Day 37 ~ Four Corners ~ Mesa Verde

Day 36 ~ Driving to Mesa Verde Via Four Corners

We were diligent about an early start today since we would have to pick up a church service somewhere along the way.  Mike had one pin pointed on his phone, but we have had that fall through before.

We had to swing around through Arizona, close to the Grand Canyon.  We would have liked to see it again, but we didn’t have time, since we had a long drive today.  Today, we did see the beginning of the Grand Canyon where there was a dam on the Colorado River.  The funny thing was while we were at Bryce and Zion National Parks, I was thinking……You know these seem about like the size of the Grand Canyon…….Nope.  We saw the beginning of the canyon under the bridge we drove over today. We gasped!  I guess I had forgotten how massive that gash in the earth!

The Head of The Grand Canyon

Commentary along the way:

There are little Smokey the Bear signs all around the West indicating the forest fire danger level for each day.  As we drove by one, Mike said, “ I always felt that that was an awful lot of pressure to put on me as a kid.  ‘Only YOU can prevent forest fires.’  I didn't even know where there was a forest!” 

We have been playing the slug bug game since we left Wolcott eons ago. Natalie is keeping careful records in her journal.  Currently, the tally is Harrison, 71; Natalie, 145; Daddy, 158, and Mom, 0. ( On the record. ) I have called a few but then said I didn’t see them or gave them to someone else……I hate playing that game.  My goal is to get zero.  Ha ha.  Mike and Natalie have been very competitively playing the game.  This morning, Mike called, “Slug Bug Invisible!”  Natalie gave him a point before she realized he had tricked her.

Mike:  There was a banana peel in the road!  The car almost slipped on it!

When we got to the church with exactly the proper 15 minutes to spare, suspiciously, there were no other cars in the parking lot…….uh. oh.  Not again….!!!  But the time said 10:00 AM.  It was 12:00 our time, so since this area is in Mountain Time, it should have been right!  Nope.  It was one of those things like Indiana used to do where certain places don’t observe the proper time zone in which they live.  So we had to wait an extra hour and fifteen minutes for church to start. 

 

It was funny because before mass started, a young girl about Natalie’s age walked in and sat at the piano.  She was mouthing off to her mom.  She appeared to be the pianist.  I whisper- asked  Natalie if she thought this girl would be able to play well enough for the congregation to sing along.  That is a very, very hard thing to do.  This girl didn’t strike me as someone who would work diligently at playing the piano.  Natalie guessed that she would be able to do it. 

As mass got closer to beginning, the girl didn’t look nervous or even look through her music or anything!  We could hardly keep from laughing out loud when the music started; she just pushed a button on her ipad, which was hooked to the speakers and……Voila!  ……Organ music.  Mike was the music leader this morning…..no one knew who he was, but he did a marvelous job!  One time when we were visiting a parish, a woman passed him a note and invited him to join their choir! 

The priest had a nice message today about doing things ourselves that we expect others to do.  He seemed like a very nice man.  He looked like Jimmy Carter with Mr. Roger’s voice and demeanor.

Scenery along the way.....Harrison was driving!  He has more than 50 hours now!

 

We drove all day.  We had stopping at Four Corners (Where you can be in 4 states at once by touching each corner with a part of your body.) on our list of things to do.  I had read online that it wasn’t worth the stop.  Mike and the kids thought it would be great though, and since we were going right past it, we stopped.  Whew!  Crapbag City!

First there is a bunch of…well…..just junk lying around the place before you drive up to the parking lot.  Mike got a laugh from a sign that said:

Private vehicles 5.00 per person.  Buses 5.00 per person.

Ummm……We are still trying to figure out if we got a better deal because we said we were a bus of 4 instead of a car of 4…….

Mike paid the lady some cash, and we drove through.  We all had to pee.  I said there probably wouldn’t even be a bathroom there.  Mike said he saw online that there was a big complex, so we would be good. 

 

We drove over the rutted parking lot and parked in a funny circle sort of way that everyone else had haphazardly parked.  We walked up to the restrooms, which were locked with remnants of caution tape left over them.  So much for that…..

When you see restrooms with "smoke stacks"  always avoid them!  I have seen enough of these in the last 5 weeks to last me a lifetime.....Thank you very much.  We all agreed to hold on until the next available facility. 

Walked up to the “Complex” to stand in an unexpected line for about 40 minutes to wait our turn for a picture.  I don’t know if you know this or not, but it does get hot here…..

 

When it was our turn, the kids each did a back bend over the 4 corners monument so they could say they had been in all four states at once.  Harrison went first and burned his hands.  He looked like a cartoon figure as he whipped his body around trying to get back upright!  He really put on a show for everyone standing behind us in line!

After we got to our new camp and set up and had spaghetti, we evaluated what we would still need for laundry.  We all needed about two more days worth of clothes in order to finish the trip clean.  So we tried to pick out stuff that could all go into one dark load.  The kids needed just a couple of pieces of whites for socks and underwear, so I told them they had to wash them by hand.....It was severe trauma!  I reminded them of Mike's mantra throughout the trip:  Hey!  You have never done that before!