Day 3

Mesa Verde!!! I have dreamed of going to Mesa verde since I was a little girl devouring the national geographic articles and imagining living in those cool dwellings. We got a decent start on the day but so did everyone else and we ended up getting tickets for a 12 and 4 tour. We went first to the Wetherhill Mesa site, it's not as busy, mainly cause it's out in the boonies. Lots of fire damage on the way out to the site, signs dated each fire some were 20 years ago...also wild horse poop (got to be a pony somewhere!). We arrived early for our tour so we hiked to another site the step house. It was hotter than a firecracker but I couldn't wait to see my first ruin. Wow! It was so cool! We met Bill the ranger on duty and he gave us lots of info. We enjoyed visiting with him and found out he's retired and lives winters in Mexico and summers in Co. Tough huh? His wife also works there as an invasive species destroyer! She gets paid to hike and kill weeds...ahhhhhh too bad! :) Gave me some ideas and Clark just shudders! We hiked back up to wait for our tour and there we met another ranger, DJ, he was eating his lunch and we visited. He raises quarter horses, is a calf roper and use to climb big walls in Yosemite in the 70's so of course we had lots to talk about...jerk down rule in Ca calf roping, peta, climbing and climbers we knew, packing horses...I don't think Clark got a word in edge wise. What's new...LOL! Our tour started and Bill from Step house was our ranger so we enjoyed his tour and info. I had a cool experience, on one of the stops for a moment I realized I was experiencing Deja vu. I have done this often during my life but not for quite awhile. Trippy but soooo cool. Those of you who know me, know I'm grounded in the sciences but I still enjoy the experience without trying to figure out the meaning of it. The group was big, 40 but the site Long house, was huge. It was really cool to see but hot and quite a hike. After our tour we headed to the other Mesa but stopped at the museum...the navajo rugs were to die for $$$$ I don't know why Clark just smiled when I showed him the one I wanted, it was one of the less expensive only 1,800. Needless to say I used the bathroom and that's all that I got!! We got to our other tour early and enjoyed sitting looking over a steep canyon. A prairie falcon soared by and I felt honored by the natives by the greetings of the Ravens. Pretty spiritual day for me (which is rare for me). We went on the balcony house tour and had to climb 3 stories of ladder on an open face cliff to reach it!!! Then once there you have to go through little openings one of which was 12ft long that you had to crawl through! Not as nice of ruin but the adventure made it worth it. We stopped by the gift shop for little treats and then started towards cortez to eat!! We found a down home cooking place (we seek these out) Jack and Janelles. As always it paid off, I had a killer indian taco and clark had the classic roast beef dinner. We ate for $20! We were full as ticks and headed back to the Host hotel, Cortez to sleep. And that we did! ZZZZZZZZZ

Day 2

We got going early in anticipation of our raft trip down the Arkansas river. I was nervous, Clark was excited. We checked in and got our gear (including helmet...which didn't help my nervousness). We loaded on an old school bus filled with very young people (Clark and I were some of the oldest and there weren't many over 50), the door shuts and the sound system starts with ozzie's Crazy train! We travelled up the river to the put in site, met our guide and fellow rafters, Kira and Oliver. We got our basic instructions: Forward, back, dig in and what to do if we fell in (yikes)...and off we went. It was fun! I don't think I'd enjoy anything greater than what we did (class 3) but Clark would love to go for something bigger. (Sandy he needs someone to go with :)) We saw a huge herd of bighorn sheep, Canada geese and a deer. But I wasn't looking much...I was paddlin' like a crazy fool! I enjoyed our oar high fives at the end of each rapid and finally was able to do the beaver slap at the end pretty loud!! We got wet but stayed in the boat..thank god! We really enjoyed our group and Jarod our guide invited us to his night job at a brewery for dinner. But first we had another adventure: the royal gorge train ride! We had fun again...cool train, we sat in the dome car. We had a nice booth and table with a white table cloth...fancy smancy! We enjoyed some ice tea (I know can you believe it, not a bloody mary) and took in the view. On the way back we ventured out into the open car and took photos of the rafters going down the gorge (class 4+) and the suspension bridge. I saw some cute little engineer outfits, perfect for a little grandbaby, but I controlled myself and got a pin for my collection. Later we went and had a drink and some wings where our guide work and then headed home for the night. The Host hotel, Canon city wasn't much but hey it was a room!

day 1

Well everything went well until United lost our bags! Thank goodness Clark was there to handle it because I was livid!! We went ahead and left with them promising our bags in 24 hours. We had a whitewater rafting trip lined up for 8 the next morning and all our gear was in our bags. I was debbie downer..saying "it won't get here, we're screwed blah blah. Clark fed me and made sure I had a couple of martinis later that night. We landed in Colorado springs and went to Garden of the gods (really nice geology but toooooo many people!!!) We hoped to see pikes peak but it was shrouded in fog, never did see it all day! Next we were suckered into some cliff dwellings. It wasn't much and cost $$. Took us 20 mins to see it all and cost us $18. SCREWED!!! Next we went up the road to Florrisant fossil beds. It was really nice, next to no one, nice breeze beautiful wildflowers, and petrified wood galore! We hiked around and enjoyed the beautiful sites! We arrived in Canon city, ate, drank and our Luggage arrived. Dang it I hate it when Clark is right! Rafting tomorrow!

Preparing for colorado

Hi Everyone! Summer is here and it's travel time! We're getting ready to go to Colorado for a 10 loop around the state. Stay tuned as we get nearer to take off!