Saturday, July 22, 2006 – Mesa Verde, Colorado After a breakfast of cheese grits, we left for our 10:00 tour of Long House. We arrived at the parking lot early. After we changed our shoes, we walked to a covered area and waited for the tram to take us. Again the ranger warned us that we needed to take plenty of water and we needed to be in good health. When the tram arrived, we got on and rode to the trailhead. From the trailhead we walked down a path and some stairs to enter Long House. The ranger informed us that Long House also had twenty-one kivas. There was a source of water at the rear of the dwelling. What was different about Long House is an open ceremonial plaza at the front of the dwelling. We waited at the trailhead for the tram to take us back to the parking lot. We drove to Far View Terrace and Marketplace. At the cafeteria, we decided to get the house favorite, Navajo taco. A Navajo taco was a variety of sauces and condiments on flat bread. It was really delicious. We both enjoyed our lunch. After looking at the gift shop, we drove to the Chapin Mesa Museum. The exhibits at the museum were interesting and educational. Bob took a lot of pictures. We also saw a video in the auditorium about Mesa Verde. We were planning to walk to Spruce House, but we were both too tired. As we drove back to the camper, we noticed that the air conditioning was not cooling properly. We got Bob’s laptop at the trailer and drove to Cortez to see if we could get someone to look at the air conditioning. Since it was about 4:30 on Saturday, we did not find anyone to look at our car. We drove to a rest area close to Mesa Verde because we needed to transfer funds online. While Bob did that, Susan called her mother. When we were both done, we returned to the camper for dinner of hot dogs and chips. |