Day 12: Mesa Verde

Today we planned to visit the four corners and then head to Mesa Verde. When we arrived at the four corners we were very disappointed to see that it was closed due to construction. After hanging around for a few minutes we headed on out to Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde was probably one of the most interesting parts of our trip. After visitng the Cliff Palace we decided to take a guided tour of the Balcony House and were very lucky to get an amazing Ranger for our guide who provided us with a wealth of information about the Pueblo people of long agon and their cliff dwellings. The Balcony House allowed us to peek into a day in the life of these people and why they chose to live in the cliffs . The craftmanship of the rooms and ceremonial kivas were beautiful. It was quite the adventure just getting to and from the Balcony House. We climbed 5 ladders, one which was 32 feet high and had to crawl through a very tiny 12 foot tunnel-somewhere along the way Matt lost his hat over the side of a cliff. It was mind boggling to think of these people climbing up and down these cliffs on a daily basis to tend to their crops above. After the tour we headed out to our next campsite and stopped in Dolores to mail Jay's one and only post card-yes, we had to drive around and around to find a post office because it had to be postmarked from Dolores. We ran into construction along the way. Matt stuck our latest RV trip companion, Humphrey the bear puppet, out the window to greet the Navajo flagman and he greeted us back by saying "How" and shared lots of interesting things about the Navajos during our ten minute wait to move on. We pulled into our favorite campsite so far at around 8 pm. Tomorrow we're off to do some white water rafting.
Posted by: Deb

(Jay's turn to post something)
Uncle Jay's 2 Cents:
Today we got up bright and early and drove from the Grand Canyon North Rim to Stoner Colorado, near Durango, which was an 8 hour drive. Brian, Deb, and I have been splitting the driving but I must say the hours go by quite enjoyably as the scenery is so amazing to look at, the RV is rather fun to drive, the kids are entertaining, and we've got good music to cruise along to. The last time Brain and I were in this region was back in 1977 when our family took a 3 week RV trip from New Hampshire to California- Brian was 13, our sister Cindy was 16 and I was 7 years old. One of my most vivid memories of that trip was that the RV had an 8 track cassette player, a revolutionary device at the time, and so my Dad bought a cassette of his favorite band at the time, a group called Up With People. As I recall, it seems as though we listened to that tape every day for 3 weeks straight. For this trip with Brian's family I've taken it upon myself to carry on my Dad's tradition and so I've downloaded the Up With People album onto my iTunes and have been playing it in the RV whenever it's my turn to drive. One song in particular that I feel is particularily appropriate for this trip is entitled "200 Years and Just a Baby." This song came out in 1976 as America was celebrating its Bicentenial (200 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776). This was one of my Dad's favorite songs in 1977 and I feel honored to have been able to share it with Brian's kids while we've been sharing this great American experience during this July 4th holiday week, 233 years after the birth of this great nation (take a listen to the background music on today's blog post's slideshow). There's an old Asian proverb that says that inevitably we eventually become our parents. I've heard this proverb a number of times since moving to New York City in 1994 and more and more I find it to be true. I think that's pretty cool.
(I had intended to make this the July 4th post, but haven't had much donwtime until now).

And on to my other 2 cents...Debbie was concerned that I would be discouraged from wanting to have kids after being couped up in a 24 ft. RV for a week with a 12 and 14 year old. Much to the contrary, I've found the experience to be one of the most fun I've ever had, and so we've decided that for my mid life crisis I will get married and have 12 kids.
Posted by: Uncle Jay

This free photo slideshow generated with Smilebox