More on the party

All right, so I left the posting mid-thought last week, but I was so excited to get something posted, and didn't want to leave you with nothing, that I figured some now is better than more later. Well, here's the 'more later' part. (Again, I must apologise for the lack of real pictures, but not having had the presence of mind, nor the time, to bring the camera, I have nothing to show for it.)

So, I was trapped on the other side with Tom and a bunch of natives. We walked for what seemed like a dozen miles down to a river where we were met by a large wagon being pulled by some kind of local beast of burden. We all piled in and headed south (or at least that's what Tom said; at that point I hadn't a clue which way was up, much less south) following along the river. We were passing through a forest when we turned suddenly east, taking a much longer route. Tom explained that we had to circle around a large cliff. Apparently the wagon path and the foot path separate near a tall waterfall. (Tom said that he'd bring me back to the base of the waterfall later.)

We pulled into the town and stopped in front of a huge building. Turns out that it was the general meeting house for the town and where they entertained guests (usually folks from nearby towns, not from so far out of town as Tom and me). Ushered into the hall, we sat at long tables where the local kids served us the best meal I've ever eaten. I'm still not quite certain what all we ate, but Tom said that it was mostly fresh vegetables and fish from the river (same river as the waterfall, just much farther downstream). He says that usually they would have some kind of red meat, but we hadn't given them time to prepare for this visit. As unexpected as this trip was for me, Tom hadn't given them any warning either.

After a long, drawn out meal, Tom took me for a walk around the small village, pointing out various landmarks, such as the local school. As is typical for tourists, we were followed by a crowd of kids, all wanting to see the stranger: me! They had worked with Tom for a while and almost considered him one of them, but I was a serious newbie for them.

Augh! Out of space again for the posting. More on my trip next time.

A veiw from the other side

Well, they talked me into it: I visited the other side of the Door! I didn't spend much time there, only one week, but it was fantastic! Right after last week's posting (about all the things that happened on Sep 30th), Tom grabbed me and practically dragged me to the room where the Door actually opens. Oh, of course, I've seen it open a couple times, but I usually find something else to do when they're opening it...something far away. This time, though, Tom said he had something really interesting to show me: a native artefact that he claimed he couldn't bring through to this side. Well, he was right, sorta. What he wanted to show me was how they throw a party, a real party, but I didn't know that, not at first.

When we got to the room, and closed it off, sealing out the real world, he pulled me right over to the dais, so I was practically sitting right on top of the platform as the Door opened. I've never been anywhere near that close, and the wind rushing through as the atmospheric pressures balanced almost knocked me off my feet. Anyway, the Door opened, Tom headed through, and I just stood there waiting for him to show me whatever it was he was all excited about.

I could see him there on the other side waiting. There were a few natives standing around with him. (I must say, they look pretty fierce even though Tom says they look scarier when they're dressed for battle. Nothing like the picture, but I've got nothing better to show. I need to bring the camera next time.) As the charge on the capacitors started draining, and the connection to the other side was weakening, I made a decision: Go for it! I leapt up to the Door itself, feeling all the hairs on my arms stand up, paused a moment (it might have looked like I stumbled, but I didn't!), then almost fell through the Door. I only had a moment to glance back over my shoulder to see the whole thing collapse, and I was trapped! Stuck on the other side for at least a week, or at least until they could build up another charge to get the Door open again. At that point, my only hope was that Tom could get me back to reality. Later, that changed.

I could go on and on about my experiences over there, but I'm running out of space to get this posted. More next week!