On the Road: Rock Climbing 3
October 2-3
Tuesday and Wednesday we climbed at the Motherlode again – I am drawn to return to this phenomenal formation, despite the fact that I’m not very good at the steep, continuous climbing there. The weather has warmed up to near-perfect fall conditions, and I’m excited by the prospect of traveling for five more weeks.
The walnut tree lurking above our home in Miguel’s Tarpland threatens to crack someone’s skull soon. Walnuts, encased in their tough, fruity packaging, plummet down at random times with breathtaking force to pound into the tarps and tents. It seems almost inevitable that someone’s head will get clocked by one of the near-baseball sized packages at some point, but it hasn’t happened yet.
October 4-8
The crowds started to roll in on Thursday and continued to pour in over the course of the day on Friday. This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving, and Miguel’s overflowed with the tents of our Northern neighbors. We climbed Sunday and Monday, enjoying the company of the remaining weekenders who turned their four-day holiday into a longer vacation.
Monday evening, I chatted at the crowded campfire first with a psychologist from Philadelphia who bore an eerie resemblance to Sigmund Freud. Ironically his climbing partner was by far the most bizarre fellow at the campfire – a fidgety, loud and somewhat crazed-looking guy who drove everyone who sat down next to him to move within five minutes. After the psychologist went to sleep, my newly made Swiss friends, Mark and Ben, sat down for a talk, only to be interrupted by the psychologist’s partner, who began to loudly and excitedly reminisce with another person about G.I. Joe cartoons, complete with an off-key theme-song rendition.
“Ja, ja,” Ben choked out before he burst into a long fit of laughter. “This is true.”
Annie, a climber here from Quebec, told us that the French speakers refer to us in such instances with scorn as “Les ’Ricans.” At times like this, I can’t really blame the Euros for finding us a tad – or maybe more than a tad – “unrefined,” as a woman climber from Germany put it to me once.
October 9
Today is the final rest day here in Kentucky – we plan to climb for the next three days and then to drive to the New River Gorge in West Virginia to set up camp at Roger’s, the Miguel’s of the New. Hopefully the weather will hold…
October 10, 2001
Tonight I was embarrassed to witness yet another “stupid American” incident. My friend Brian from Canada, whose parents are from India, fielded a series of inane questions at the fire, starting with, “What are you, anyway?”
“Canadian,” he said.
After finally establishing his Indian heritage, the original asker of this line of questioning persisted to ask, “So are you a Canadian Indian or an Indian Canadian?” and “Is Bangkok in India?”
Thank God that Brian has a really good sense of humor and could laugh about it later. Nonetheless I was again put out by yet another example of American ignorance. It brings home even harder the reasons why other nations dislike or even despise this country – as a whole, we lack knowledge, awareness and sensitivity to others’ cultural and religious differences.
to be continued…