The herd was mostly all headed in one direction.

It was pretty cool to be allowed to walk around were ever we wanted. In a museum, everything is behind glass. You can barely take a picture due to the dim lights and the glare from the glass. Here you could run and jump around, no security giving you the evil eye. Take pictures and only worry about the angle of the sun. It was the most fun and “interactive” museum display I’ve ever been to. I touched a freakin dinosaur track!!!!! Stood in one! Compared my body size to them. It was AWESOME! And it was very hot. So we took our shoes off and cooled our feet in the “river”, then walked around barefoot.

As I was cooling off I couldn’t help but think that the landscape looked familiar. Then I remembered that this part of the country (maybe the county) is called Purgatory. Louis L’ amour used real places when writing his books. One of his books, The Sackets  or The Sacket Brothers, was set in Purgatory and Santa Fe. I grew up watching the movies. This place, the landscape, the color of the river water and the rocks looks like the “Purgatory” scenes in the movie.

Walking towards the dinosaur tracks was really fun. We joked around, took pictures and goofed off. Heading back was different. It was the hottest part of the day and it was summer time in the dessert. And we were getting tiered. Two of us had hurt our feet slipping on rocks. One thing to remember on this hike is: there is no one to come pick you up if you decide to throw in the towel. Saying “I’m done, I’ve had enough” isn’t an option. If you’re tiered you have to keep walking. You can take a break, but at some point you have to keep going. So we took a few breaks, and kept going. We reached the point of exhaustion, and kept going. We were obviously not as in shape as we thought we were. We finally got back to the car and drove about 45 min – an hr to La Junta (opposite direction of home but the nearest food stop). Cause we were hungry for real food, and we were out of water. When I got out of the car, I could barely walk, my muscles had kind of frozen up. We all felt alot better after eating. Then we drove about 8 hrs to get home, got there at about 1-2 am.

It was definitely a fun trip. I’d love to do it again and I often recommend it to others. I do however warn them that it’s a long hike in the semi-arid Colorado dessert. You should try it sometime. Go see some real dinosaur tracks in nature, outside of a museum!

 

Gerald Wayne Interactive Zoo

In 2011 I was driving down I-35 towards Falls Creek and I saw signs advertising a zoo! With tigers! I don’t know how other people going to Falls Creek don’t see them because there isn’t much in that part of the country and the signs are huge. When I graduated collage, I had a few weeks off before starting work and I didn’t want to spend them just sitting around the house. So, my brothers and I made a little one day road trip. It was totally worth the drive.

I checked out their website and decided to go on their “Endangered Animals tour”.  The word “endangered” makes any animal sound more exciting to see. Then I called ahead of time to see if there would be any baby tigers to hold (one of my life’s dreams). They said “yes”. They also said that if we had come two weeks earlier we would have been able to play with baby bears, but I was so excited about the baby tiger that I didn’t care.

We arrived for the 12:30 tour. There were quite a few people there. And a few chickens minding their own buisness. It was weird seeing “free lance” chicken in the USA. Everyone was called into a fenced in area and asked to sit on the bleachers. Our tour guides and the zoo’s very own Joe Exotica explained to us how the tour would go, they explained how the zoo got started and told us about the zoo itself. We also learned that they were starting a reality show about the zoo, so we might see people filming. Joe Exotica had a 4 yr old tiger brought out (they were in a cage in front of our caged bleachers). The tiger was big, buff, and beautiful. He had sleek fur, strong black stripes, a white tummy and chin, rounded paws, and of course the dark orange filling in the spaces between the stripes. Joe explained some human-tiger interaction rules and simultaneously explained why there were chickens, and why the zoo staff wore guns. The chickens are for flea control, and also act as an alarm system in case a tiger gets loose. The guns are to protect the animal. Apparently PETA is giving the zoo a hard time. Sneaking in, poisoning the animals (they believe animals are better off dead than behind bars) and doing other stuff. I hadn’t been aware of that aspect of PETA. I wasn’t a fan of theirs to begin with, and I’m certainly not now.

That was the boring part. They took us for a walk around the tiger cages. The tour guide said they were a tiger rescue and had over 70 tigers! More than any other place in the world. They were also trying to rebreed a saber tooth tiger by breeding lions and tigers together. According to them when a lion and tiger are bread together, the offspring has what’s called an “epic gene” and it doesn’t stop growing. Which is amazing! We got to see a few generations of the hybids. They looked like giant kittens who just wanted their ears scratched. They also said that a big Texas university was doing genetic studies on the lions and tigers. The research was due to be published in sometime in the summer of 2013.

The tour was really interactive. My brother, Cristian, was looking forward to going into the wolf-hybrid cage. I’ve done some research on wolf-hybrids, and these things acted nothing like my research said they would. They acted like young energetic dogs who loved people and just wanted attention. They really liked the little kids. Those little kids got more than one bath that day.

This zoo rescues more than just tigers. There were alot of different animals that we saw but weren’t allowed to interact with. We did get to pet a miniature horse, shetland pony, we got to feed a camel, hold a baby crocodile. And after that we were led back toward the front, sat down under a tree and we got to hold more animals!

I think the snakes were optional. The big albino boa had been bought by a kid, kept in a pillow case and essentially starved. He ended up attacking someone which led to his transfer to the zoo. I really liked hearing the stories of some of the animals that were rescued and brought to live at the zoo. That snake was heavy! In the picture, I’m leaning on my brother because I couldn’t sit up on my own under the snake’s weight.

We got to hold other animals. The albino skunk was named Tank. He was a cuddly big ball of white fur! He was so cute, and I’ve never seen my youngest brother, Micah, so enamored by an animal. There were baby racoons who wanted to climb and lick your ear, a wolf hybrid puppy, and a kangaroo who had his own little couch. He was just chilling there with a board look on his face. The kangaroo was privately owned by a retired cop. Of course the last animal to be brought out was the baby tiger. He was so tiny (smaller than my full grown cat), and he sounded like a human baby when he cried. But human babies don’t have whiskers and stripes. I wish I could have held him longer but he was very young and tiered quickly.

So, one dream scratched off the bucket list!

During the tour we did catch a glimps of some filming being done for the show. And on our way  out we saw Joe Exotica in the parking lot. We exchanged a few words. I guess he was actually leaving to go pick up 4 more tigers from a zoo that was closing down.

My brothers and I had blast that day. It was definitely worth the drive and the money. If you have a free weekend and in you’re in Oklahoma, check it out. They’re actually open almost every day of the year. Speaking of which, its probably about time I went back for another visit.

Xian China – The Terracotta Warriors

     When I decided to go to asia to visit my sisters, we decided to hit a few big name spots. If I’m going half way around the world, I don’t want to sit around and drink tea. I want to go see and do stuff! Have a real adventure. Well, I got a little more than I bargained for.  Here is one of my 5 days in the Middle Kingdom

My sister, Ashley, really wanted to climb Mount Huashan, it was the only reason she wanted to go to main land china. So Xian was put on our hit list. Coincidentally, the Terracotta warriors were in the same town (putting it on my hit list).  For those of you who don’t know, Mount Huashan is publicized as the most dangerous mountain climb in china. There are some bravely taken photographs online. You can either climb it or take a lift to the top (there’s a tea house up there!!). We decided that we could climb up, stop in for a cup of tea and well earned souveniers, then take the lift back down to the bottom.

We tried to book an overnight sleeper train from Beijing to Xian, but they were really expensive. Some of Ashely’s friends (who speak mandarin) were with us when we were booking the train tickets. I thank God that they were because it got complicated really fast. They were such a blessing! They called the hotel we had booked, and wrote notes for us to give to the taxi drivers (which included a price so that we wouldn’t get overcharged). I learned on that trip that notes are a very good thing when you don’t speak the native language. Even though there is an impressively high rate of english speakers in China. Anyways, we ended up taking the fast train, which was still expensive but not as much.  On the fast train it took us about 5 hrs to get there. It was dark bye the time we got there and got off the train. Xian is a beautiful city. Even on a misty dark night. My lungs burned for a few hours from the polution in the air. But it is a beautiful city.

Our taxi driver had a hard time finding our hotel. It was amusing to see the taxi drivers use smart phones to get around the city. It was just as amusing watching the taxi driver get his directions confused while using a smart phone. But we got there. It was the best hotel we stayed at in china. The beds were so comfortable! And the desk clerk spoke a wee bit of english. But we mostly used an online translator to comunicate with him. Ashley spent about an hour to two hours every night and morning using the online translator to smooth out/locate our plans.

Due to jet lag, train lag and tourist activities, we slept in a bit. It felt amazing. There’s nothing quite like a soft bed and fluffy blankets as when you’re exhuasted. When we woke up the next morning; it was raining. It rained all day long. As much as my sisters and I love rain, it was obviously not mountain climbing weather. I mean, if one of us were to slip off the mountain, recovering the body might take a bit longer than my visa allowed. So, we rearranged our schedule and opted to use this day to go see the “Legen (wait for it) Dary!” Terracotta Warriors.

 But first things first! Breakfast. You just can’t skip breakfast and enjoy the rest of the day. In our search for a place to eat, we realized that we were going to need umbrellas. And we were in luck! An umbrella store was the first store we came across. We went for the biggest ones they had. The bigger the umbrella, the dryer you stay. Our color wheel parasols made for cute pics. I personally felt like Mary Poppins carrying around an umbrella like that. And when it wasn’t raining, they made for good walking sticks.

After breakfast we got directions and the rain really started pooring. We waited at the bus stop for “bus K” for quite a while before we realized there was no “K bus”. Now what? Its not like we could just tap someone’s shoulder and say “hey! how do you get to this train station?”. At least that was my line of thinking. Ashley and Nia had been over there a bit longer and just started asking people “Do you speak english”. It was embarrasing. But in not too long  someone gave us a “yes” along with a list of buses that would take us there. I was impressed by the number of people that aproached us and asked us in english if we needed help. Xian may not be a tourist friendly place, but we ran into alot of very nice people there. I say that its not a tourist friendly place because there aren’t signs in english (like Beijing), the taxi’s won’t pick you up, transportation is more limited, and there are fewer people that speak english. But we got to the train station, and found the line of buses that go to the Terracotta Warriors. There was even another american on the bus. She didn’t speak mandarin either.

I had no idea what to expect. I had only seen one small  picture of the warriors. I had no idea that there are 3 large escavation pits, one for the emperor, one for the high ranking officers, and then the really big one with all the soldiers (estemated to be over 8,000 in number). And that they are still escavating! They have built buildings around the pits, which was great because it was a break from the rain. Parts of the buildings were set up like museums. Artifacts and individual soldiers behind glass cases with little informative plaques (English and Mandarin). There was a bronze scupture of horses pulling a charriot and if my memory serves me right, it was made up of about 3,000 pieces. There were real bronze horse bits that looked more like animal torture devices. Pottery, weapons, bronze art and tools, armour, pictures of the early escavation. It was alot to take in.

I learned that the Terracotta warriors were commisioned by the first Chinese emperor to unite all of China.  He was a cruel emperor, which earned him alot of enemies. Oh, and he wanted to be immortal, so he drank a concoction that included mercury. Yes, he was literally crazy. If he wasn’t already, the mercury medicine ensured that. He commisioned the Terracotta army to be built so that he would have protection from his enemies in the afterlife. There was also a picture of an escavation site with an article speaking about how he burried all of his wives and concubines with him. If memory serves me right (its been a year so some details are blurry), the article said they were burried alive. So was his horse. It took me off guard, so I read it again. This isn’t ancient Egypt, but the emperor WAS crazy and cruel. The story was so “fantastic”  that it was hard to believe, as well as hard to forget. This article was on a big lit board next to a section of the escavation that looked like it had been either built around, or well replicated. The portion of the escavation was supposed to be that of a woman that had been burried with a horse. It was a stone woman, but the horse had been real, so there was only a skeleton lying neatly in the compacted dirt. I couldn’t really get a good picture, they kept the room dark with low lighting.

As I said, there are 3 excavation pits. They really are “pits”. There is railing along the edges of the pits and that is were we, the tourists, walk and observe. I used to be in a bible study with a former Belieze ambassador. When he went to Xian China for political stuff, officials took them down to walk among the warriors. That would have been so cool. They also had a tour guide and translator, even better. But my sisters and I were common tourists so we just looked down on the army. The first two pits had alot of damage to them. Not long after the emperor died, some of his very much alive “haters” broke in and destoryed large portions of the first two burial sites. I don’t remember there being any damage in the third pit that didn’t look age related. The third pit is still under construction. And because the pits are enclosed in buildings, the “archeologists” were working while we were there. The rain wasn’t a problem for them. There were people cleaning parts, putting parts back together. Other people digging, moving bags of dirt, making drawings of partialially uncovered warriors and one or two inviduals pointing fingers. The wooden beams of the structures that covered the warriors were still in tact. A few warriors still had fragments of their original red and blue paint on them. There were rows and rows of renovated warriors standing in rank, ready to be put back were they were taken from. The third pit was huge. I had figured out that there were alot of statues in the third pit. But the majority of 8,000 is alot. And like I said, they’re not even done escavating it! My history book chose a “dud” picture to represent all of this.

We took alot of fun pictures that day. The walk from the pits back to the bus station was long but did have some hot spots for tourism. We bought what looked like the chinese version of a burrito, but it wasn’t a burrito or an indian taco. It was good though. I tried to make smart decisions on what kind of souveniers to take back for my family. You had to barter with most of these people. Bartering is alot of fun when you’re in a spunky mood. Even more so when the other person gets mad and starts yelling. Just don’t laugh at them when they do get mad, shuts down buisness (fyi, I didn’t do that but my sister did).  I couldn’t carry too much because we had back-packed to Xian and most of my back pack space was taken up by clothes and hygene stuff. I bought a few warrior miniaures and some of the blackest, most masculine colored jade that I could find for my brothers. The pale green stuff may be the better quality, but I can’t see either of my brothers wearing it. At least not in small town Oklahoma.

Our returning bus had a tv in it. Of course they were playing the 3rd Mummy movie, which I haven’t seen. Well, I have seen some parts of it now, but they were all in mandarin so it doesn’t really count. These buses were alot like the buses in Paraguay, picking up pasengers going shorter distances, and street vendors. And just like in Paraguay, an older woman with a very small girl got on. It was obvious that the little girl was exhausted and unacostomed to riding on the bus. We offered our seats, its not hard to comunicate “you can have my seat” by standing up, moving aside and pointing. I might remember the story wrong. But the way I remember it, the woman didn’t accept the offer but she did let the little girl sit on our laps. The poor thing passed out. I remember being in the same situation when I was little, just a different country with a different destination.

When we arrived back in Xian, we ran into the same problem we had earlier that day. The taxi’s wouldn’t take us. Someone told us it was because they were supposed to be able to speak english, but they couldn’t and it was embarassing for them. I don’t know, it sounded alot more like they were making fun of us. We got back to the hotel by bus. The hotel moved us to a different room. The rooms were interesting, like little modular cubes. The shower and toilet were really small and separated from the bedroom by a frosted glass “wall”. After I took a shower I remembered one of the downsides of living in rainy places. Everything  gets wet and its really hard to get you feet dry.

Before going to bed, Nia and I discussed “tomorrow”. Ashley would want to go climb Mount Huashan. That was the sole reason she wanted to go to china and she wouldn’t back down without a fight. Back at home, we climbed el Monte Yvytyrysu (pardon me if I misspelled that) a couple days after a rain and it wasn’t pretty. Climbing China’s most dangerous hike after an all-day rain sounded like suicide. Besides, our train back to Beijing left “tomorrow”,  and the bus coming back from the mountain would be arriving in Xian after our train had left. I went down and had my first conversation with the desk clerk (it took an hour). He strongly advised against climbing the mountain. We often say that my sister would be dead if it wasn’t for the people around her. And we say it in a joking manner, but in this case it wasn’t a joke. At least Nia and I were on the same page. But convincing Ashley would have to wait until “tomorrow”.

The Story of a Vampire’s Redemption

In the infernally inspired scriptures of  Dracula accoding to Braum Stoker and  of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a vampire is said to have no soul. Instead of a soul, a vampire is inhabited by a deamon. Buffy records one vampire who was cursed by gypsies by having his soul returned to him. While that may not sound like a curse, the gypsies did not remove the deamon, leaving poor Angel (oh, the irony in that name) with a spiritual multi-personality disorder. In all my years and travel, I have yet to meet Angel, or anyone else who has. It could be that this story is simply that, a story. A story that depicts the perpetual battle we each face every day: to be, or not to be good or evil. To listen to our consiences, or give in to temptation. But enough of the infernal scriptures (no association with the Infernal Instruments, those writtings are all hog wash, a farce), I am writting this to tell you of my ascention from darkness, not to educate you on the ruminations of the darkness.

I was very young when I was transformed into a vampire, and as far as vampires go, I am still very young. Life as a vampire could be summed up easily with “eat and sleep”. And while that was true when I was new little vampire, eventually the consequences caught up with me. You know, there’s always that “one that got away”. The one that remembers your face. Then suddenly there are posters everywere with your face on them and ppl showing up at your door with pitch forks and torches (and some really bad garlic breath). When that happened, I tried reasoning with them, I even tried to fight them! But I quickly realized that peace was not an option, so I did what any sensible vampire would do. I moved. This became the viscious cycle that I called “my life”. Perhaps because I am “undead” it should be called my “unlife”.

New problems arose. I noticed that some of my pointy eared cohorts….wait, that’s vulcans. Not vulcans (They don’t taste very good, too dry). Anyways, I noticed that some of my incisored comrads had begun to look sickly. They not only began to look sickly, they became sick! Vampires aren’t supposed to get sick, much less die! Eventually their bodies began to shut down and wasted away. It was discovered that some humans have tainted blood and if one vampire were to consume too much of it, the diseases in human blood would take over the vampire’s body and destroy it. These events opened up a world of questions in my mind. Were does a person’s soul go when they become a vampire? What happens to the vampire’s soul if the vampire is killed? or when the body wastes away? Would I become a ghost chained to the remains of my body? If I got sick and my body wasted away, would the deamon inside of me go to hell? I didn’t want to go to hell. I didn’t choose to be a vampire. I became paranoid. I tried to eat healthy but I could never really know for sure, you know? I came to accept the reality that I was doomed, first my soul, now my body. For me, the only light at the end of the tunnel would be a fire.

I tried to make up for my wrongs. I got a job at a hospital posing as a Med Tech/phlebotomist. You know, help people. But you can’t change the past. All those people I ate, they aren’t coming back to life. The vampires I made, their souls are gone! And I am to blame. People with souls can get their souls saved. But what about a vampire who doesn’t have a soul? I truely believed that there was no hope for me.

One day I got the munchies and really felt like eating musician (I used to believe that if I ate enough ppl of the same talent, I’d absorbe their talent. Like an essencial oil of sorts. Or Space Jam. It was an old theory and has since been “de-bunked”). I do have a faint memory of my mother telling me not to play with my food, but I get board. So when I did find a fellow with a guitar in the park, we started chit chatting. Somebody made a refference to eternity, which funneled the conversation into the relm of religion. And I realized (unhappily) that I had picked a christian musician. I was going to have to listen to another person preach at me. Again. Oh yes, it happened more than once, many times actually.  I often felt haunted by the sheer number of christians that I ran into who wanted to talk to me about Jesus.  Usually I would let them go for the simple sake of silence. Looking back its easy for me to see God protecting his children from evil (me haha) and guiding me towards him at the same time. This musician went on like all the others “the bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. And in my mind I’m thinking “well duh. You really have no idea who you’re talking to do you? Oh, he has really good veins.” But then he went to say stuff like “God gave His one and only son so that we might live”, “Jesus died so that ANYYONE who believes in him would be forgiven their sins” and “whoever confeses their sins and believes in Him would have eternal life”. As if it wasn’t exclusive to people with souls. This crazy musician pulled his bible out and started flipping pages and having me read the underlined verses he’d refferenced. But I had a deamon in me. God’s son wouldn’t have died for anyone with a deamon in them. I mean, I’m the enemy. As casually as possible I mentioned that there was no way that God would have let his son die for the deamon possesed. Low and behold, he reads me the story of a man with so many deamons in him, they were called Legion. Jesus just told them to leave, and they did! And the man became one of his followers. So, according to the bible, everything I believed was wrong. The deamon can be kicked out. If that man could be saved then he had a soul, which means I have a soul. And I only had one deamon. I also learned that I couldn’t out work my sins. Salvation was by faith, not works. All I had to do is believe in the one who died for my soul. Jesus.

I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart that day. It was the best day of my life. With Jesus in my heart, there was no room for the deamon. Jesus threw him out. I was a new creature, and I had hope, eternity of hope. I gave up people after that, well, at least I gave up eating them. I switched to coffee. And between you and me, the coffee is alot better on my conscience. I kept my night job at the hospital because now I have better reasons to help people. I’m not making up for my sins anymore, I’m paying forward Christ’s love. I haven’t given up wearing glitter yet. But the musician said that that was ok.