Day 38

Day 38 - Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Mesa Verde National Park, CO to Farmington, NM

Our final night in the tent was comfortable, but a little sloped. Wistfully, we packed up the bedroll and loaded the car. We spent the morning touring the park, stopping at the visitor center and the Spruce Tree Cliff Dwellings.

The Pueblo Indians built the dwellings as early as 600 AD and occupied many of the sites until 1300 AD. A drought that lasted nearly a half century led the ancestral Pueblos to abandon the cliffs, but it has remained a sacred site for American Indians in the area. Poor planning on our part led us to eat two Navajo Tacos (taco meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream and salsa on fry bread) before hiking to the dwellings. Other than food caused discomfort the experience was pleasurable and enlightening.

There are about a half a dozen cliff dwellings in the park and over 4000 archaeological sites overall, but using the guiding principle of "If you've seen one, you've seen them all" we left the park at noon.

We had two options on how to get to Farmington, NM. First, we could back track to Durango and then head south for a drive of about 75 minutes. One thing that has become abundantly clear during this trip to Tara is that I don't like to back track. I can't really explain myself, other than it is akin to admitting defeat, that I couldn't find another route when there are so many roads to explore is simply unacceptable. So the second route, the one that bypassed within mere miles of the the Four Corners Monument, the one that added another 60 minutes to the total trip, became the route du jour.

It turns out that the Four Corners Monument is on the Navajo Nation Reservation and as such the Navajo people charge $3 per person to stand in four states at one time. Surrounding the sand dial without a needle

monument were stands selling a wide assortment of wares from jewelery to pottery to clothing to snow cones. Tara found a vase that she couldn't do without and had the artisan hold it for a picture to preserve the items provenance.

We arrived in Farmington a little before 4 pm and tried to check into the La Quinta. We then realized that we had reservations at the Best Western across the street and went there instead. Finally accepted, we showered and headed out to the Three Rivers Brewery. They had an outstanding selection of homemade brews, ciders, and sodas. I ordered their Drunken Steak which had spent the last three days basking in beer and mustard, while Tara had their pretzel and a bowl of onion soup since her stomach was feeling a little funny.

Full, we raced to the car in the midst of a fierce wind storm and headed back to the Hotel with a brief stop at WalMart for Caladryl lotion to soothe the multitude of bites on my legs and feet. I dutifully applied the lotion every two hours throughout the night.

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