After we got the kinks out of our bodies it was off to breakfast. They have an all you can eat pancake breakfast at the cafe next to the camp store. We knew we were going to going all day so we definitely loaded up on the pancakes. They also had either pork sausage or turkey sausage patties but they were out of the pork so we had the turkey. The turkey was loaded up with sage and red pepper so the sage burned when you first bit in to it and the red pepper got you after it sat in your mouth for a few seconds. We will not order that tomorrow.
Well, we were off on our adventures at Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde is a an area where people built "cliff dwellings" many years ago. They use to call these people Anasazi but to the Navajo the name means either "Ancient Ones" or "Ancient Enemy." At the request of the Navajo Nation the National Park Service no longer calls the probable dwellers Anasazi but rather call them "Ancient Puebloans" pc strikes again.
A few of the dwelling you can visit on your own but the best ones are guided by park rangers. The first one we went to was the Balcony House. This tour takes about 1 hour. You have to climb down a long set of stairs, walk through the ruins, crawl through a tunnel, climb a 32 foot wood ladder then climb up two 10 foot ladders to get back out. I didn't like the ladders but what was I going to do? It was the only way out of there. We didn't get good pics there because you can't see it until you are inside it.
After that it was off to the Cliff Palace. This is the largest of the dwellings you can visit. There is a very nice overlook from which you can see the entire dwelling before you climb down to it. To give you an idea of the size of the dwelling the crowd you see at the bottom is about 45 people.
The ranger that guided the tour had some different views of things compared to our first guide at Balcony House. In the picture below you will see several round holes called Kivas. Some people think that these were for ceremonial and religious purposes and others think that they were the actual abodes of the dwellers.
Our 1st guide was in the religious camp where as our 2nd guide was in the abode camp. I tend to agree with the 2nd guide because as he pointed out there were 26 Kivas in this dwelling, which is a lot of "churches" in one dwelling, second off the square rooms all had residue of corn and other crops and 3rd off when archeologist don't know what something was for they always say it was for "ceremonial or religious" purposes.
From there it was off to the final one of the day for us which was the Long House. This place was way out at the end of the Wetherill Mesa. The road out there was along the spine of a ridge with drop offs on both sides. There was some very light scattered rain so we took it a bit easy. Once we got there we found out that there was only one other person on our tour. It was very neat with just the three of us on the tour. As we climbed down to the dwelling we noticed that this was quite different from the others. The construction was consistent throughout the entire dwelling and it had a more "royal" feeling to it.
Once we were down there the guide opened up a locked chest and shared some shards of pottery they had found there. This was not something they usually did but I guess she liked us. It was immediately noticeable the similarities between the designs on the shards and the patterns on the Navajo pottery we had seen in Window Rock. No one knows where the "Ancient Puebloans" went but there has been some indications that they were assimilated into other tribes as the dispersed. After seeing the Navajo pottery and the the shards at the the dwelling I can see why that might be true. Here is a view looking out from Long House.
Well we were done for the day and we needed to get something to eat. Remember that ridge spine the road traveled on? Well on our way out we came up over a rise in that area and what should be in the road? About 75 yards away in our lane was a black bear standing on its hind legs sniffing the air. Needless to say I immediately grabbed a hand full of clutch and brake and had both feet doing the stomp down on the gears and rear brake. Fortunately the bear was not as dumb as the sheep we had seen the day before and quickly dropped down on all fours and took off for the edge. We proceeded slowly to make sure there were no cubs following with Sue watching one side of the road and me watching the other. Once we got about 20 yards away from where we last seen the bear I punched it and quickly went by the area. Not taking any chances there. About a quarter of a mile ahead was a pull out area and I stopped to get my pulse down and collect my wits. Wow what a rush that was.
From there we stopped at the Far View Terrace for something to eat. There we met a lady at the counter of the gift shop named Joy. She and her husband were both working at the park for the summer. They were Sue and I's age and it was interesting to hear their story. They were from Raleigh NC. After 30 years with the same home construction company he had gotten laid off. No warning, no severance pay, just a pink slip. They had always wanted to travel out west so they said screw this, sold everything, bought a truck and a 5th wheel and off they went. They already had work lined up for the winter in a ski resort so they were already set up for their next stop. The important thing was that they were once again smiling and laughing and most important they were doing both of them with each other. It reminded Sue and I very much pf our story and It would not be the last time we would heard that type of story.
Maybe we are a generation that isn't afraid to step outside the box and get our priorities right. As I like to say "damn it we did it their way up to this point and look where it got us after 30 years. Now it's time to do it our way". What we heard consistently was that while they may not have all the "things" they did before, they and their spouse were happier than we had ever been before.
It was a pleasant ride from there back to the campsite with no unexpected visitors on the road. While it threatened to rain all day long we never did get rained on. Guess we lucked out this time. After we got back we walked around the camp to stretch the legs out before bunking down. We meet these two young men who were also riding around on there motorcycles for a few days. They had trailered down PA just north of Scranton to Dodge City where they left the truck. They anly had two day left to get back to their truck. We swapped riding stories, shared beers and traded emails and phone numbers. It was fun to hear about their adventure up to that point and they invited us up to their area for a guided tour. Might just have to go up there on the way home.
After that it was a quick shower. Damn shower, it was either scalding hot or nipple freezing cold. Ah well what were we to do? Then it was back to the camp, and the no pad sleeping on the hard ground again. We have GOT to correct that.
