Most of our trips last nine days, and now I understand why. This morning I was so narky. This after thinking last night how nice things are and how well we're getting on. It wasn't anything specific, but everything Rich said or did irritated me. I got better later in the day. I think this is also the time the foreign students we've had crash emotionally, too.

The first thing we did was to go to the Colorado Welcome Center, to get ready for the NEXT trip. I left loaded down with information. So far, I've done a pretty good job on this trip, so we'll see how I do.

Then we went to Mesa Verde. We stopped outside the park where there's a new cache, and I got another travel bug. I also got a "tracking card" where this guy wants to know by e-mail where his cards go.

OK, time for Rich to see Mesa Verde. This is another day when Mom is with us. When I was 15 we had a new car and she took me on a couple of 4-day trips to give my Granddaddy a break (and vice-versa). This one went to Santa Fe and Taos. We spent the night in Durango, I remember, and woke up the next morning to sheep being run down the main street. Then we went to Mesa Verde. My mother, terrified of heights, drove up this long road. At the top, we went to the Visitor's Center, and she wasn't up to going down to Spruce House (only 45, but very overweight) so I did that little trek alone. I don't remember how we got home, since I think I'm conflating two trips, though we may have gone over the Rocky Mountain National Park this time. Anyway, I had her with me all day today.

Rich white-knuckled it up the side of the mesa. At the top, there were 6 or 7 deer in the road. We waited for the one left on the side to decide which direction to go, and she finally bounded off. We then drove on to the Farview Visitor's Center, and bought tickets for the 11 AM tour of Cliff Palace. ("Strenuous. 5 ladders of 8-10 feet" But it doesn't include a scramble through a tunnel, where I feared getting stuck, as at Balcony House.)

We had a little while to drive to there, so we looked around here and gave a quick look at the museum, then went out on the proper loop. We looked at a tower and kiva on the mesa. It turns out that most of the ruins are on the mesa top, but they weren't recognized because of the forest, uncovered by the fires. (Besides, they aren't as sexy as cliff dwellings!)

We met at the Spruce House parking lot. Our guide was a Hopi ranger. She warned us again that it would be strenous and to take water, and off we went. I got stuck behind a guy who is legally blind, so his wife was talking him through steps in case he couldn't see them. This was good, because it meant *I* wouldn't be the one slowing us down! I looked at his face down at the ruins and he was just ecstatic, I'm so glad he came!!

We took steps down to the bottom and a ladder (bolted to the wall) up to the ruins. They are spectacular!! We got a real close look. This site, while there is room for a lot of people, apparently only had a few people residing at it, but there are 23 kivas, holy places. Perhaps it was their Vatican City? I was a bit worried about the trip back out, but it wasn't hard, with the ladders. Yesterday's White House trip was harder. There's a place where you can see how the people climbed out to tend their crops on the mesa top... little handholds chipped into the side of the cliff, no thank you!

I was puffing and panting at the top. After all, it's at about 7000' altitude. While I grew up that much above sea level, I'm sure not used to it now.

We completed that loop, went back to the visitor's center for lunch, and then walked down to Spruce House. This is the paved walk I took when I was a kid. Rich is utterly amazed that one can go into the ruins. He went down into the kiva that's been reconstructed, but I chose to stay out. He couldn't get the camera to work (sometimes I think it's chatting with Hal the GPSr when I'm not looking!)

Then we did the other loop. We were there when the archeologist gave his little talk at "Sun Temple." It's possible it was a lunar observatory lined up with Cliff Palace, or maybe a watch tower, and maybe the rituals at Cliff Palace were working better. In any case, this possible storehouse was only used for a few years, if it was finished at all, before the people went away.

We went to the benchmark at the top of the hill. Then I put in all the rest of the waypoints for the trip... only a few... and turned it off before anything was saved properly, so we lost the whole track after lunch as well as all the marks. Rich was quite distraught.

We saw one deer on the way out. I thought it was the one who took so long to make up her mind this morning. We were there 8.5 hours. I was thinking about my Mom a lot of that time. She was only 45 but couldn't do the Spruce House walk.

Back at the motel, I finally attempted a call with the cellphone, and called Bernadette's answering machine.

Highpoint: Cliff Palace

Low spot: losing the track