Full Moon Fever

After the adventures in Memphis, I was on my way to the East Meets West Indigibus VW campout organized by the Full Moon Bus Club (www.fullmoonbusclub.com). My friend Karl had informed me about it, and this was to be my first true VW event. The rainstorm that made the installation of my new alternator so much fun hung around and made the drive through Arkansas a little exciting with some crazy cross-winds. By the time I go to Missouri the weather had cleared up and I just had to focus on not getting lost on back roads and not overdriving my headlights (which means driving about 40 MPH, which as you all know I am incapable of doing). The campout was being held at the Phoenix Ranch in Birch Tree Missouri. I didn't know much about the place, but it was to turn out to be pretty amazing. A few miles on dirt roads and I arrived, around 10pm, and in spite of the fact that ethylene glycol runs in the veins of my VW, I was warmly welcomed. There was probably 15-20 people already there, with buses from all over, including California, Tennessee, and South Carolina. I got organized and headed over to the campfire to meet my new friends....

Saturday afternoon we hiked down to some cliffs overlooking this river that runs through the land. The owners of the ranch have several hundred acres there, and do a lot of retreat work, a lot of it with at-risk and troubled kids, but also corporate stuff. They have a lot of beautiful land and do some pretty cool things, the owner, John, has studied a lot with Native Americans and likes to do Sweat Lodges. He was telling us that the kids they get there are pretty bright and see through all the normal institutional BS that is fed them, but that they really enjoy sweat lodges. He offered to do one for the group, which I immediately signed up for.

That night, we learned a few more of the traditions of the ceremony and entered the lodge. The hot rocks were one of the most amazing things I have seen. The rocks glowed deep red from the inside. As the outside edges cooled, they turned dark, but you could still see the inside glowing. It didn't even seem real, it looked like some kind of bad old school Star Trek special effect where they had blasted some rocks with their phasers and they were glowing (but you could tell it was chunks of foam with red lights inside). As far as the events and conversation inside, that is all private, but it was a remarkable experience. We did four "doors", one for each point on the compass, and talked about what each point signified, and then there was an opportunity to say something brief. As each load of rocks was brought in, water was poured on them. The heat was very intense. Apparently there are a lot of experiences to be had, spiritual, mystical, and enlightening. It is different for everybody, and we didn't partake in any substances that the old Native Americans may have used to help achieve transcendence. I found for me that the environment somehow distilled to it's essence several things that were on my mind, and that I was able to think about them in a very pure and concise way, describing in a sentence or two the very heart of the matter, in a way that would normally take me several minutes. It was very enlightening, purifying, and peaceful. Towards the end, after I had sorted through a few intense things in my mind and was feeling pretty good, I stopped to notice the sweat running off my body, and the salty warm drops running down my face and falling to the ground reminded me of tears, and it seemed as though my body was weeping all the tears that either couldn't come on their own, or that I didn't even know existed, or maybe even for all the craziness in the world. It was very cool. Afterwards we rejoined the rest of the group around the campfire and had a great meal, and stayed up late talking and drinking beer (it's important to replace all those lost electrolytes you know!)

By Sunday, the camp was starting to shrink in size as people headed home, but we did have an impressive 7 buses (actually 5 buses, 2 vans ;-) left on Monday morning. Much like my Burning Man experience, in a few short days I made friends that I feel certain I will know for a long time, and met people that I may only see or talk to once a year or so at an event like this, but I look forward to seeing again. I would especially like to thank Shawn, David, and Snoopy for organizing the event and making me feel at home right away. Monday morning we lined up all the VW's for an impressive group shot that had it all, Splitties, Bay windows, Westies, and Vanagons....

I had been trying to decide what to do next, originally I had planned to hike the Arkansas and Oklahoma state highpoints on the way to visit friends in Denver, but had been contemplating going straight to Denver instead......when Snoopy told me was going to Mt. Ida in Arkansas to do some crystal mining and invited me along, which sounded like fun and would put me very near the Arkansas state highpoint, so shortly after the above picture was taken, the two of us headed out for Arkansas......