Kevin's Watch

Probably not a good time to be starting a new thread what with AATE just coming out and all, but re-reading one of the vivid descriptions of Andelain in an earlier work I was overcome by an emotionally charged desire to be there. So much I wanted to walk in lambent green hillsides with trees and rills and birds flying overhead. I thought to myself "well, if anybody knows where to find the closest thing to it on our world it will be the guys on the watch" so c'mon Guys - anybody got any ideas. I could really do with the healing anodyne of the greensward if anybody knows where to find it.
(p.s. It has to be LIKE Andelain - South Dakota won't do!)

Parts of western NY [except in winter] have a feel like it. [Particularly the large swath boxed in by Syracuse/Binghamton/Jamestown/Buffalo, once you get away from the interstates]

Much of northern California, too.

The Redwood areas have a kind of Gildenbourne feel, I think.

Thanks Vraith. Can you walk freely there, in silence exept for natures sounds and see nothing man made in any direction you look and in the absence of other people. If so I'll go there.

You can.
But, you should probably stick to one of the numerous state parks, and go a bit off-trail for the extra bit of isolation. Because, if you're not really good and experienced in wilderness, it's possible to get well and truly lost in some of these places.

Where I live is the most awesome paradise I've ever beheld, but it is not Andelain-- it is far too mountainous.
the cold here is never bitter, and the heat here is never scortching. There are small rivers that leap with life and health, and actually contain much gold. There are slow, languid creeks that form lakes and pools. Thickets of willow shade some of the mountain streams, and the rocks and faces of the land afford spectacular vistas. There is much wilderness, places where you can get lost and see no trace of man. Tall ponderosa pines shadow and grace our mountains and frame wonderful meadows, and even when walking among nettles I have never walked anywhere in the forest that I could not walk completely barefoot.
In the hills around Capitan junipers grow lush and inviting. In the peaks where you may spend many a summer nights glad for a coat and a fire, there are tall, beautiful aspens. Pinion, wild rose hips, strawberries (if you can find them before the deer do) wild onions, elderberry, apples, and many other delightful foods can be found here.
Many animals roam here. In the heart of our village, deer wander amidst the touristy storefronts.
Yarrow and Mullein are the chief of our herbs. Certain mushrooms which many consider to be sacred gifts grow here too.
This is the most wonderful, healing, powerful place I have ever lived and I will never call another place my home.
It is not Andelain, but if anything like Andelain exists, it must be close by, somewhere in "the Land of Enchantment."
Why else would Stephen R. Donaldson have made New Mexico his home?

Oh yeah, and this will probably blow your mind-- this paradise I describe and the surrounding country is actually the world's very first nuclear wasteland!

Lord Zombiac wrote:Oh yeah, and this will probably blow your mind-- this paradise I describe and the surrounding country is actually the world's very first nuclear wasteland!

Now THAT............came as a suprise! Wow LZ, this place sounds FANTASTIC - no wonder both you and SRD choose to live there! But Andelain is what I'm after here my friend and the words of Samuel L Jackson (Jackie Brown?) I'll "accept no substitute" (but damn, I'm leanin').

Wow Vraith - I'm liking the sound of this place. Your advice sounds good though - I can deal with a bit of wilderness but I aint no green beret!

There may be no Andelain in the world. That because all the developers have placed resorts and lodges in the ones that are close to the description.

I'm afraid you may be right Ur Dead, and even worse it may be because schmucks like me want easy passage to them instead of being prepared to do the leg work like TC. (And even Andelain may turn out not to be Andelain if you have arrived there in a tour bus!)

Things that kill my earthly paradise:
1. I'm now spoiled.
everywhere I travel I go, "How can people live here?" Cockroaches, mosquitos? People like it here?
2. Casinos.
Hip, hip hooray! There's nothing to do here but go to empty your pockets at a fool's sport. Look around you. What do you think their power bill alone is for all those flashing lights? Property taxes, insurance? Big places full of big money. How do you think the deck is stacked? Especially when so many people with low, low intelliegence go in there seduced by their own deliusions of grandeur that they will be the ones who beat the system. A vile condition.
3. brown recluse/black widow heaven.
Why don't we have cockroaches and mosquitos? These prolific specise live and breed here.
4. Biker Week
Nothing against bikers, just hate the loud motorcycles turning our village into a river of noise (which is ironically what our village's name means) twice a year, with increased police presence that all pot smokers welcome (he said sarcastically). And we enjoy this because mass produced, bottom of the barrel beer like Budweiser are winning, endearing features we have (ask the Apaches they drink copious quantities of "bud.")
Oh and lets not forget "classic rock" and the proud local "talent" that performs these tiresome songs for the bikers! Yay!
4. Lets not forget the exciting variety of lifestyles available to you out here:
cowboy, redneck, hillbilly, or ... wait, that's all there is!

All the Elohimfesters know Andelian is the Valles Caldera between Jemez Springs and Los Alamos in New Mexico (speaking of nuclear radiation). You have mosquitoes LZ? I can't remember the last time I saw one in Albq... look here

Indeed. As Bugs would tell you, take a left turn at Albuquerque.

The Malvern Hills in England were beautiful, but there were less trees than I pictured in Andelain. Also, from the top you looked out on farmland, not wilderness. Failing that, come to New Zealand! I know we already claimed Middle Earth, but we have many national parks where development has always been strictly verboten. Come see them quickly, because the scumbag National government is planning to mine them! We need a Forestal...

Cambo wrote:The Malvern Hills in England were beautiful, but there were less trees than I pictured in Andelain. Also, from the top you looked out on farmland, not wilderness. Failing that, come to New Zealand! I know we already claimed Middle Earth, but we have many national parks where development has always been strictly verboten. Come see them quickly, because the scumbag National government is planning to mine them! We need a Forestal...

Not to dis new zealand, but NYS alone has over 6000 square miles of protected park area...actual wild areas, Central Park, NYC doesn't count. [NZ as a nation has just shy of 12,000 square miles.]
The difference, of course, is that NZ will probably KEEP theirs protected.
And the people are nicer.

Surely you don't mean nicer than me!!

danlo wrote:All the Elohimfesters know Andelian is the Valles Caldera between Jemez Springs and Los Alamos in New Mexico (speaking of nuclear radiation).

No argument from me. The hills approaching the caldera are lushly wooded and gently rolling. Most photos I've seen don't do it justice.

This is Andelain on Earth.

Vraith wrote:Not to dis new zealand, but NYS alone has over 6000 square miles of protected park area...actual wild areas, Central Park, NYC doesn't count. [NZ as a nation has just shy of 12,000 square miles.]
The difference, of course, is that NZ will probably KEEP theirs protected.
And the people are nicer.

I certainly hope so. A recently rally in opposition to planned mining in national parks was the biggest public demonstration since the infamous 1981 Springbok tour.

True, we are trumped by most everyone in terms of size. This is probably why the people seem "nicer"; we have less jerks, less national parks, less everything.

Back to the original topic, most countries probably have their equivalent of Andelain, if not in appearance, in spirit. As in, a place where the quintessential natural glory of the environment is allowed to shine through. I just happen to be prejudiced on the matter

danlo wrote:All the Elohimfesters know Andelian is the Valles Caldera between Jemez Springs and Los Alamos in New Mexico (speaking of nuclear radiation). You have mosquitoes LZ? I can't remember the last time I saw one in Albq... look here

no we don't have them. I was saying the brown recluses and black widows probably eat them all up.
Love the Jemez, it is quite beautiful.

Yeah, I drive through the caldera up there on the way to a place called Lindrith. Getting married there this spring.