A group of about 20 people, including Howard Stern, and I were going to go on a trip to a European country. The day before the trip we all assembled for a program describing the trip.

***

The tour group arrived in a mountainous area in Europe, perhaps Switzerland. As we rode through a snow-clad area, I looked at a map, and pointed out to the person next to me some ski slopes on a neighboring mountain. As I looked at the dark slopes, where the snow appeared to have been worn off by so many people skiing, I remembered I had brought a pair of skis with me.

Next to me was a container about a meter wide which contained food, including some pieces of meat. Howard Stern, looking like his normal self, walked up. I knew he was a vegetarian, but he didn't seem bothered when I pointed out the meat to him. I was even thinking of eating a piece of the meat myself. Just as I was getting ready to eat a piece of the food, someone pointed out a long hair in it. Looking closer at the meat, I saw that part of it was the wild turkey that I had recently caught and killed while on the Gallia County Farm. I began trying to pull out the turkey, thinking I might eat some of it.

As we entered a valley, it suddenly became very dark. We had driven under some trees which appeared to be blocking out the sunlight. I commented that it would be oppressive to be here all the time, because it apparently became dark so early in the day.

We arrived at a house where we apparently were going to stay with a family. The leader of our group was a man. Someone said the leader had said we would be leaving the next morning about 3 o'clock. Nobody, including myself, liked that idea. But there seemed little any of us could do about it.

As I began unpacking my things on a table, I realized I had brought several things which I didn't need, among which were several small sculptures, one of a fish standing on its tall. Its head looked like that of a whale and the whole sculpture was about 12 centimeters tall. I thought I might leave the statue as a gift for the woman who lived here in the house. But I hadn't decided yet.

I also had a couple drinking steins which I had placed on the table. One was made of porcelain, another of glass. I had brought them so I could drink beer in them, but I was having doubts about that, thinking I didn't even drink beer anymore. What was I going to do now with these steins? I asked someone if there was somewhere nearby where we could buy beer. A woman said she had been out the night before, and that I shouldn't be concerned about the amount of alcohol in the beer. She said some was as high as 17%. At first she hadn't wanted to drink beer with that much alcohol, but then she had learned that it didn't make any difference, that it was good that way. I didn't hear everything she said, because I was still trying to get my stuff together, but when I finished, I sat down next to her.

We were all sitting in rows of seats, and I slowly realized a program, a tour, was going to be presented to us. We were, it seemed, in a large cave, a natural wonder hidden in the mountains. Perhaps 100 people were here, and groups of them began walking in lines. The groups would circle through parts of the cave and then return. When it was our turn to tour the cave, I realized everyone was supposed to hold hands with the person next to them. The woman next to me was tall and slender and had black hair. She was wearing a pink sweater. She seemed intelligent and amiable and I rather liked her. I took her hand and we began walking through the cave.

On the walls were artistic cave drawings. I thought to myself that this was one of the best trips I had ever had. I knew the trip had been expensive, and I also knew Stern was responsible for sponsoring the trip. I knew when we returned we would be asked how the trip was. I would have to say that although I was 40 years old, this was one of the best trips I had ever had in my life. I was feeling great.

I clutched the woman's hand more tightly, although her hand remained limp. I thought how much I was also enjoying being with her.

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