I was in a beat-up old car somewhere in the arid southwestern United States. Along with me and the fellow driving (who was the owner of the car) were two or three other people. The driver had made a wrong turn off the highway, and we had ended up on a dirt road which had gradually turned into little more than a dusty path. I was disgusted by the driver's ineptitude, and when he finally stopped the car, I insisted on driving.

Once I was behind the wheel, I turned the car around. But now we were obviously completely lost. I saw our one hope as a large river passing nearby us, and I began driving along the rock shore of the river, thinking the river would surely lead us somewhere. My hopes increased when another car overtook and passed us, continuing on along the rocky bank until I lost sight of the car around a bend of rocks.

When I myself reached the bend and drove around the rocks, I was surprised by what I found: the road abruptly ended in the rock face of a hill. And the car which had passed us was nowhere to be seen. How was it possible that the other car could have driven up such a steep cliff? Nevertheless, I thought that I myself might try to drive up the rock face, provided the owner of the car would allow it. But when I asked him, he refused. I could understand why. I knew there was a strong possibility I would tear up his car in the process.

As I tried to figure out what to do next, everybody stepped out of the car, including Carolina. Studying the situation, I decided to climb a ways up the rock face to see if I could tell how the other car had gone up. I began climbing and when I was perhaps ten meters up the cliff, I saw that the there was a door right in the middle of the rock face, just above my head. Two men were standing in the doorway. Peering through the door, I could see a city on the other side, as if I were looking down on the city from a mountain. I was slowly beginning to understand what was happening, and I asked the men the name of the city. They said it was El Paso, Texas.

Now it all made sense to me. I had heard that a government park was right on the southern edge of El Paso, a park surrounded by an immense concrete wall. People could enter the park only by paying a fee and by passing through special doors, such as the one in front of me. Obviously we were in the park. However I didn't think we would be permitted to now leave the park through this door. Since we hadn't entered through the door, we would have to find another exit. But at least now I was hopeful: we were in Texas. If we could just find the way out of this park, it wouldn't take long to drive back to our destination, Dallas - Fort Worth.

I started to climb back down to tell the others what I had discovered. As I descended, I looked down and saw an animal running below me, near Carolina, a dark brown animal with black spots. I thought it was a cougar and screamed to Carolina that it was near her. But the animal looked very young and probably harmless. When it approached Carolina (who was sitting on the ground), she stood up, walked toward it and began petting it. Only after she had stood up did I also realize she had been sitting right next to a large brown bear which appeared to be sleeping. Once Carolina had stood up, the bear appeared to have awakened. I again hollered to Carolina, warning her about the bear. But she looked at the bear and she didn't seem alarmed. It looked as if the bear wasn't going to bother her so I didn't worry about it any more.

Besides, I was having problems of my own. As I had been climbing down, a skunk had sidled up next to me. I managed to slip down past it, relieved that it hadn't sprayed me with its scent. I thought perhaps, since we were so close to the city, all the skunks around here had been fixed so they couldn't spray. But as soon as I reached the bottom of the cliff, the skunk again approached me, this time from behind. Before I could escape, it had turned its back to me and sprayed me. I took off running toward the others. I had never been sprayed by a skunk before. I hoped it hadn't gotten much on me.

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