Refuge Robledo Mountain 2 Chapter 15
- 2 years ago
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Anna and I were both up earlier than normal; either from a good night of rest, excitement over the trip to Taos or, more likely, a combination of both. We did our standard Tai Chi and then an extended session of practice with me teaching Anna the next kata in her progression. At the rate she was going she would soon be ready to start learning Krav Maga. When we were finished I gave Anna a big smile, pulled her into a hug before giving her a big kiss, and telling her she was doing extremely well. We stood there for a minute, cuddled together, before breaking apart to clean up and get dressed.
We walked downstairs with Anna carrying the saddle bags and me carrying all four scabbards with our rifles in them and the two shotguns all bundled up in a single bulky canvas wrapped package. Josefa and Kit joined us a few minutes later with saddle bags and two porters carrying their supplies and baggage to be packed on a mule. While the ladies went inside the restaurant, I helped Kit quickly load up the mule that was already hitched up out front with our horses. We returned to the restaurant in short order and sat down to coffee just as breakfast arrived. I smiled at Anna for ordering my breakfast and dug in to the meal. I hadn’t realized just how hungry I was after a night of exploring possibilities and a morning of kata practice.
After breakfast and a second, more leisurely, cup of coffee we mounted up ready to start the trip. Kit thought the sawed-off shotguns on their slings were rather handy and we discussed the merits of the setup as we rode out of town. While we were talking Kit set a consistent steady travel pace that both animals and humans could maintain with minimal effort on either’s part. We rode in two pairs with the pairings switching frequently during the morning.
The further north and east we traveled the more Anna was amazed at the trees, grass, and animal signs we saw. It was a treat watching her discover something she never knew existed, or had only heard about from others. Near noon we stopped in a small glade off the side of the trail with a small stream running through the back. Anna and Josefa went to the stream and knelt down to scoop up some water to refresh themselves.
It took everything I had not to laugh, as Anna let out a small scream when she discovered first-hand how cold the water was. Her only experience with river water was the Rio Grande between Las Cruces and El Paso. While that water was cool, it was much warmer than what she’d just experienced, and she was trying to understand why there was such a difference. I explained to her that the stream was much closer to its source which was melting snow a little higher up in the mountains.
Anna, now over her surprise, returned with Josefa to the pack mule and between the two of them produced a quick lunch. I was very familiar with the lunch, but Kit looked a little askance at the bread rolls, sausages, and mustard spread until he took the first bite. Anna had also convinced Josefa to take a small jar of water loaded with tea leaves and tie it on the outside of the packs to brew while we rode. The tea jar was unnoticed until she poured a little of the strong tea into four large mugs, and finished filling the mugs with ice cold water from the stream. Kit accepted the mug from Anna, but had a hard time mentally accepting he would be drinking cold tea for lunch. It was so foreign to his experience that it took over five minutes before he finally took his first drink and then only after the other three of us had taken drinks and told him how good it was. I quickly drank the mug and asked for more of the thirst quenching and refreshing drink. Josefa told Kit that the drink was extremely good, and she had added a little mint to the tea leaves which she knew he liked. Kit was a quick convert to both sausage dogs and tea, asking for more of both while shaking his head in wonder. I had a suspicion that Kit was in for a few more culinary delights during our visit to Taos.
We made good time after our lunch stop, and the longer summer days allowed us a few more hours of travel before stopping for the night. Near sundown Kit led us through a copse of woods a half mile off the trail and into a clearing with a stream running along one side. We set up camp and saw to the horses and mule, while the ladies made a fire and began working on the evening’s supper. One sniff was all it took for me to know we were having hamburgers and fries for supper. I knew Josefa had refilled the small jar with fresh water, tea leaves, and sprigs of mint before we left our lunch stop, so I fully expected cold tea with supper.
I told Kit to prepare himself for another supper surprise, and more cold tea. He shrugged and quietly said that it had been good so far, so he’d go along with whatever the ladies made. He made good on his promise, eating two burgers and a whole plate of fries all by himself.
Thankfully the ladies had made a large pot of coffee, as the nights were still cool this far north, and at this elevation, which was approaching 7,000 feet. Anna and I cuddled up together on one side of the fire with our coffee while Josefa and Kit did the same on the other side. The night was quiet, crisp, and clear with the stars of the Milky Way shining down in all their glory. We were all quiet as we watched the stars and sipped our coffee before getting into our bedrolls and quickly falling asleep.
Anna and I were up much earlier than Kit and Josefa. We got the fire going and then Anna started a pot of coffee before we began our morning of Tai Chi and kata practice. Kit and Josefa woke sometime before we were done and watched us with fascination although neither one expressed any interest in learning more about either Tai Chi or Aikido. We cleaned up and enjoyed a cup of coffee before breakfast. Anna made everyone breakfast sandwiches and Kit again expressed his surprise at how something so simple could taste so good. We finished the pot of coffee, packed up, and were on the trail just as the full light of dawn broke over the mountains.
Kit kept the same pace he’d set yesterday, and we continued to make good time. Our lunch stop was a repeat of yesterday’s, but quicker, and we were back on the trail less than a half hour after we’d stopped. A few hours later Kit pulled up sharply and told us there was a herd of antelope about 1000 yards to the west on the mountainside. I looked at Anna and she shrugged with a why not expression. I asked Kit if the deer were accessible from where we were.
“Well, that all depends on how far they run after you shoot them, but I can get us to where they are now with no real problem,” he replied.
Anna and I pulled our A700’s from their scabbards and dismounted. As we scanned the herd of antelope through our scopes I asked Kit how many he wanted.
“That depends on how big they are and they’re too far away for me to tell from here.”
I dug into my saddle bag and handed him one of the spare monoculars that Anna and I both carried. He put it to his eye and rapidly pulled it away, holding it at arm’s distance in disbelief. Kit put it back up to his eye, found the antelope, and told us three would feed us tonight and give the house some fresh meat for the next few days. Anna had given one to Josefa, so she could see what we were talking about.
We settled into the crook of a couple of trees we found with limbs low enough to steady our rifles and a clear view of the antelope before looking through the scope and picking two targets each. As we adjusted the scopes I quietly reminded her to account for the higher elevation and up-hill slope.
We both fired almost simultaneously and bringing our rifles back on target, confirmed our shots, chambered a new round, and fired at our secondary targets.
“Well, Kit,” I said after confirming the kills through the scope. “It looks like you got four antelopes instead of three. I hope that fourth one won’t go to waste.”
Kit scoffed, “That’s what the Good Lord invented smoking for. The meat will last long enough to be used. Don’t you worry. It won’t go to waste.”
Kit gave us a display of his mountain experience leading us to the antelope and then in almost no time field dressing all four antelope. We put the four antelope on the mule, rode back down the mountain, and less than two hours after we stopped we were on the trail again. Stopping a little earlier than we had last night, Kit led us to another good camping spot in a copse of trees with water nearby.
While I took care of the horses, Kit took one antelope off the mule, skinned and butchered it, and handed the best pieces to the ladies, who had been setting up camp and starting a fire. I got done with the horses in time to help Kit string up the meat into some tall trees, thirty yards from camp.
“There aren’t near as many around as there was when I first came here years ago, but black bears, and occasionally a grizzly or two, are still active up here,” Kit said as we tied off the last of the meat high up into the trees
I have no idea what the ladies had originally planned for supper but antelope steak, fried potatoes with onions, and beans were what was served. Tonight, we skipped the tea in favor of coffee. We weren’t much further north than last night, but we were much higher in elevation and the night was much cooler. We all turned in early, with Anna and I snuggled together sharing both our blankets.
Sometime later the mule started making an unbelievable racket, and Kit was up and out of his bedroll in no time, down on one knee, scanning for whatever was upsetting the mule. Anna and I joined him a second or two later as we all tried to find the source of the trouble in the darkness, with only the reflected light of the Milky Way to see by.
A full minute later we heard rustling sounds from where the antelopes were hanging. Kit muttered a curse under his breath, and took ten quick and quiet steps towards the antelopes, before stopping to sniff the air. Letting out a louder but still quiet curse he turned to us.
“A bear’s trying to get to the meat.” He corrected himself almost immediately. “At least one bear, maybe more.”
“Will it go away eventually, if he doesn’t get the meat?” Josefa softly asked from behind us.
“It might, love, but there’s no way to tell,” Kit replied. “He could just as easily come after us. Either way I’m not willing to sit awake all night waiting for him, or them, to decide to leave or to come after us.”
Kit helped Josefa up into the limbs of a mature tree and told her to stay there until he came back for her. I didn’t even try to tell Anna to climb a tree. I knew she’d be angrier than a wounded bear if I tried!
Holding our rifles, I quietly told Anna, “These rifles are too small of a caliber to make a one shot kill, unless we’re very lucky. I strongly recommend you use the three-round burst if you get a clear shot and aim like we’d practiced.”
Kit brushed past us as we were talking and walked to within fifteen yards of the tree where we’d hung the meat, before dropping down to one knee again. Anna and I joined him trying to find the bear we could still hear. Finally, Anna pointed to a dark shape near the tree, telling us that it was a single bear.
Kit stared hard for a minute. “I can’t tell what kind it is but it’s either a very big black bear or a young grizzly.”
He disappeared before returning a minute later with a dead branch he’d lit from the camp fire. I had Anna take up a position five yards to one side of Kit while I took up the same position on the other side. Plainly, Kit was hoping to scare the bear away.
I didn’t, for even one second, think he was going to do anything besides make a hungry bear angry. So, I was ready when the bear roared and stood up facing Kit. I fired my first burst just as the bear started to drop onto all fours and charge. Anna joined in before my burst was finished and we both fired a second burst while Kit was hauling himself up into a tree, after dropping the crude torch. We both fired a third burst. Just before it reached the torch, the bear dropped its face to the ground, and tumbled end over end before laying still.
The three of us waited a full five minutes, watching for any signs of life from the bear, before Kit dropped down from his tree, picked up the sputtering torch, and used it to poke at the bear. Kit told us it was dead and we’d check it out in the morning when we had more light.
Back at camp we helped Josefa out of the tree telling her the bear was dead. We all got back in our bedrolls and tried to go back to sleep. It took a while for all the adrenaline to wash out of our systems, but eventually we did sleep.
The next morning, we all did our usual camp routine and had breakfast. We all enjoyed a relaxed forty-five minutes of sitting by the fire warming up and drinking coffee as we waited for enough light to see by. The sun finally rose giving us good light and we all walked over to the bear.
Kit gave a whistle. “That’s the biggest black bear I’ve seen in years!”
After looking at it for a minute Kit asked the rest of us to help him roll it over on its back. I’m not sure which shot killed the bear or which one of us fired it but most of our eighteen rounds hit the bear’s head, shoulders, and a couple rounds hit under the arms on both sides. The holes were small and hard to find except in the head.
“This will make a fine bear skin robe or bedcover for those cold winter nights,” Kit said looking at us before taking out his skinning knife and setting to work.
Sunday morning, we finally rolled out of bed at eight. I convinced Anna to try the shower with me. We talked about last night, laughing as we soaped each other up. All that shower fun really tired me out. I was very tempted to just go back to bed, but Anna insisted that we have breakfast and get ready for church. Anna got dressed, opened the curtains and French doors, and cleaned up the room. I unsuccessfully tempted her the entire time, trying to change her mind and enjoy the day in bed with...
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I was up at first light, ate another MRE, and was on my way back to the RV shortly after 7AM. Although I was paying attention to possible threats, both animal and human along the way, I was replaying yesterday over and over in my mind. Finally, just before arriving at the little plateau and my RV, I decided that I had more information than my pea brain could handle, and I needed to let my subconscious work on it for a while. For now, I would act as though I was in fact in the Robledo...
“Wake up, Paul! Raiders are attacking the camp!” This was no whisper. Dream Laura was fairly screaming in my ear. It was just after daybreak, and Laura’s voice woke me to the screams, rifle fire, and shotgun blasts coming from the camp. I slipped on my boots, holstered the pistol, and grabbed my rifle. Once outside I ran to the edge of the plateau. With a quick glance I saw ten or eleven bodies around the outside of the mason’s camp, and a handful of men running away from the camp. Tom was...
As I’d warned during the meeting, 1858 and 1859 proved to be busy years for everyone associated with the Estancia and the various business enterprises. The Estancia got back to work after the holidays on January 3rd, the same day our guests left for their return trip home. The normal Estancia wintertime repair work continued on, although at a reduced pace, while ten teams were assigned to Tom and Giuseppe to quarry a hole at the southern end of the Robledo Mountains. That hole, measuring 200...
I was two days out from Trujillo Gulch and had just saddled up for the days ride, when the faint sounds of gun shots came from the east. Without thinking, I mounted up and rode towards the sound of the gunfire. I was two miles west of the Camino Real, and figured that was where the gun fire was coming from. As I rode, I realized what I’d done, and debated with myself whether this was really the smartest course of action. I may be a defender, but was I to be everyone’s defender? The thought...
Taking down the adobe bricks from the cave entrance, I thought about the next step that I dreaded so much. A heavy door of wood and adobe bricks was going to need sturdy support from the wood door jamb it was going to be hung on, which meant burying the jamb a minimum of nine inches. Digging down into nine inches of rock was not going to be easy. I started digging the hole for the left support jamb using the largest cold chisel and the heaviest hammer I had. The floor here didn’t seem to be...
The trip from the Hacienda to the meeting site was thankfully uneventful, although I must admit to having a sense of unease until we’d passed the area of the last mountain lion attack. The weather had moderated and become warmer, but we weren’t fooled. The seasonal spring winds were nearing their end, but we had to expect to have to deal with them, and dust storms, for the next couple of weeks. We arrived in the clearing mid-afternoon of the day before the meeting. Miguel, using hand...
I fell into a deep sleep, while watching a kaleidoscope of shadows dance around the room. Flashes of lightning backlit the curtains on the window. For the third time in as many years, and the second time in as many weeks, Dream Laura visited my dreams that night. She was getting stronger, as tonight’s visit had us sitting across from each other at the picnic table on the covered patio of our old house, the patio we had built together just after we’d bought the house. Everything seemed...
I made my way back through the courtyard and into the house heading for the dining room intent on having another cup of coffee. Before I could sit down, however, Mr. Greenburg saw me. “Paul, if you have time this morning, and you’re feeling up to it, Rachael and I would like to talk with you for a little while regarding our discussions before you were hurt.” A quick glance at Anna and with her small nod of approval, I replied, “Certainly, Sir. I’m at your disposal. How about we get a coffee...
At my insistence, we pushed hard on the way back home, knocking two days off the return trip. The dull ache in my shoulder hadn’t returned at all since we left the Hacienda, so I felt comfortable pushing a little harder. As we dismounted in front of the courtyard gate, I asked the cousin who took my horse to send a message asking Nantan and Miguel to dinner this evening. Saddlebags over our shoulders and carrying our bedrolls, we entered the Hacienda looking forward to seeing our wives and...
After the Monday morning staff meeting, I holed up in the study with Tom and Yolanda. I’d been wrong in El Paso. It didn’t take two days to give them the background and go over the tentative plans Anna and I had been working on. It took all week, and even then I’d just scratched the surface of the background. The major problem, as always, was trying to figure out how to answer their questions in terms they could understand. I tried to stay away from things they didn’t need to know about....
I was sitting in the restaurant the next morning, finishing up breakfast and thinking about how Anna’s smile seemed to make my day. I’d just taken my last bite when Anna came over with fresh coffee and sat down, giving me another one of my Anna smiles, and asking me what I had planned for the day. Swallowing my last bite and taking a sip of coffee I said, “I was hoping to talk my fiancée into spending the morning riding with me, and perhaps start learning to shoot. Do you think she would...
I woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than I had since the mountain lion attack. Stretching my arms out to my side, I looked at my right hand, flexed my fingers, and laughed at the thought that I could play the guitar again. I hadn’t realized until yesterday afternoon how much I missed it. Jumping out of bed, I ran through my tai chi exercises and the katas, before cleaning up with a basin of water, and getting dressed. I was whistling as I walked in the back door of the...
Tom and I were relaxing after breakfast, enjoying our umpteenth cup of fresh hot coffee when the ladies had decided we’d had enough time. “So, Pablo, you’ve had your breakfast and coffee, now tell us about the trip,” she demanded in an almost imperial voice. Looking around the table, I realized for the first time that Tom and I were the only men in the room. “As you command, my Lady,” I replied giving her a sitting bow. “But first, where is everyone?” “Well, it is harvest time, Paul. Tomas...
Early the next morning I awoke and stretched out on the queen size bed, luxuriating in the feel of crisp cool cotton sheets and thinking about how good I felt. All those minor joint aches and pains I’d learned to live with over the years simply weren’t there. And those dreams! I rarely remembered my dreams after waking, but somehow, I knew that I remembered every one of last night’s dreams. The dreams of my past, both good and bad. With a yawn and a final stretch, I got up and started my...
Although they were always on our minds, we put the unsettling spirit visits behind us and got on with our lives. I spent as much time as I could in the RV cave melting gold, but it was only a couple of hours most days, and the small mountain of gold seemed to defy my attempts to reduce its size. Giuseppe returned from his short trip to the base of the Doña Ana Mountains late Wednesday afternoon in a jubilant mood. Over supper he informed us that he’d found the rock we needed to build the...
I was up before first light the next morning. I found two of the ladies already up and quietly preparing to make breakfast for the camp. I walked down to the river and soaked my head in the water to wake me up, as well as help tame my hair. When I lifted my head from the river, I found Giuseppe and Hector had joined me. After relieving ourselves we walked back up to the campfire where the ladies handed us each a cup of coffee. We sat drinking our coffee and enjoying the quiet of the...
Standing at the opening of the cave, they stared inside in stunned disbelief. I cleared my throat, regaining their attention. “No one else besides you three know about this. I expect it to remain that way. The cave and what’s in it are never discussed outside this room, and then only if the door is closed and barred.” Handing Mr. Mendoza the lantern, I watched from the doorway as they wandered around exploring. All I could see was the soft glow of the light when they were in the smaller cave...
Six weeks later I was again lying in Mr. Mendoza’s hayloft. Tom’s even breathing and soft snores provided background accompaniment, as I marveled at everything that had happened in such a short time. With the exception of the six days Tom and I spent on a trip to El Paso, and a two-day trip to the Hacienda, the four of us had spent virtually all of our time together. The first morning of our two-week visit at the Hacienda they’d seen me practicing Tai Chi on the plateau in the early dawn....
“Good morning Maco,” I said, walking into the dining room for breakfast. “We missed you at breakfast yesterday and again at dinner last night.” “Good morning Paul, or rather, good night for me,” Maco answered wearily. “I just stopped by to have breakfast with Beth since I haven’t seen her for a couple of days.” “What have you been doing to be so tired?” “I was the Scout hidden behind you yesterday. All of us were in our hides at three yesterday morning and we stayed in place until three...
I was up early the next morning after a restless night, dreading the conversation Anna wanted to have. Walking into the restaurant I was surprised to get my normal Anna smile, hug, and kiss. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all. She pointed me back to my usual table and brought over two cups of coffee. Sitting down, she said that breakfast would be out in a few minutes and asked how I’d slept. “Not well. It was a restless sleep that had me tossing and turning all night,” I...
“¡Juan! ¡El hombre malo!” I yelled as Tom and I walked into his office the next morning. “¡Dios Mio!” he exclaimed. “You startled me,” he said shaking his finger at us before reaching for a towel to clean up the small amount of ink he’d spilled on the countertop. “It’s good to see both of you again. Let me put these books up and we can talk.” Tom and I busied ourselves getting coffee before sitting down at the small table. Juan grabbed his coffee off the counter and joined us. “So, my...
Before going to bed, Tom and I worked on the mortar shells in the den. “Paul are you sure this is going to work?” Tom asked skeptically, as he applied hide glue around the brass sides at the bottom of the 12-gauge shotgun shell. “It should work just fine, at least for the shotgun shells, Tom. The tricky part of all this is the caps in the top of the shells.” Squinting, I focused my mind on dabbing just a little hide glue on the percussion cap before sticking it inside the plunger cap and...
We were up early, and after breakfast, we rounded up the deputy and the stage coach manager before walking over to the bank. The four of us walked into the banker’s office over his objections. I closed the door and told him to shut up and listen, as Anna looked away to hide her smile. I asked the banker if the ‘Mayor’ had been up to date on his rental payments for the stable and house. When he said that he was current, I turned to the Deputy. “I want a complete inventory of the stables to...
The next morning, bright and early, Tom and I loaded up the wagon and drove it over to the back door of the bank, where Levi was waiting for us. I signed the withdrawal receipt and accepted a deposit receipt of $35,000 for the sale of 4,000 head of cattle to Richard King. We loaded the bags of money into the steel wagon box, locked it up, and drove it back over to the hotel. In the hotel restaurant, we found the ladies waiting for us, along with Richard King, a total of twenty vaqueros, and...
“Damn Paul! None of this was here two years ago! How many people live in this village?” The questions were coming rapid fire from Steve, as we sat on our horses looking out over the village from the hills. We’d insisted that Steve spend his first day on the Estancia recovering from his trip. The only thing remotely resembling a discussion of our plans, was getting him to accept that he would need to ride a horse to Austin and back. Well, that and convincing him that his chances of surviving...
Tom, Giuseppe and I were relaxing after lunch while we waited for the ladies to arrive. A little after one o’clock, one of the cousins came into the camp telling us that wagons from Las Cruces were on their way. I thanked him, and the three of us went up to the slope, where we used our monoculars to watch the wagons. There were ten heavily laden wagons about a mile away moving slowly up the road. With a groan I said, “My back is already starting to hurt, just thinking about unloading those...
I shared my dream with Anna the next morning before we got out of bed. She agreed with Dream Laura’s thoughts on both JT and ‘the Boss’, which didn’t really surprise me as I’d noticed before how alike their thought processes were. While Anna showered, dressed, and left to check on JJ, I sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, and tried to meditate, something I’d never really been all that good at. Maybe I was trying too hard or perhaps I was just too rusty, but a half-hour later, I gave...
In one way I was right. It was an interesting few weeks. In another way, I was wrong. It was not just a few weeks; it was fifteen weeks. It started shortly after breakfast that first morning. As soon as Steve, the Judge, and Hiram finished bringing me up to date on their activities, I asked Juan, Jorge, George, Heinrich, and Giuseppe to join us in the den. I had the territorial map spread out on the desk, watching as Steve finished up tracing all the new land purchases he’d made, when the...
“All right, Paul, it’s been two hours since we said goodbye to Frank and Lee and watched them ride southeast towards the Estancia. My curiosity is killing me, now tell me about Cisco and Frank like you said you would.” I had to smile. It had been almost twenty-four hours since I’d told Tom I’d tell him how I knew about Cisco and Frank. I knew his curiosity was about to burst. We’d left Tucson less than twenty minutes later, riding hard with Frank and Lee. With a full moon, we’d hadn’t...
My head was pounding! Somehow, around the pain, I thought, ‘After seventy some years, you’d think I’d remember never to mix distilled and fermented alcohol!’ I may have looked twenty years old, but I was well over seventy. Getting sent back over 160 year’s in time was bad enough. Throw in losing everyone and everything I knew, and it was even tougher. Losing fifty years off my apparent age paled in comparison, but it was rough, too. Well, losing the years, both in time and age, had its good...
Tom and I were becoming bored. The Segundos were all doing their jobs well. Cattle were being delivered on time, and the herd continued to grow. The land along the river was being cleared and prepared for planting, while early harvesting in the greenhouses had already started for some of the crops, like tomatoes. Building activities were continuing at a furious pace, with the fences, roads, water retention buildings, and School/Community Center all in different stages. We spent quite a bit...
I was on the terrace on a fine bright sunny afternoon, staring in horror at the list of things I’d come up with for Steve to do when he got back from Austin. No matter how I looked at it, I just couldn’t see how he would ever get everything on the list done in the time-frame we wanted. I was seriously starting to think that maybe we’d over extended ourselves this time, and we would have to push the time-frame out another year, when something in my brain sparked. I suddenly remembered a...
“What do you mean something funny is going on in the land office, Paul?” Steve asked. Tom, Steve, and I were in the family dining room going over our land plans one last time, after finishing a large breakfast. Anna, Yolanda, and the boys were with Mrs. Mendoza over in the house writing up the invitations after she agreed to host the meeting tomorrow. “I’m not sure what, but something just wasn’t right about the map in the land office when we were there the other day. In all the excitement...
Our final day in Santa Fe was hectic as Tom and I, with the ready assistance of the escort teams, gathered supplies for the trip home in the morning, and picked up the trunks, booze, and books that afternoon. With little fanfare, we departed Santa Fe the next morning after a good breakfast with the Judge, Hiram, Helen, and Steve. We assured all of them but most especially Helen that we’d be back the first week in November with the ladies and babies. Pushing the animals hard we travelled...
The mules didn’t seem to be laboring with the load, so I figured to make good time going back to the cave. By this time, I didn’t feel threatened between Las Cruces and the cave, but I stopped just out of sight of Las Cruces. I pulled my rifle out of the panier and put it in the seat box with me, just in case. I also made sure I could get to the pistol at my waist easily, before driving on. The trip was a little longer with the mule pulling the wagon but not overly so. As I drove and watched...
As I drove along the Camino Real, I sang “Fever” to the mules. They didn’t seem to mind. Then I opened up my mind to them on the various situations I found myself in. I talked about waking up 160 years in the past as a fifteen-year-old who few people took all that seriously, but with the experience and attitude of a sixty-six-year-old. I talked about my unsuccessful efforts to determine if this was all real or if it was just a psychotic episodic loop I was stuck in. I talked about the strange...
My goal was to reach Santa Fe in fifteen days. Unlike the last time I’d made the trip I stayed on the road pushing hard. I knew the route this time and wasn’t quite so concerned over threats. The first six days I averaged almost thirty miles a day, but the mules were starting to get tired, so I backed off to a steady twenty. This gave me enough time in the mornings to do my Tai Chi as well as the Aikido and Krav Maga katas. Except for the mornings I was in town, and the first six days of this...
We’d been sent to Saudi Arabia as part of a special operations unit, formed specifically to find and retrieve downed airmen from all branches of service, and all coalition countries. It was a mix of special operations forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Air Force contingent, except for twelve Combat Controllers and six snipers including JT and me, were all Pararescue, otherwise known in the Air Force as PJs or Rescue Rangers. Pararescue is a unique group of special operators. When...