By Chad Zaback
Another Mini-School trip has successfully journeyed through one of the world’s seven wonders without injury or critical complications.
This wonder I speak of is the one and only Grand Canyon. My first words upon arrival were simply, “Wow, that’s BIG!” That place is really…well…words can’t describe all the beauties and mysteries it has to offer. The only way you could even begin to comprehend the magnificence would be to visit it yourself. Even then it is impossible to catch all the splendor.
Anyway, our journey began Tuesday April 7th. We drove through the night to arrive in Colorado Springs mid-morning Wednesday. The drive there wasn’t bad, with one exception—Mike Heuerman’s feet. That boy should see a doctor about those before some clean air group gets after him for pollution.
Other than that, everything went fine. Da Barge was running strong and not leaking any oil. Da Barge is a 1979 Dodge Maxi-Van owned and operated by the one and only Doug Berg. About a month prior to the trip Chris Bagdons and his dad donated most of their spare time to patch up da Barge and give it a complete physical. They fixed oil leaks, put in new plugs, etc. Thanks guys for a job well done.
The rest of the drive was enjoyable, but boring at times. Jesse said he was having the best time of his life—and we were only in Iowa! Just imagine how he felt when we got to the Canyon.
Now the first long drive is over and we’re here at Colorado Springs, Colorado. We stayed at the National Guard Armory—hot showers, a kitchen, and everything. It was a good place to straighten everything up and get some directions set. That night we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner prepared by Doug and J.J. J.J., Jim Jensen, is a Mini-School Vet, class of ’74, and a great cook. Later that day, we went to the “Garden of the Gods.” It is a national park with some huge rock formations that make for great climbing. This was the first day we attempted any type of physical task other than walking or playing hackie.
Personally, I have a slight fear of heights, nothing incurable, with a little adrenaline rush. But suddenly, I found myself about, 600 feet off the ground looking down a sheer cliff at da Barge. It looked like a matchbox car and the people looked like little G.I. Joe figures. So, after Chris and Terry calmed me down and took off the handcuffs, we proceeded downward. Unfortunately, we chose to take a different route down than we had taken up, only to find a sheer cliff at the end of the trail. This set us back about an hour and made us late for lunch. Finally we reached our downward destination. We ate lunch and spent the rest of the day checking out gift shops and informational type buildings. No more heights for me—not for a while anyway.
From the park, we went back to the grocery store, time to get supplies for a real meal (or so I thought). We headed back to the reserve for a spaghetti dinner. Sounds good and it was—with one exception. The noodles were not your average everyday pasta noodles. They were made from spinach. It actually turned out okay. However, Josh wouldn’t have anything to do with it if it was green or had any vegetables in it. Anyway, we crashed for the evening and awoke early the next morning to prepare for one big day ahead.
We drove to the Rio Grande Gorge and arrived early afternoon and started packing our gear. Meanwhile, a couple of people were playing football and tossed the ball over the edge. Mike, Matt, and Josh went to retrieve it. On the way down, Matt fell on a cactus and again on the way up. Once they finally got back up, we all hiked down. Our campsite was just the sweetest one you’ve ever seen. There was a little spring-fed stream running next to it and the Rio Grande River was in front. That night we roasted hot dogs over the fire. The best meals are those that don’t require dishes, simply because it tastes better when you have less to clean up. The next day we hiked out anticipating a two hour hike, but no, Doug had to take the long way out. Eventually we reached the top and crashed right there, I mean right there! I don’t remember what we did that night except that we had a huge fire that almost set the trees ablaze. I was pretty tired.
The next day it took us about two hours to break camp, load up and leave. Once we finally got on the road it didn’t take long to reach our destination: Taos Pueblo. Unfortunately, everything was closed up due to religious ceremonies so we went to the town of Sante Fe and visited the older part of town. Most everybody agreed it was the best day yet. We checked out the sights and sounds and I bought some of the things I forgot to pack: toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, a towel, shorts, a flashlight, dishes—just to mention a few. So, I ended up spending a good portion of my souvenir money on forgotten necessities.
In the town square, Matt, Josh, & Mike were hacking with a couple of locals, one-of them shared a striking resemblance with Matt, kind of a big brother looking dude.
Anyway, that night we headed for the mountains. It‘s kind of weird seeing snow the same day you were walking around in 100 degree weather. The people on the way were, for the most part, very friendly & talkative.
One older Indian gentleman Chris & I were talking to asked us about the 10,000 lakes and wanted to know who counted all of them!
That night it got down to a chilly 40 degrees. Meanwhile, back home it was 15-20 and snowing (ha! ha!). The next day we were ready to roll by 7:30, too early, way too early. We headed to El Morro National Park. If there is anything I have learned on this trip, it would be how to spell BEAUTIFUL!
When we got there they had a sign-in book with a comment line. I said that it was relaxing and butifull. J.J. gave me a hard time about it until I spelled it correctly.
That afternoon was a layover type day, time to catch up on the book Doug gave us to read. Before we left he gave us all Tony Hillerman’s Dance Hall of the Dead. No it’s not a life story of Jerry Garcia, it’s a mystery, with a lot of hard to follow, separate stories within the main plot. The book took place in New Mexico, so we had a chance to see a lot of the places described in the book. So all in all, the book was cool, hard to follow at times, but interesting none the less.
While staying at El Morro, we visited Zuni Pueblo. It’s a very small Indian city in New Mexico, about a 20 minute drive from El Morro. In Zuni we started out at the gift shops and tourist traps. The jewelry is really nice. It is mostly turquoise and silver and overpriced. We then visited a church that was described in the book. It was weird because I walked in and felt like I had been there many times before.
Next, we went to the Pueblo of Zuni and a trading post. Every time we stopped at the place that had pictures or things that would look cool, JJ would buy something for his house. It is slightly understandable because he just bought a new house in Chanhassen and he needs to decorate it. I wouldn’t be surprised that if you walked into his house it would be just like walking into the Southwest United States.
That evening, we got the only rain that we got on the entire trip. Right after we took everything out of the tents to air out, it downpoured for 30 minutes. Not only was everything already full of sand, but it kept getting sandier since everything was so wet. Terry and I had just finished cleaning da Barge when the rain started. Everybody started throwing their packs into da Barge so they wouldn’t get wet. Our spotless vehicle was now all full of sand. It looked like we had never touched it. Luckily, Karlene did a nice job cleaning it in the morning and all was forgotten.
The next day we headed to the Trinity Presbyterian Mission Hall. Showers!!! Yes showers! After everyone got showered, & settled in we waited for the secret recipe—super turbo-charged chili which was created by Matt “Meatball” Richard and Chef T. Vincent. About ten minutes into the process they realized they didn’t have enough sauce. So Terri & Matt went back to town for more. Eventually after countless trials and many errors, the chili was done. It tasted real good even though it didn’t taste like chili.
The next day we did our laundry. However, Chris and I had some trouble with our drier. It didn’t attack us or anything but it did put a lot of burns, stains, and holes in our clothes. After that fiasco we returned to the Mission and enjoyed leftover chili (yum, not!).
Mid afternoon we headed to Canyon De Chelly (De Shae). We hiked down, & at the bottom there was a small stream, we had to cross. Thanks to the brave efforts of Rockstad, we found the deepest part of the stream. After Josh dried out & quit yelling, we headed up & out.
That night we enjoyed yet another spaghetti dinner. This time J.J. made it with normal ingredients. Good stuff; cheesy garlic bread & the works.
After a good night’s rest, we were packed & on the road by 6:30 am.
A 4 hour drive and we finally reached our destination, the Grand Canyon.
Unfortunately, this article has to be continued in the fall issue of COM-MINI-CATIONS.