This Month with Andy, September 2012

It was a human zoo with throngs of impatient people all around getting into Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

My wife, Barbara, and I parked at the Ferndale section of the park slightly north of the refreshment stand and walked due north.  I wanted to get high enough to see both the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory.  It was over 90 degrees and it felt like 100.  She can't take the heat.  Eventually, we had to hike a very steep grade and she almost blacked out.  I had her sit and cooled her down with ice that I had brought.  So, the hill that would have taken us 5 minutes, ended up taking an hour because she could only travel a few feet before having to recover all over again.  I determined going up would get us to a road and shade faster than returning the way we had come.  She was determined we were going get the Shuttle photos.  Eventually, we got to a street and she was well enough to sit and rest under a grove of trees where there were a lot of people.  I told them of her condition.   

I still had to get to the top of another hill and only had thirty minutes to do it. So, I charged up a very very steep sandy hill through thorn bushes, loose sand, and dry branches that kept breaking off as I tried to haul myself up.  There was a nice winding road that would have taken me there, but the clock was ticking.  Several times I tossed my camera's tripod up ahead of me hoping I would succeed in my climb to get to it. It was, at least, motivating me.  Finally, the people on the hill extended their hands and helped me up to the top.

Within minutes, the shuttle flyover began. After seeing the Shuttle fly over from the south, it looped towards JPL, flew south towards Long Beach, looped North and flew in over Studio City, over the Hollywood sign over the Observatory and disappeared towards the South again.

There was a ranger on Mt Hollywood Road. I saw him give out a bottle of water to someone who asked for it.  I needed a drink because I left all the ice water with Barbara.  As he gladly handed it to me, I told him I was going to take the short-cut straight down the hill to meet my wife because she had almost fainted in the heat.  He became concerned and asked me where she was.  I pointed down at her location and told her I left her in the shade with people who were informed of her condition.  She stubbornly had refused to let me take her back home and she seemed well enough as long as she remained in the shade.  He asked me to get in the truck with him. He turned on the red lights and we went down the hill using his PA to ask people to get out of the way.  At various intersections where police were directing traffic, he would radio ahead and tell the officers to block traffic for him.  We arrived at the spot where I had left Barbara. She was leaning on the guard rail and the ranger stopped in the middle of the road and asked her how she was doing. She was puzzled and said she was alright. She didn't know I was in the truck.  We both got out and she realized she was being "rescued."  He asked her a series of questions, "What's your name?  Do you know where you are? What day of the week is it?"  He picked up her gear and drove us to our car, which was about a half-mile away, where she could find relief with air conditioning. During the drive, he told her to drink plenty of water the rest of the day. It took another 20 minutes to get out of the park.  We stopped to get some lunch at H.Salt then drove home and took a nice shower.

The L.A. Times Newspaper ran a photograph of the Shuttle flying in front of the Hollywood Sign and eclipsing it.  The newspaper editor and I had a long debate about how this was possible. www.latimes.com/news/opinion/l… They published part of one of my letters.


Andy Serrano & Robin Hartzell on Thursday evening hike. The photo we really wanted to take, but didn't want to embarrass the young woman, was of this leggy 20 something girl who was wearing high-heels and had somehow made it to the top of Mt. Hollywood.
www.facebook.com/media/set/?se… Photos of our evening hike