(Old Slops is spinning his yarn)

It was Spring Break, 1967....we went out camping in the Mojave, because it's usually nice out there that time of year.  We were camped in one of those rocky canyons you get to on a dirt road, out all by ourselves.  Around midnight, everybody else was in their sleeping bags, but I was still sitting up by the fire, finishing a beer, watching the stars.  I thought I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye.....I turned and peered into the dark, and saw somebody or something in the brush.....the native tribes in the Mojave have tales about hairy ghost men who play tricks on you at night.....and this looked like an albino ape, maybe.  The creature beckoned me to come and follow him, up the wash.  I for sure don't know why I did, but I did....follow the creature up between the rocks for a ways, when it suddenly walked right into a big stone.  It just seemed to go right through the solid rock and disappear.  I walked up the the stone and pushed my hand against it, expecting to find it a normal rock, but my hand and arm sank right into the stone....and something grabbed my arm and pulled me hard right through the rock and into another reality.  I wasn't in the desert anymore, I was on the side of a mountain, up in the pines.  And it wasn't midnight anymore, it was just after dawn.  Down in the valley, the mist was starting to rise, and I could see the morning breeze begin to stir the banners on the towers of a white castle, down below me.  Behind me, my footprints led out from a solid rock face....it did not yield to my pushing.  Before me was a path, that tended down towards the castle, so I started walking through the cool of the morning.  In a while, I reached the castle, and a young fair-haired boy met me at the drawbridge.  He asked me something, but I could not understand his language.  He beckoned me to follow him, and we went into the castle, and on into one of the towers.  We went up the spiral stairs, to a round tower chamber, where there was an old man dressed like a wizard.  You know, he had on the funny hat, and the robe with stars and symbols, and his chamber was full of things like a large crystal ball, and bubbling retorts, and scrolls scattered about, and large leather-bound tomes.  He tried to talk to me too, trying several different tongues, but to no avail.  He tugged thoughtfully at his long white beard for a moment, and then began to open drawers in a big cabinet along the wall, taking out various powders and herbs and what not, and mixing them all up in a tankard with some wine.  He handed it to me, and motioned that I should drink.  Well, I didn't see what else to do, so I drank it all down.  It felt like my brain was melting inside my skull, and then it felt like it was reforming, in a different manner.  "There" said the wizard "Is that better?"  "Why yes" I said "I can understand you now."  "Excellent" he says.  "Where are you from."  he asks.  "Los Angeles" I reply.  "That explains the funny outfit"  says the wizard.  "You do realize don't you that you are not on Earth anymore, hmm?" quoth the sage.  "Well, where am I?" is my question.  "The Land of Nod." I am informed.