You're so young and already (like I've said a zillion times) you've lived
such an amazing life. From your creative parties to your amazing
roadtrips.. you've done what so many people have dreamed of doing their
whole lives in a short amount of years. Thank you for letting me be apart
of a couple of your memories and great adventures... while you just had the
last dunes... you'll have plenty of new, exciting, weird, beautiful moments
ahead. I'm just glad I get to share some of those with you and I can't wait
for the years ahead. Thanks for being you baby.
Oh, and your ex... what a cunt! :)
Part one of this list can be found here.
The Top Ten Most Memorable Dunes Moments, Part II
8.25.7
5. Stranded
"Alright, is everybody ready?"
It was August 18th, 2005, and we were sitting in our cars at the gas station just outside the park entrance. I listened as the drivers responded to my question over the radio. Each one confirmed that they had all their passengers, and were ready to go. With that, we started driving down Colorado 150. As we drove, a static-laden voice kept coming over the walkie-talkies. Because the batteries are usually starting to die by morning, these types of transmissions are pretty standard on the drive home. We tried to determine what was being said, but eventually gave up, assuming that this was the usual battery issue.
As we were heading further and further south, however, our friend Danielle, who was pregnant at the time, was standing outside the gas station trying to reach us on the radio she had been carrying. As we turned onto US-160, she was starting to walk south along the roadway. As we continued heading east, she was riding to Ft. Garland with a trucker whom she had hitched a ride from.
Eventually we reached our usual pit stop city, Walsenburg. We piled into the A&W and got in line to order food. Suddenly, LaGreca approached me and said, "Yeah...we left Danielle at the dunes." I didn't actually believe him at first. How could that possibly happen? "I just got service back on my phone, and when I checked my messages, there was one from her on it."
After listening to her rather angry message, I called her up. She wasn't happy at all. She started screaming at me about how she had to walk for miles, and about how she had become so thirsty that she drank from a water bottle found on the side of the road. All of this and she was pregnant, too!
Now, to be fair, this was all partly her fault. She had been switching cars repeatedly through the course of the trip, so when the time came for us to check our passengers, we all thought she was in someone else's car. As for her being pregnant...it was hard to feel too bad when she had chosen to climb the dunes, drink and get high the night before. In any case, I headed back to Fort Garland alone, while the rest of the group waited in Walsenburg. When I arrived, I found her at the Ute Cafe, eating a slice of apple pie that the trucker had bought for her.
She refused to leave until she was done with the pie, and I didn't really blame her. The pie was really good, after all.
4. Rule Number Three
The 2006 trip was plagued with problems. From deadly lightning, to insane cops...Dunes 6 was a true testament to the accuracy of Rule #3: "There is always a problem."
I've already written about everything I could about that night, but there was one part I never mentioned. Danielle (our stranded pregnant friend from the year before) had decided to bring some of her grandmother's ashes to the dunes this time. A few of us questioned how respectful she was being. Her grandmother had never even been to the dunes, and Danielle had collected only a small portion of the ashes in a Ziploc bag. Before actually spreading the ashes, Danielle dragged the bag through the sand saying, "Look grandma! You're in the dunes!" It just seemed...wrong.
There have been times since that night when we've wondered if the deadly lightning was somehow a result of her dead grandmother's ghostly rage.
Probably not, though...
3. The Proposal
When I was 17, I ran away from home with Kris. We left in the middle of the night and started driving towards Sunizona, AZ, a city chosen solely for its pleasant sounding name. I had planned to propose to her at the Colorado/New Mexico border, even knowing exactly what I was going to say.
"I know we don't have anything right now. Hell, I couldn't even give you a ring. But past this state line we have everything ahead of us...so in a way, that's what I can give to you: The world. Will you marry me?"
We were stupid kids, and perhaps the sentiment was a little over-dramatic, but I still think it was kind of sweet. I never got to make that speech, though. When we reached the state line, it was still dark out. I decided to hold off on proposing, mainly because I wanted to be able to see her eyes clearly while I did it.
I was going to do it at the Arizona border instead, but we never made it there. Instead, we got stopped at one of the border patrol stations along Interstate 10, where we were discovered to be runaways. As the sun rose on New Mexico that morning, Kris and I were holding hands in the back of a police car headed for Doña Ana County Detention Center.
Shortly after that, she broke up with me. For the next several years, we remained friends, but I never really stopped loving her. It wasn't until November of 2001, when she finally started falling back in love with me. In fact, the first time we ever made love was that month in the parking lot of the Great Sand Dunes.
Nine months later, we were holding the second annual dunes trip, and I had once again decided to propose. I even had a ring and everything.
We made the climb up the dunes, set everything up, and started drinking. I knew that I didn't want my birthday to overshadow our anniversary in the future, so I waited until midnight. As soon as 12:01 hit, I asked her to come outside with me. Everyone else stayed in the tents, but I think they knew what was happening.
We went outside, and walked away from the tents. I held her hands and looked into her eyes as I began to talk. We weren't teenage runaways anymore, but the speech I had prepared years before still seemed appropriate. When I was finished, I got on one knee and held out the ring. "Will you marry me?"
Nobody else was watching, but I will personally always remember the way she looked. She began crying as she said yes, and so did I. We kissed there in the dunes, knowing that we had our whole wonderful lives ahead of us.
...we all know how that story ended, but at the time, it was one of the greatest moments of my life.
2. The Meteor
By the time we finally started climbing the dunes in 2001, we were already pretty tuckered out from pushing cars out of the sand. It was late, we were out of energy, and people were starting to complain (which is, of course, against Rule #1).
We had one last dune to go, but it was one hell of a steep hill. As we started crawling up it, everyone kept asking, "Why don't we just camp right here at the bottom of the hill?" Morale was low, and everybody seemed just ready to give up.
It was then that something amazing happened...
Out of nowhere, a giant "meteor" appeared in the sky, directly above us. It was the largest one any of us had ever seen, looking more like a comet than anything. Everyone instantly turned their eyes upward to watch the giant glowing purple and blue streak. For several seconds, we could see everything around us; the dunes were lit up like it was daytime.
The strangest part was the fact that it was headed in the exact direction we were climbing. As it fizzled out, we found ourselves staring directly at the dune ahead of us. It was then that Ace yelled a phrase that is now famous amongst those who were there:
"ONWARD!"
We listened. Everybody had a huge second wind suddenly. It was a mad dash up that last dune, and we made it in record time. When we reached the top, we found ourselves looking at the perfect camping spot. We took it as a sign...
The next morning we stopped by the UFO Watchtower in Hooper, CO (The San Luis Valley has gained a bit of a reputation for "extraterrestrial activity" over the years). They confirmed that they had seen it as well, which told us that it hadn't just been in our heads. I suppose we'll never know for sure exactly what it was, though. It certainly didn't seem natural. According to an old teacher of mine, the colors we saw would indicate that it was a metallic object. Whether that means an iron meteor, a falling satellite, or something else will always remain a mystery, though...
1. Cutaia
The final entry on this list also came from Dunes 1. (Four of the entries on this list came from that first trip, actually.) I've already written an entry about it, so I won't bore you with the details here. Suffice it to say, risking my life wading through an alligator pond, and having one of the creatures named after me was certainly one of the most memorable moments of my entire life...let alone the damned Dunes.
So there they are: The top ten most memorable Dunes moments. Looking at all of this almost makes me sad that it's over, but I suppose it was bound to end some time. For now, here's to that magical place I call "The Dunes," and everything I've experience because of them...
