No sooner was our last article posted than we had an all too brief visit from good friend Dr. Arvind Lal from New Delhi. Arvind runs 27 pathology clinics all over India, and had been at a meeting in Aspen. After a brief visit to the Ashram over to Crestone, Ramloti brought him over to visit up with us for a couple days.

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Ramloti, Arvind, Annee

We hadn't see him since our last trip to India, so it was especially nice to be able to reciprocate the hospitality he and Vandana had shown us there. And, it was good to see Ramloti again after way too long. Arvind loves a good scotch of an evening, so he and I got caught up at the bar, while Annee gave Ramloti the standard house tour.

Arvind was anxious to go on one of my famous duck hunts, so early next AM we were up before the crack and I got Arvind decked out in camo, and off we went to the river. The short hike out to the blind got us warmed a bit, and Arvind enthusiastically joined in putting out the decoys. Slowly the eastern sky grayed up, heralding the new day. Shooting time arrived, but no ducks of geese chose to fly the river. By full sun the hunt looked to be a full bust, so we gathered up the decoys and headed home for breakfast.

Arvind & Sundance

The previous night, Arvind had inspected my armory and had indicated a desire to do some shooting, so once home I checked him out on the 4 wheeler and we loaded up the shooters and headed up in the adobes behind the hacienda. Arvind loved my AR-15 with a full 30 round clip and worked a stump over pretty heavy. Then we tried out my scooped hornet, but popping off single shots didn't do it for him.

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4 Wheeling

Back to home we bottled up with water ,then took off back in the hills on the 4 wheelers for a few hours ride. We stopped at a beautiful canyon for some pics then headed 'cross country, surprising lots of deer. After 12 + miles we did a turn around and headed home.

Arvind's trip was short, due to a conference in D.C., so by 5AM next morning I had him at our airport in time for his flight. It had been a fun short visit, but he invited us to Delhi for December 2008, so we have to work that into our calendar.