00:00.20 kinkella Hello and welcome back to the suudor archeology podcast episode 119 I'm your host Andrew King Kella and I am reminiscing about my friend cam who recently passed away. And um I just have so many memories sort of flood in I have to tell you guys as I'm doing this podcast which is actually I'm doing this like Midday I made myself a rum and coat just for the taste. You can kind of might even be able to hear you can hear the ah. Ice cubs. Unfortunately I did not have any one barrel one barrel rum is like the rum of Belize that we always had those years I do though I am drinking it out of a really cool one Barrel cup I love glass cup that I have I remember going going to see cam at one of the field houses where that where the crew was staying and he's like he's like hey you know what we need. We're going to need some of this. And he he pulled out the one barrel from the freezer because he would keep it in there and he he was like and allow me to pour you the nectar of the gods which I know you know is true, right? he and and he. 01:27.16 kinkella Make a drink for me and 1 one for himself and again we would just hang and talk now after I heard this news I just started to think I'm like I know Kim is like sent me stuff and and we've like. You know, texted and emailed and stuff over the years because we we kept touch even even till recently although I would say in the last several years we only would touch base like maybe once a year you know, but which was fine. You know which older friends kind of do um. 02:03.56 kinkella I had I had remembered though that he had written this really long response to a ah to a Youtube video I made and the video is called. It's called one long day. It's the longest Youtube video I made on my channel. Right on the kingin kela tu archeology channel it's 29 minutes long it's the longest one where I tell this long story about this crazy thing that happened to me the whole setup ah was that I was I had to go out to retrieve a student's backpack because it had their. Passport in it and it turned into this huge adventure just to get this guy's passport because they needed it for like the next day so I made this long video and again I think it's my favorite one I've ever made I'm like super proud of it and when I made it I I like. Texted cam I think and I was like hey man like yeah yeah, listen to this check it out because I just knew he would be somebody who would appreciate the intricac set intricacies of it right? The backstory and then I had remembered that he'd written some back you know and I couldn't find I couldn't find it by look back in my email I'm like oh. Here it is so he wrote an entire story his own story that was similar to mine because it jogged a memory in in his mind. So I um. 03:34.56 kinkella Copied it off my email and so I have a script of it right here in front of me and I'm going to read it I'm just going to read I'm gonna not going to give any editorial comment or anything I'm going to read through it. This is a story of ah told by cam. In his own own words as a reaction to my one long day video here's what he wrote so since I was getting ready to assemble a new chair in my home office when your call came in I decided to watch the whole damn thing. 29 minutes that was a classic story. It triggered a suppressed memory from 1996 when for some damn reason I decided to give a peace corps couple who were working at the doa a ride to Valley of peace I had never been there before. Course the same thing that happened to you happened to me I got back to but the Belize River after dark and the river was up yet I'm unlike you I had only crossed the fucker once in my life that afternoon now. And I certainly wasn't scoping out the bridge situation carefully when I sped across on my merry way to valley a piece so I didn't know squat about the details depth surface a bridge etc the scenario one Ford f one fifty 05:07.18 kinkella The one that Nick Robb drove down with me that season 2 cowboy cadillac front vanity license plate came with purchase. So don't go there 3 2 wheel drive crap for. Led Zeppelin Cassette Tape loaded and playing tape borrowed from hy may go into California was on I think 5 no food Six half liter bottle of crystal water remaining in those original sturdy plastic bottles. Not the crinkly unacceptable pieces of cockka that they use today seven moonlit night so at least I could see the eerie outlines of my fate. Oh yeah, and I'm all alone. No one around. But the jaguars. I chilled at the riverbank for about 15 minutes trying to decide if I should go for it or figure out some other plan for the night when another much more robust truck pulled around me and drove right over the bridge slowly with water halfway up the doors. He made it and drove off triumphantly. So what did I do next and I'm all alone. No one around I stealed my resolve rolled down the windows course remove my seatbelt and envision swimming out the windows so that it would be more efficient if the truck dumped since I had walked through it in my mind already. 06:42.35 kinkella That's what I was telling myself at least and I'm all alone. No one around but the wild peckeries time to hit it I turned up the music put it in drive and demanded of myself to keep a steady four mile per hour clip. Regardless of any inner Monologue freak out tendencies that might cause me to panic and hit the gas creeping onto the bridge slow and steady and I'm all alone. No one around. Seems like the wrath that the gods got a punch on the nose and it started to flow and I think I might be seeing can all 4 tires on the bridge now no turning back. But at least I'm on the rassing bridge and I'm all alone. No one around. But the vorpal rodents of unusual size almost there don't freak out stay on target stay on Target and I'm all alone. No one around reach the middle of the bridge. Oh shit. The current is really strong now the rear tires slip a bit on the bridge causing the truck to kick a bit to the side but somehow it reconnected almost a stay on target stay on target cut the chatter red 5. 08:11.97 kinkella Those cassettes from my grandfather taped from the original npr airings of the show in 1980 and hand labeled by him were probably in the vehicle and like a collection of small gold ingots were to be protected at all costs it g well now so this was really much more than a life or desk scenario and I'm all alone. No one around throw me in line if I reach it in time I'll meet you up there where the path runs straight and high almost air stay on target stay on Target and I'm all alone. No one around except probably those 2 dudes from deliverance come on kid let's blow this thing and go home reach out with my feelings made it across fuck. yes yes, yes yes adrenaline pumping at max capacity through my whole body. Drove my still jittery as back to kayo with the tunes jamming top volume playing air drums better and harder than John Bonham ever dreamed of during his entire life that one barrel and coke back in sand ig nasio was the best I've ever had. 09:27.53 kinkella So that's his story. Oh man I I hope it made sense so he's crossing the bridge as the water gets higher. Um. On the Belize River to to have it make more sense. You should probably listen to the 1 long day thing that I did first and then because it's a response to that. But to me that's just that's so him. That's how he talked notice I I gave that word. For word, you guys. That's what he wrote to me. Um, the the star wars in there you know, but the the use of the the led Zeppelin song and the background I mean it just man it just it just brings me back that 1 pretty pretty damn good. 10:17.94 kinkella So it's that kind of stuff that I think of you to solve will laugh. Ah what? Ah I think I got have I got a drink here. We go wait. Ah um, and. You know in terms of stories like that. The people who really get it again. Are those those second in command field director types who worked on these projects in Belize as the year it rolled by. You know we were we were people who we weren't the project directors. But we were right below them. You know and so we had to like supervise the project do all the hard work that others didn't you know Um, we yeah we would do things like um. 11:16.25 kinkella Pick up people from the airport take students to the hospital give tours to minor dignitaries of the site that you worked at um, go to the border for last minute weird expedition supplies just giving you guys a feeling for it stuff that. People in our arena would have would have had to do fix a road. Oh my god um, lots of dealings with the border again when when you work in belie you got to go the border betweenlize and Guatemala in order to get certain products in order to deal with passports um of changing money. Ah, dealing with student paperwork of any kind whether it be like um passport kind of paperwork or whether it be archeological paperwork dealing with the food of an archeological project. The um oh the constant vehicle maintenance and destruction issues. 12:13.35 kinkella And I would say ultimately people like cam and I and those of you who were also a part of this we were we were the de facto counselor for both all the students and the pi right? and the person running the project so you would you'd get it from everyone. All sides. So I think that really solidified our friendship that much more. You know when you have the same backstory when you know what? it's like when you can just bitch and commiserate on a Saturday night and ah those people. Cam is of course one that there are others of you out there? Um, you are a very important part of my life and I think sometimes we feel maybe a little embarrassed. To admit, something like that like it. It's like it's like we're looking at the old days or something. It's like we need the old times or something so you won't just admit it. Ah, but I think it's very healthy to admit it that doesn't mean that any of us live in the past I don't. Have all kinds of cool stuff that happens now and I know that the rest of you don't either. But it's okay to appreciate and acknowledge how important those times were and. 13:41.23 kinkella You know the the learning experience that happened then and the um, the sort of connections that were made and the the closeness and the sort of camaraderie and how important that is to who you are as a person today and that um. 13:58.66 kinkella It's really important to me. 14:06.10 kinkella When we when we come back some more stories about cam.