Ants and the Trail

One thing that has been in common with all the National Parks we’ve visited so far is the abundance of ants on the trail. I go out of my way not to step on these industrious little critters as they criss cross the path in front of me, following some pheromone road signs that are leading them back to their nest, or some source of food. They don’t bother looking up at the amazing scenery, suffice it to say they may not even see it, let alone appreciate it. I wonder if they understand the concept of beauty. They seem pretty consumed by either defending their nest or bringing back food. I suppose that the fool hardiness of spending time admiring beauty is left to us humans. But of course they’re looking down and reading those little chemical trails their predecessors laid down which is as important to them as google maps is to us. Many of them are black. They look like carpenter ants and that would make sense given the abundance of fallen tree’s they have to make into a buffet. I think of the fungi and bacteria as the great decomposers/recyclers, but when it comes to wood, they don’t have anything on the ants. There’s also some that are both black and red. Don’t know their story but they too are busy crossing back and forth on the trail. Maybe they’re the result of an “inter-colored” marriage between a red ant and a black ant. I don’t know. Diversity is great though.

Like the ants, I spend a lot of my time on the trail looking down as well. Not following a trail of pheromones of course. In essence, it’s to avoid falling flat on my face, as it requires continued due diligence to navigate the many irregularities that the path takes. Tilt to the left, the right, backwards, drops of several feet, and of course the placement of dozens of odd shaped stones and boulders in a myriad of combinations that require you to be part mountain goat and ball room dancer. I also look down to try and avoid stepping on the little guys. It goes without saying, by looking down I protect my teeth but, I miss a lot of what’s around me. That’s what’s so good about having a trail mate like Laurie. When she’s looking up, I’m looking down and vice versa but we’re both quick to point out to the other some amazing scenery, animal, weather pattern, cloud, etc. that the other person is missing. It works out quite well. Between the two of us, I think we see about 50% of what’s around us. That’s still more than the ants, but they of course have no idea what they are not missing.

People

There’s something about traveling that brings out the yacker in me, and probably in other travelers as well. People who may not be prone to talking to strangers, seem to be more likely to do it when traveling. Maybe it’s the unsaid camaraderie of people who are on a journey. Whether it’s a week or a year, traveling the road seems to open us up. I love talking to the different types of people we encounter when we’re on the road. In restaurants, gas stations, on the trail, ranger stations, etc. It doesn’t matter where you are, there never seems to be a shortage of things to talk about, or, people to talk to. Old, young, north, south, unemployed, rich, middle class, immigrants, etc. They’re all on the road and they all have stories to tell and I’m more than willing to listen and, to match my talking with the best of them. We’ve only been on the road for a month but already there are too many encounters to recount that we’ve had with some really fun and interesting people, so I’m going to try and go back through my highly suspect memory to resurrect one of the notables. My favorite so far took place in a barbecue ribs/bar in Estes, Colorado. This town sits at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park and suffice it to say, it’s a very touristy type of mountain town. That being said, most of the eateries/bars are generally packed in the evening. The name of this particular barbecue joint we stopped at was called, “Smokin Daves”. No kidding. We really just went in for a beer but every table was taken with hungry tourists as well as the bar, most with several kids in tow. It was quite noisy. There was only one seat at the bar, which happened to be occupied by the purse of the woman sitting next to it. When asked if the seat was available, she turned up the attitude and the volume of her bother as if you were asking her to donate a kidney. Needless to say adjectives that start with the letter “B” immediately came to mind. She reluctantly removed her bag and freed up the seat. So we settled in, Laurie in the newly vacated seat with me standing next to her, to enjoy a cold brew. Now next to Laurie was an older couple. Old of course is a relative term so they were old compared to us. I’d say in their early 70’s. He was drinking beer and I think she was drinking rum and cokes. He, we would find out was Terry, and she was Linda. They appeared to have been there for awhile and were finishing up food they had ordered. When the woman whose adjective starts with a “B” finally left, we started a little chit chat about the mean woman who had been annoyed to pass Linda the pepper, and, relinquish her bags resting place to Laurie. Well, that’s all it took. Chit chat aside, now it was time for some entertaining conversation. You always start out with the basics like how long you traveling for, where have you been, where are you going, etc., and then it seems like you’ve known each other for ever and the good conversations begin. Terry asked me if I had ever heard of Air America. My eyes widened as I most certainly had. It was a “fictitious” airline that was a front for CIA covert operations during the Vietnam war. While Richard Nixon was telling the American people that the war was limited to Vietnam and wasn’t expanding, Air America was quite actively at work in Cambodia and Laos carrying out covert operations there. They were dropping supplies to rebels who were also fighting the North Vietnamese, rescuing downed pilots, and a number of subversive operations. Well, Terry was employed by Air America and was stationed in Laos and in fact, had just returned from an Air America reunion when we met him at Smokin Daves. He proceeded to tell us about how he was recruited from Pan Am to sort of run logistics and supplies for the Air America operations in Laos and although he never actually engaged in combat, he had his M-16 at his side at his location in Laos, all the time. Although I knew quite a bit about Air America, Terry shared a bunch of personal stories about the operations and also encouraged me to stop in at the University of Texas during our travels since they apparently have a research area there with videos and documents, etc. that I can go through regarding Air America. In between Terry’s story telling, the bartender asked them if they wanted another round, at which Terry said yes but that that would be it for his wife “Linda”. Well, Linda was having none of it and said I do think I’ll have another. Oh boy. Terry said it was going to be a wild night tonight. Little did he know that the bar tender would ask them two more times after that and Linda responded yes each time. Linda was laughing and was quite entertaining at this point. It was going to be wilder than Terry could imagine. After Vietnam, Terry continued to work for Air America in a variety of countries and while home on leave one of those times, fate decided to play its hand. Now it was Linda’s turn to lead the conversation. Now Linda had already been twice married at this time, widowed twice (didn’t get the details on that although it didn’t seem to be a red flag for Terry), and had twin girls. Well Terry’s mother thought it wasn’t much normal for Terry, who was now in his early thirties, to not be settling down with a woman so she convinced him to contact the widow in town. It seems that Terry knew of Linda but didn’t know what she looked like. It was typical for Terry’s mother to try and set Terry up with a date each time he came home for a visit. Terry , at this time, had access to free airline tickets and also to a beach house down in the Caribbean, so he invited Linda and her girl friend to come down with him for a visit. Having Linda “chaperoned” by bringing a friend to spend a week with this guy she really didn’t know was the proper thing to do. Terry told us that he had stocked the place with liquor and was looking forward to the visit. At the last minute, Linda’s girl friend had to drop out so Linda had to make a decision as to whether to go by herself. Now going alone to meet this “man” in the Caribbean was not viewed as being very proper and Linda’s father let her know that but none the less, she went. Linda was a confident and successful lady and that confidence extended to the decisions she made in her life. The one catch was that Terry didn’t know what Linda looked like. All of these arrangements had been done over the phone. So he was waiting at the small island airport watching the people disembark from the small plane and trying to figure out which one is Linda and here comes this gal with two huge suitcases which was probably 100 times more cloths than she needed but…… Well, the rest is history as the story goes and they had now been married for quite some time. Terry still hasn’t become number three and the way those two got along I doubt he will. She was quite tipsy at this point as were the rest of us, and we were all laughing and carrying on and were now probably louder than the rest of the crowded bar combined. What had started out as a stop for a quick drink on a hot Colorado afternoon turned into several hours of truly enjoyable conversation and laughter. We took some pictures and they gave us their address in Plant City, Florida and said that when we make it to Florida on our journey, to be sure to stop in. I hope we do. They were a couple of genuine and engaging people. And if we make it to Plant City and have to listen to their stories a second time, we’ll be all the luckier.