July 21, 1975
Tonight we are at Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. We spent last night in Hotchkiss at the fairgrounds, copped showers at the Rainbow Hotel for 50 cents. Dude, Robert, ran the hotel and a crafts store next door. Pretty funky town.
While we were waiting to take showers, Robbie, Linda and Michelle drove by. They were the ladies from LA that Joel met when he split by himself at Bryce. It was because of them that we drove through to Hotchkiss, stopped in town at the local bar and asked a freak named Larry if he knew where Ed Eberly lived, which is the name of the guy that Robbie said they were going to stay with.
Turns out Ed had a small farm school up in the hills outside of town and he was getting a new crew in that night so it would not have been cool for us to stay there.
So we were hanging out on the corner across from the hotel, waiting our turns to take showers. Joel was first. I was last. Then the chicks from LA drove by in their white VW and Jerry flagged them down just as Joel came out of the shower. They also had dope.
We hung out in Jerry's truck, an old Dodge van with a slant six engine, at the fairgrounds, smoking dope, listening to the Grateful Dead. It suddenly dawned on me that we had gotten what we had asked for at Navajo Lake, which was a van with three chicks, and although it wasn't a van, the important thing was that there were three chicks.
What happens now is difficult to say, because Joel and Robbie were making a lot of sparks last night, although it seemed a bit cooler to me today. But I really don't know anything.
Karola did score some dope for us from a chick named Gini in Paoma, where we went to the health food store and to meet up again with the LA chicks, which we did eventually, except for Michelle, who didn't come.
Gini took us to a place called Big Bear Ranch outside of Somerset. There was a guy swimming naked in the river. Joel, Robbie, Linda and Karola went swimming too. He didn't have anything but homegrown, for which we paid $10, but it got us high.
Camped in the San Juan Forest the night before just outside of Mancos. Took Bill to the clinic/hospital in Durango and the doctor said he had a gastrointestinal virus, which is better than an ulcer, I guess.
I took a Demerol for my tongue, which has been on fire since Bryce. At first I thought it was chapped, but now I think I have a cold that I don't really feel because of the dry climate.
The day after Joel left us at Bryce, which is to say the following morning of the night we met the hippies from NY with the three-legged dog, they had tried to cop showers for 50 cents but only got cold water, so they busted open one of the coin boxes and got $3, which means they probably about broke even. But they had to split quickly. Jeff and Debbie split a couple hours, all bound for Winslow.
The ranger came around and told us we couldn't camp where we were because it was a pull-through for a trailer. So we had to move camp. Meanwhile, I had gone to get Bill and the laundry. While I was taking Bill and the laundry to the laundromat, we saw Joel, Robbie, Linda and Michelle getting hassled for gathering firewood.
Then we ran into three chicks in a Dodge van from LA who had the keys locked in the van by seven-year-old Hannah. I ended up forcibly pushing in the window vent. In return, they turned Bill and me on to some Thai stick weed that Patterson from Delta Place in Atlanta had told me about but that I had never tried.
It was quite good. In fact, when we got back and Jerry tried to explain the situation with the campsite, I felt very confident about being able to handle this trivial hassle. But when I tried to pay the ranger for the site, she wouldn't let us register, so we ended up moving.
We didn't get to drop acid until 3:30, after we had moved camp. Then we went for a hike into Fairyland Canyon, but Bill dropped out before we even got to the trail. So it was me, Jerry and Karola. We put that place to a test, and it showed us something, because when we were at the bottom in the midst of these incredible shapes, we couldn't feel the acid, although we knew that we were supposed to be tripping. In a different place, we probably would have felt it more, but in the canyon the LSD was so obvious, so set apart from the rest.
It was also incredibly dry, which reminded me of the Arctic without snow, and although it was hot, the hottest part of the day was past and we were actually down there at the best time of the day. We didn't see another person the whole time we were there, nor really much of anything in the way of wildlife. It's just too dry, I guess. Also too hot during the day.
It was just getting dark when we got to the lodge and copped some free showers before going back to our campsite, where Bill threw a match on the firewood just as we walked up.
Joel found us the next morning and we went back down to Arizona to the Navajo National Monument, where we saw some more ruins, but Montezuma's Castle had been enough that day, the first full day we had spent together since Flagstaff. We split the next day for Colorado on our way to Yellowstone. We stayed at Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, where we went swimming. The water was fantastic.
We got a flat tire on the way to Navajo National Monument, bought a new tire, and I got a speeding ticking while we were still in Arizona. We stopped at Four Corners Monument -- Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado -- which was kind of a silly tourist hype, but I did score an Indian bead necklace. That night we camped in the San Juan.
This morning Karola lost her silver and turquoise necklace that she bought at Four Corners, but we went back to the fairgrounds and Joel miraculously found it in the gravel parking lot. She gave it to me.
After we arrived at Black Canyon, she didn't feel well. So I gave her the bead necklace I had bought, telling her it was supposed to make her well. She said she felt better soon after.
Last night, after making love (getting better all the time), she said I was magic, which is the same thing Imoe used to say. Today Joel told me he thought that beneath my mellow external person there was some dynamic force or power of some kind. Then Karola, Jerry, Joel, Linda and I went over to the canyon, which really was quite impressive. But I doubt we will go down into it this trip.
On our way to NNM, we stopped in Kunab, Utah, for lunch and found out that in August they will be making a movie there and there should be plenty of work. I may consider it. Also, a lot of trucking around Page, Arizona, but first I have to get that ticket squared away, and then with any luck I may get to Germany. Ought to call Frank or Mark or Jim to find out if they're still going to Spain.
Let it flow.