I read about this caving expedition to Ecuador not long after it happened.
Then, about three years ago,
I was at an event in Chicago with my job (memorial for Steve Fossett) that
Neil Armstrong attended.
When he came into the reception afterwards I could sense the stir it caused
and see people jockeying to position themselves to meet him. I decided to
not worry about it, if it happened it happened, and stood back observing the
scene like a sociologist.
A little while later I saw that Armstrong and his wife were very close to
me and all I had to do was turn
around and extend my hand to meet him. I did so, and as I did, I introduced
myself, and mentioned that
I had read about the caving expedition to Ecuador he had gone on in the
70s. He smiled big and wanted to talk about it. Maybe it was relief at not
being asked the same old questions about what it was like on the
moon, I don't know, but he lit up and gave me more time than I had seen him
give anyone else. A couple of times he held his hands up to demonstrate the
size of the spiders he'd seen in the cave entrance.
I noticed people gathering around to listen and I thought at time they were
wondering what it was I had said to him that he was so interested in
talking about. I bet some of them wished they were cavers
