Mordor on my Mind

 

Before we get to our adventure in Sauron's old 'hood:

Cursed Canyon is here - click on the picture to check it out.

This is the second Wyrd Western anthology from Raconteur Press and I'm pleased to say I have stories in both - in addition to stories in the Road Trippin' and the Pin Up Noir 2 anthologies. Go here to check out these anthologies and my other books. Note that the Road Trippin' anthology features a story about my dad's motorcycle trip back in the 50s. He read it last night and called to let me know he liked it. Now I have a question about Russian motorcycles sold in the U.S. during the 50s.

 If you're thinking the landscape above looks like Mordor, you're not far off. We took a little trip to Craters of the Moon because we had a hankerin' for hiking among wreck and ruin of Mordor after Sauron's fall. It was October, after all. 

The Two Watchers at the gate would not take cash but insisted on seizing the credit card temporarily before allowing us to pass. Like good hobbits, we started with second breakfast, or as we called it: Lunch. Wanting to conserve the lembas, we consumed our sandwiches, water, chips, and grapes at a handy picnic table in the sun, but we were still a little cool. Some of us were cooler than others. Nary an orc disturbed us.

Like Frodo and Sam with their guide climbing the stairs of Cirith Ungol, we mounted to the summit of a big cinder mountain for a view of the volcanic devastation.

Our next stop was to see a couple volcanic vents, also known as black holes in the ground. After we saw the first one, we opted to pass on the second. Then we hiked to the caves in search of Shelob's Lair. Although there was a narrow blacktop trail to the caves, the caves themselves have little to no improvement. At Indian Tunnel we took the stairs down a few steps to the boulders and climbed down into the pit. Although we saw orc sign in the form of pigeon feathers, we didn't see any orcs. 

You may notice that the dead Eye of Sauron seemed to be upon us, and we headed right for it. The tunnel proved to be orc free, although we did meet a pair of discount travelers. We hurried through in our effort to find Shelob, stopping only to chat and take photos. We didn't find her. Unfortunately, the other caves, which must have included the lair of that spawn of Ungoliant were closed because the bats were sleeping or maybe it was an orc and troll rehabilitation conference.

We made our retreat, stopping at the Devil's Orchard for a quick stroll. It was the equivalent of a visit to the Shire after Saruman had evicted the hobbits and redecorated in a motif of lava cinders and corpsified Ents.

Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly soundtrack carried us home as on wings of eagles, but there weren't any welcoming ceremonies or crowning of new kings.