061903

 

Ruidoso to Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, back to Ruidoso, NM

Thursday June 19, 2003

     12:35am  I had fallen asleep under the bench. All of a sudden, I woke up and saw some trucks on the other side of the fence, headed West. Cool. I jumped back over the fence and asked one of the drivers. Ralph was nice enough to give me a ride to Ruidoso. At first, he asked me if I had any drugs. I told him I had a little weed and he said he was just kidding.

     1:45am  Ralph brought me to the Apache Casino in Ruidoso. I had told Ralph about my plan and he was cool enough to hook me up with a five dollar bill, without me even asking. Actually, I used this little keychain flashlight and he took a liking to it. I told him he could have it, that I had a spare one in my bag. He said, "No, I'll give you five dollars for it." I told him he didn't have to because I had a replacement and he told me he was going to give me five dollars anyway. Badass!

                   Okay, I'm hanging out at this casino. I bought me a pack of cigarettes with those five dollars Ralph hooked me up with. Now I'm going to walk to the Indian reservation and see if I can talk to a medicine man.

     3:50am  I'm over here talking with Trish, this girl who works at the casino. She's playing this Monopoly slot machine game. Everything is cool.

     5:31am  I played that Monopoly game and I got up to $12.70. I printed out the voucher and was going to cash it in. But then, the damned gambling bug bit me and I blew it all. I could have probably bought myself a warm shirt. To kill time, I just went around talking to people telling them my ideas. I'm hungry now, so I'm going to go back in the bathroom and have some of this Muscle Blast 2000.

     7:33am  I'm still hanging out here at the casino. Roxanne, the cute bartender is being nice enough to hook me up with a drink. Thank you Roxanne. That's very generous of you. I appreciate it. Now, I'm going to take off walking and find me a medicine man.

     7:39am  I just left the casino. They told me the Indian reservation was ten to fifteen miles this way. This is beautiful.

     8:10am  I'll be looking for the Mescalero tribe. Maybe I'll get to try some mescaline.

     9:38am  I'm tired as hell. I'm going to find me a soft place in these woods and crash out for a nap. I'll be alright. The spirits got my back.

     9:40am  Let's see how long I sleep.

     11:16am  I just woke up from my nap in the woods. I slept pretty good, I guess.

     11:31am  Shit, I thought I had lost my stick in these woods. I found it eventually, though. What a scare.

     11:44am  Passing a sign that says, "Inn of the Mountain God."

     12:28pm  had a long-ass smoke break. I'm walking again. I don't know what highway I'm on. I'll tell you when I find out.

     12:39pm  I saw some young dude riding his bike and I asked him, "Hey, what's close by?" He stopped his bike and I offered him a hit from my peace pipe. I told him I was looking to talk to a medicine man and he told me there were a lot of good ones around here.

     12:55pm  The greatest thing just happened. This lady pulled over behind me, without me asking or anything. Check this out. She's going exactly where I need to go. She's going to Mescalero. I'm going to go talk to a medicine man.

     1:03pm  I'm walking into the Community Center and Tribal Offices of the Mescalero tribe. What was your name? Shouldon? And yours? Aloni? Okay, I'll try to spell those out the best I can when I type it up. They're the ones that gave me a ride to Mescalero.

                   Holy shit. I'm exactly where I needed to go. At the Mescalero Community Center and Tribal Offices. Wow. I'm going to blow some people's minds.

     1:07pm  I walked in front of the tribal offices and I see this girl sitting down at a bench smoking a cigarette with a weed tattoo on her arm. I came over to her and told her about my plan. Her name is Becky Chino and she's sitting with Marlon Chino. You're in my book, guys.

                   I went outside and smoked a cigarette by the fence, because that's the only shade I could find. Some older lady with long, white hair in Indian garb came up to me. I told her what I was going to do and she directed me to the computers.

     1:49pm  I've been directed to room #100 for computer access.

     4:37pm  The coolest shit. I just walked into room #100 and there were lots of people on computers. There didn't seem to be any administrator there, so I just walked in and sat down. I didn't have to sign in or anything. I have all my CD's on me and I was able to print out all my quotes, and my California story. Now, I have hard copies I can show people. How perfect. I was told to go look for the Conservation Department to talk to a medicine man.

                   Okay, I got directed over by the tribal courts. The Conservation Department.

     5:06pm  I stopped on a log near a fence and smoked a cigarette. After I got up I asked these young people in the back yard where I could find the Conservation Department. This nice young girl directed me over here, past the tribal court and now I'm at some big building. I'm going to go talk to somebody. I'm at the Mescalero Care Center. Oh shit, they closed five minutes ago.

                   I was just hanging out in front of the building. There were still cars in the driveway, so I was sure somebody would come out. It had started drizzling and somebody finally came out. They directed me to this modern hospital at the top of the hill. I walked to the hospital and asked the security guard if there was a medicine man there. He told me there were only real doctors there. He said if I was looking for a tribal medicine man, I would have to go back to that center before 5pm tomorrow.

                   Somebody told me I could go to the police department and explain to them my situation and they might give me a ride to Ruidoso, which is about seventeen miles away. I hope they have a Salvation Army there or something.

     5:48pm  I walked over to the St. Joseph's Apache mission.

     5:50pm  I just walked into the church. It is damn beautiful. It was built in A.D. 1920, or so it says outside. I'm going to go walk around and see if there's anyone here. Whoa, the front doors are unlocked. There should be someone here.

                   I don't see anyone here. Hmm, I heard some noises. I think it's rats.

                   Damn, they must keep the doors unlocked all the time. Who's going to rip off a church, anyway? Well, at least I know I can come here and crash tonight if I have to. Maybe all churches leave their shit unlocked for that purpose.

                   I'm just walking around inside the church. I'm looking at this picture of Cochise. Right next to his picture there's another Indian named Victorio. Hmm, I'm going to look him up on the Internet. I wonder what he was all about. Okay, I found some good info on Victorio at:                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorio

                   Okay, now I'm going to walk around and try and find those kids I talked to earlier. The girl told me if I needed anything else to come back.

     8:21pm  Linda, was that your name? I asked Linda if she knew where the police station was and she offered to drive me there. That's very generous of you Linda. Thank you.                 

     8:25pm  I came and asked the cops if they could give me a courtesy ride to Ruidoso. They said all their officers were busy. I asked them if there was anywhere to stay in this town and they told me about a Mormon church nearby.
                   Oh yeah, I located the house where that girl was. I didn't want to go up and knock on the door, so I found a place nearby to sit down and rest my feet. I was hoping she would see me out a window and come talk to me. I aired my feet out for about ten minutes and sure enough, the girl came out and talked to me. She asked me if I was able to find who I was looking for. I told her no, but that now I was looking for the Mormon church. I told her how the cops' directions to the Mormon church didn't lead anywhere. She told me the Mormons aren't ever at the church. Then I jumped in with my ideas and scripts. She didn't seem to agree with me about the marijuana. Then she asked me if I was hungry. I told her I can always eat when I'm traveling. She invited me inside to eat dinner with her family. Perfect, you know how I love an audience, hehe.
                   Well, I started in with my ideas and they quickly disagreed with me. They really are good people, just too set in their ways and not tolerating difference. Her husband was a preacher, so you can just imagine his demeanor when I told him I didn't believe in god, that I believed in love. He just went off. I tried to explain to them how you can go your own way and be happy, but they weren't having any of that. It's a bit hypocritical and blasphemous, I think. Doesn't the Holy Bible preach "judge not, lest ye be judged himself?" We should all be accepting other people's difference. Not just tolerating them. The girl even told me, "What? Why do you think I invited you to eat? God told me to." I laughed and told her not to sell herself short. I told her, "You invited me in to eat because you are human and it's in your nature to be generous. Just like it is in everyone's. That's as simple as it has to be. What? You don't think you're capable of doing good without being told to by something that might not even exist? God is love. Love is God. Call it what you will. I sure as hell don't need to personify a human emotion. If whatever you believe makes you happy, and you're not hurting innocent people, I don't want you to believe anything else. Just bear me that same respect, please. What? You can't take the responsibility for being good?" Even though they were basically civil, I started to feel uncomfortable in that house of ignorance. That was my cue to leave. I told them, "I guess ignorance truly is bliss. Thank you for the hospitality. Goodbye."

     9:04pm  I was walking around still looking for the Mormon church. The cop told me there was somebody there, but everyone else I spoke to told me there was never anyone there. I just kept walking and I wind up back at the police station, just like that. I went inside and asked the cop to repeat the directions. He told me to go over this walkway and turn right when I get to the other side. That I just had to turn on the road and I couldn't miss it. So, I'm going to try again. Hope they're still open this late.

     9:30pm  I walked back to that family where I had eaten dinner at. I told them I was looking for the Mormon church and they told me nobody was there right now. All of a sudden, this dude came out and up to me. His wife was the one who had given me a ride to the police station earlier. I told him, "Wow, you look like you're about to drop some bad news on me. Is there a problem?" He told me that it was a closed reservation and I wasn't welcome there without permission. He told me that four or five miles West I would be off the reservation. So I said, "Okay, I apologize. These boots are made for walking." Geez, you would think that Indians and peace-pipes would go hand-in-hand, but everyone is all anti-marijuana out here. Sheesh.

     9:45pm  Hmm, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. I think I'm going to go back to the cops and ask them for a ride to Ruidoso, or I might just take off walking West, like that guy told me to. Man, reservations are messed up. The white man stole their land. They were here first, damnit. Why the hell should they have to segregate themselves from everyone else. The ignorance in this world really pisses me off sometimes.

     9:52pm  I stopped for a smoke break. I'm walking to the police station to go ask for some water. I'm going to start walking West. Maybe they'll offer me a ride.

     9:55pm  Cool, I'm going to get a courtesy ride to Ruidoso.

                    This fire department guy gave me a ride to Ruidoso. He dropped me off at this church, which seems closed right now. It's late. There's is a sign here that says, "Jesus is the ONLY way." I say accepting everybody's differences is the ONLY way. Well, it doesn't look like anybody's here. Welp, at least I'm off the reservation and I won't get scalped, hehe. What to do now? Hmm, this sign here says, "For help please go to Christian Services located in the Southwest corner of the building." There's an arrow pointing over here, so let me walk. Cool, I hope they have a blanket. I'm cold.

                    Okay, it's the Gateway Church of Christ. Nobody's here. Shit man, I don't want to go to Roswell. I want to go to Tularosa, West. Hmm, I'm going to go inside this Allsups gas station and see if I can talk to anybody.

     11:00pm  Man, what a crazy night I've had. I got told to get off the Indian reservation, the fireman guy gave me a ride to Ruidoso and dropped me off at some church that was closed. So now, I'm at the all-night Denny's. I'm telling Crystal and Lupita about what I'm going to do. Hopefully they think I'm crazy.

     11:26pm  Shweet, Crystal just hooked me up with five dollars after I told her what I was doing. I didn't even ask for it or make it seem like I wanted money. How very, very generous of you Crystal. Cool, I have some believers, hehe.

     3:09am  Pat is hooking me up at Denny's with a Grand Slam breakfast. I didn't even ask. How very, very cool.

 

Next day..