September 4, 2016

Mesa Verde is amazing! Not for the ruins especially, although the cliff dwellings which are visible from a few pull-offs are interesting (not enough to endure a tour, however). I stopped at the Visitors' Center to get the scoop. The National Park employee at the information desk, whose body odor was as pungent as a raw onion, told me that I should plan to spend three to five hours if I go to Cliff Palace and/or Mesa Top. I doubted it would take me that much time, but I was glad I packed my lunch. The drive from the Visitors' Center to the Cliff Palace Loop and the Mesa Top Loop is 20 miles of hairpin turns and broad vistas. You can see Ship Rock to the south and the San Juan Mountains to the northeast - miles and miles! If you are afraid of heights or have bad brakes, skip the drive.

​When Kim, Kate and I were driving around Wyoming and Montana, Kate's fear of heights presented itself. I think she said something about death being all around her which made me think of the Billy Mack character's song in the movie "Love, Actually." His character's song's original "hit" lyrics are, "I feel it in my fingers. I feel it in my toes. Love is all around me, and so the feeling grows." I started singing it, substituting "death" for "love" every time Kate covered her eyes or stopped breathing, because there were a only a couple of feet between the truck and a precipice promising certain death to any mistake the driver (her husband, Kim) made. In the five plus weeks since they left me and BOB, I have driven many "death is all around us roads," some of which have been in BOB, and one of which was today.