A Trip That I Would Like To Forget
Prologue
I had enrolled at Texas State University in the Fall of 2014 and thoroughly enjoyed my first year of studies. The Summer of 2015 found me looking ahead to my classes that Fall. I had signed up for Anthropology 3347 with Dr. Steve Black, who is a Harvard-educated archaeologist. I was anxious to do well in Dr. Black’s class, hoping to do a field school with him and perhaps volunteer on one of his projects. I knew from the class syllabus that a term paper was going to count for one-fourth of the grade. I had also heard that this was a “stacked” class, and I would be competing against some graduate students who would also be taking the class. So, I decided to get a little head start on a term paper. To that end, I started to focus on doing a paper on the Chaco Culture National Historical Park (Chaco), which is located in Northwestern New Mexico. In the Fall of 2013, I had visited Chaco and was enthralled by that special place. I subsequently read quite a lot about Chaco, including Steve Lekson’s The Chaco Meridian, which was first published in 1999.  During the Summer of 2015, I learned that Lekson was coming out with a new edition of his book, and that he was going to be speaking at the 2015 Pecos Conference. So, I made up my mind to attend, and hopefully get to speak with Steve Lekson in person about his book and Chaco theories. So, a trip was born!
Heading For The Pecos Conference…
I was delighted that Dorothy agreed to accompany me on this trip. In retrospect, I am so glad she did! We left early on the morning of Wednesday, August 5, 2015. My plan was to drive the first day to Cuba, New Mexico and spend the night there, before heading up to Mancos, Colorado and the Pecos Conference the next day. Â
The drive up to Cuba, New Mexico was long, but uneventful. My FJ Cruiser pulled my offroad trailer with ease, and we had a pleasant day making our way through West Texas and Central New Mexico. We arrived in Cuba before dark and checked in to the Frontier Motel.
An Unfortunate Combination of Carelessness and Bad Luck…
When I checked into the Frontier on the evening of August 5, 2021, I had a nice long conversation with the desk clerk about places to hike the next morning. He recommended a mesa north of town which had a lot of archaeology and was accessed via a forest road, which he said would be no problem with 4-wheel drive. So, I was up early the next morning and ready to hike! I had told Dorothy I would let her sleep in, so I did not wake her. Once outside in the parking lot of the motel, I could tell it had rained overnight. I decided to unhitch my trailer, not wanting to pull it on unfamiliar roads that were wet. So, I unhitched the trailer (which had a special hitch that allowed the trailer tongue to move and twist in any direction) in the dark and headed out. Unfortunately, as I begin to leave the parking lot, the trailer did not disengage — it was in a bind. So, anxious to get going, I decided to go ahead and hook the trailer back up and take it with me. As I was feeling in the dark for the hole that the pin goes in, I found it and at that exact moment the trailer disengaged and came loose. At first I didn’t realize I was injured, because I felt no immediate pain. But in short order I realized I was bleeding and beginning to feel some serious pain so I went back into the motel room bathroom and turned on the light. To my horror, I saw that about a half inch of my left index finger was missing. I let loose with a pretty loud exclamation which woke Dorothy up. We wrapped my finger tightly in a towel, got our stuff together and loaded up the FJ. Fortunately, there were some workmen fixing to depart the hotel and they hooked the trailer back up for me. We decided to head north to Farmington, figuring there would be a hospital and doctors there that could take care of me (lots of accidents in the oilfields up there, I was sure!). I drove, thinking that would keep my mind off my injury, which hurt like hell. Dorothy called around and determined that we should go to the emergency room at the San Juan Regional Medical Center. We got to the ER about 8:30 that morning, and I was seen by an ER Doctor who decided to call in a “hand expert” to take care of me. We had to wait about two and a half hours for the “expert” to show up, but he finally did. He operated on my finger in the ER, with Dorothy right there supervising. As it turns out, he was not quite the “expert” we had been told he was. When I returned home, my next door neighbor, who is an RN, made me promise to go see a specialist after looking at my finger (or what was left of it). I saw a bona fide expert in San Antonio, who recommended we let it heal up and not redo it unless absolutely necessary at some point in the future. So, my finger eventually healed up, and most people don’t notice it, but I certainly do!
Sidenote:Â “Dr. Dorothy”
My wife’s father was a surgeon, and Dorothy used to work in his office during the summers of her high school years in Port Lavaca. She even, on rare occasions, got to scrub up and join him in the operating room. As you might expect, she was, and is, much more comfortable than I am around needles, blood, and all things medical. I jokingly call her “Dr. Dorothy” when she is pressed into situations where she can demonstrate her medical prowess. The occasion where I cut off part of my left index finger was not the first time Dorothy was with me in the operating room. So, I wanted to tell you about the other time, which has provided us many laughs over the years:
A number of years ago, I built a deck at our lake house. One day, while working on the project, I had an accident with my table saw, and cut the middle finger on my left hand. As soon as it happened, I wrapped it up without looking at it, but I knew it was bad enough that I should go to the emergency room. I was home alone, so I drove myself to the emergency room at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in New Braunfels. I called Dorothy, and she met me at the hospital and stayed with me the entire time. The ER doctor gave me a shot, then examined the injury. He advised us that he was going to call in a plastic surgeon. After about a two hour wait, the plastic surgeon showed up. He was a very nice older fellow, and his professional demeanor gave me great comfort. After examining my injury, he stated that there was no damage to bone or tendons, but that I had basically cut off the pad on my finger. He further explained that he was going to take some material from my left wrist and graft it to my injured finger and that, hopefully, the graft would take and result in a repaired finger. This was when Dr. Dorothy, never shy about expressing an opinion, piped up and said, “Can’t you take the skin from someplace else, like his butt, so that it doesn’t look like he slit his wrist?”. The doctor, in his serious tone of voice replied, “I could do that, but I doubt that your husband wants hair growing out of his finger”. Then he smiled broadly and explained that the closer the donor site was to the injury, the greater the chances the graft would take. He repaired my finger, and it healed up very nicely. I never looked at it until the stitches were out and I was healed, but Dr. Dorothy took great care of me, as she has done on many occasions over these many years. But I always chuckle when I remember the look on her face when the doctor had a little fun at her expense!
On To The Pecos Conference…
After my surgery with Dr. Dorothy and the boy wonder, we headed up to Mancos, arriving mid afternoon. My left hand was all bandaged up, but I felt very little discomfort. Originally we were going to camp at the Conference site (which was on public forest lands some miles north of Mancos, Colorado), but I decided we better get a room instead, worried that with only one hand I would have difficulty setting up my tent, etc.  So we found a little cabin at an R.V. Park very near Mesa Verde National Park, where we would spend the night. After finding and renting the cabin, we drove over to Mesa Verde– Dorothy had never been there and I had hoped to show her Cliff House and some of the other magnificent ruins at the park. Unfortunately they would not let me pull the trailer into the interior of the park (and I couldn’t unhitch it with my left hand immobilized) so we had to make do with just exploring the Visitor Center. After grabbing a bite to eat, I drove into Mancos to an eating establishment where Steve Lekson was signing the new edition of his book. It was not a crowded affair, and I got to spend about twenty minutes discussing his theories about the movement of people to and from Chaco and it’s outliers, some of which are quite remote. I enjoyed visiting with Lekson and left with a better understanding of his take on Chaco.  It was about this time that the shots I had been given began to wear off and my hand began to really hurt. I had planned on driving out to the Conference site for the lectures on Friday night and Saturday, but when I got up Friday morning I decided we should head for home instead. But I didn’t want the trip to be a total waste, so we made our way home visiting several rock art sites along the way.
Piedras Marcadas Canyon at Petroglyph National Monument…
Our first stop on the way home was at Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday, August 7, 2015. We first went to the main visitor center where we learned that the Monument is quite spread out and consists of three canyons: Piedras Marcadas Canyon, Boca Negra Canyon, and Rinconada Canyon. We knew that we didn’t have time to visit all three canyons, so we chose Piedras Marcadas since it appeared to have a larger quantity of petroglyphs. We enjoyed a nice walk and saw some nice glyphs. For a complete gallery of photos from Petroglyph National Monument, look here. This gallery also includes photos from all three canyons that I took on a subsequent visit in December, 2017.Â
Next Stop, Incomparable Three Rivers…
Our next stop was the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, located 17 miles north of Tularosa, New Mexico. This is a fantastic place! Over 20,000 petroglyphs are found on a 40 acre ridge. Many of the petroglyph panels unusually beautiful and very well crafted. If you ever find yourself in this area of New Mexico, do yourself a favor and stop at this site. I have visited Three Rivers twice since this initial visit and I never fail to find new petroglyphs. For a complete gallery of my Three Rivers Photos, look here. I wasn’t able to talk Dorothy into hiking the trail with me, so she was not as enamored of this place as I was. I plan to make more visits in the future to this special place!
Our Final Stop–Â Hueco Tanks State Park & Historical Site
Our last stop on the way home was at the Hueco Tanks State Park & Historical District outside of El Paso, Texas. Since our stop was spur-of-the-moment, I was very grateful that a young park ranger agreed to take me to some of the rock art sites that were near the Visitor Center. The pictographs that I saw that day convinced me that I needed to make a return visit, which I was able to do while attending the TAS Rock Art Academy in February of 2019. During this visit, I was still somewhat handicapped by the injury to my left index finger and some of the climbing and scrambling was a challenge. Although our visit was brief, I am glad we took the time to stop there. For a complete gallery of my photos from Hueco Tanks, look here.Â
Epilogue…
I learned a lot on this little trip. I learned that I need to be more careful, and not get in a hurry, when I am dealing with anything mechanical. My finger eventually healed up, though I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to have it revised at some point. I also visited three important rock art sites that, since that first trip, I have visited again and in some cases like Three Rivers, multiple times. This trip whetted my appetite for future explorations of these sites. And finally, some of the information I learned from my visit with Steve Lekson helped me write my paper for Dr. Black’s class. I am pleased to report that Dr. Black gave me an “A” on the paper and wrote this notation below my grade:  “Excellent paper, well written, referenced and argued. Please send me an electronic copy for reference”. Â
Was it worth losing part of a finger? In the grand scheme of things, absolutely!
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