We arose to another beautiful day, the view of the mountains from our room was beautiful. I could look at that everyday.
This day we visited our first National Park - Mesa Verde. We ran into road construction so it took a bit to get up the mountain. It was windy and chilly. A lot of trails in Mesa Verde leading to ancient dwelling places of the Pueblo people. We signed up for a tour of Cliff Palace. Our tour guide, Clyde, is a Navajo Indian. He mostly discussed the Indian culture and beliefs. I would have liked to have learned a bit more about the cliff home - oh well. The depth is about 900 feet, with structures of 4 stories. It was a tight squeeze through the rocks to get back to the top. Incredible to think that people made their homes in a cave of a cliff.
We returned to Cortez for lunch then settled in a the drive to Four Corners where Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado meet. Driving through the Indian reservation of Colorado - - not much to see. We arrived to find the monument closed for refurbishment. Disappointed, we decided to pretend we stood in all four states at once since were within a few hundred feet. We have great pictures of the closed sign.
Then we got in for a long drive - down through New Mexico into Arizona. Again, I was in the driver seat - hubby will let me drive across flat lands. A dull land through Indian Reservations. Saddened me to think this is what we, Americans, 'gave' the Indians. It is a flat, barren land, the color of puce. DD#1 said it was the color of the Crayola crayon 'golden rod' which she and her sister used to call 'poopy color' as small girls.
We drove through a few small sand storms and saw thunderstorms of dark clouds and lightening in the distant mountains.
As we drove, I did not realize that as hubby rested he was actually going down hill physically. By the time we reached Holbrook, AZ, he was quite miserable. Achy, feverish, congested. It seemed he caught the crud the girls had the week before we left. We pulled into a hotel, tucked him into bed. We girls went in search of meds and a case of water. Once we had him settled we found dinner and hung out in the hotel's small lobby to give him a chance to rest.
Holbrook, AZ is on the old Route 66. As we drove around this small town, we quickly identified some similarities to Radiator Springs of the movie "Cars". We even found the cone motel! A hotel with wagwams. I had a very nice conversation with a gentlemen that could have been 'Doc'. It was really quite funny.
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