Mesa Verde National Park

On Wednesday, June 25, 2008 we drove out to the Mesa Verde National Park.
Mesa Verde National Park was created in 1906 to preserve the archeological hertiage of the Ancestral Puebloans, both atop the mesas and in the cliff dwellings below. The park includes over 4,500 archeological sites; only 600 are cliff dwellings.

Mesa Verde National Park preserves a spectacular reminder of a group of people that chose this area for their home. For more than 700 years they and their decendants lived and flourished here, eventually building elaborate stone communities if the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Then, in the late 1200's. in the span of a generation or two, they left their homes and moved away.
Mesa Verde National Park preserves a spectacular reminder of this ancient culture. Archeologists have called these people Anasazi , from the Navajo word sometimes translated as "the ancient foreigners." They are now called Ancestral Puebloans, reflecting their modern descendants.

Local cowboys discovered the cliff dwellings in the 1880's, when they were out looking for stray cattle. Many have sought to understand these people's lives but with no written record and with much of what was important in their lives has perished, we will never know the whole story. Yet for all their silence, these structures speak with a certain eloquence. They were experienced builders, as the construction testifies. Walls are tall and straight and have withstood the tests of time and elements. Smoke-blackened walls and ceilings are reminders of the biting cold these people lived with for several months each year. It is also known that these people raised crops, and hunted. They also made pottery and wove beautifully decorated baskets.

The first photo is of Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling in the park. It was constructed between A.D. 1200 and 1276 by the Anasazi. The dwelling contained about 114 rooms and eight kivas (kee-vahs), or ceremonial chambers, built into a natural cave measuring 216 feet at greatest width and 89 feet at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home to about 100 people.

The second photo is of the Cliff Palace, which is the largest of the cliff dwellings in the park. We did not get up close to this dwelling as you need to go with a park guide and climb down steep ladders.

As we drove through the park we noticed that there were many areas that had been destroyed by forest fires at one time or another. I asked one of the rangers how long it would take for the forest to regrow and I was told that it would take about 100 years for the forest to be as lush as it had once been. These fires had been started by lightening. Some of the fires went out by themselves and some were fought by local fire-fighters

We drove around and found a wonderful picnic area and had our lunch then we took the tram that takes you around the Wetherill Mesa, about a 45 minute ride that makes several stops that you can get out and view several other cliff dwellings.

It was a very interesting day and the scenery was spectacular! The mountain here are so different from the ones that we rode through on the train.

Well, that is all for today. Not sure where we will venture next Until later, take care.

Candy and Johnny

Train Ride to Silverton, Co.

June23, Monday and we are off to Silverton, Co. from Durango. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad runs on a 45 mile extension of track originally called the Silverton Branch. The line was constructed by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, headed by General William Jackson Palmer, in 1881-82.

Narrow gauge track in Colorado was laid at a width of 3 feet between rails, instead of the 4 feet-8 1/2 inches of separation with standard gauge rail. Slim-gauge was the choice of William Jackson Palmer for several reasons. It was capable of making sharper curves, and thus more suited to the mountainous terrain found in much of Colorado.

Our journey begins in the Durango Yard at an elevation 6,520 feet above sea level. The first mile out of the station takes you through the heart of Durango's old downtown. As the train heads west the line takes you from Durango's city limits through the beautiful Animas Valley. While the valley is seeing more and more human impact, much of the natural environment remains. As the train climbs up through the mountains we pass through some of the most fantastic scenery including a 470 foot gorge with the Animas River rushing through it. The drop is straight down....beautiful! We continue our climb until we reach the town of Silverton at an elevation of 9,300 feet.

On our way up the mountains the temperature began to drop and the sky clouded over. The rain


began and we even saw some snow in the air. The rain stopped when we got off the train and walked around the small town and found a wonderful place to have lunch.. The Handlebar Saloon. The food was wonderful.

At 2:45pm. we again boarded our train for the ride back down to Durango, arriving back at 6:15pm

It was like a step back in time riding the rail cars. I would do it again. It was a long day but what a wonderful time we had.

Tomorrow a day to rest and then we are heading to Mesa Verde National Park... more about that later.

Until then, take care and keep in touch.

Candy and Johnny

Map of our adventure

Here is an interactive mapof our travels. Remember to click on the balloons to see what I have written about where we have stopped. Candy

View Larger Map

Durango, Colorado

Hi All, We left Santa Fe, New Mexico on Wednesday, June 18. It was a clear warm morning and an easy drive to Durango, Colorado. You can sure tell when you cross the border into Colorado as the green comes back in the picture! New Mexico is a very dry place. We
are going to stay here for about 2 weeks at the Alpen Rose RV Park, It is a nice campground with lots of shade to sit under and rest. We plan on doing some touring around the area while we are here. We have driven over to Ouray with a stop in the town of Silverton. Ouray reminds us a great deal of Park City Utah.

So far we have not done very much but catch up on our reading and the e-mail. Today is Saturday and we went into the town of Durango and went to an art fair in the park and found the local farmers market. Stopped by the information office in town and got lots of information of what there is to see and do around here. Monday we are going to take the steam engine train over the mountains to Silverton, have lunch and take the train back. They have some white water rafting here in town on the Animas River and John thinks that would be fun. We also have planned a day trip over to the Masa Verde National Park. And I am sure that there are several more things to see also.

From here we may go over to Moab, Utah for a stay. From there we are not quite sure which way we will head.
The weather has been great. Here in Durango it is warm during the day but cools off very nicely at night.

Well, that is about all for now. Hope all is well with everyone and that you are enjoying the summer! Remember t
that we love to hear from you also. You can either e-mail me at boatgoddess@earthlink.net or John at
sloboat@earthlink.net.

Take care, until later,

Candy and Johnny on the road in Colorado

These are the pictures that did not come through with the Santa Fe blog of June 16, 2008


Sorry, but that is computers Candy

Santa Fe, New Mexico June 17, 2008

Tuesday, June 17 we decided to venture into town. The city bus ran from our Rv Park and for $1 you get an all day pass. Rather than fight the traffic and the parking this was our mode of
transportation for the day.


The bus dropped us off right in the center of town where we proceeded to the town Plaza. This is the heart of Santa Fe and in the past was used for religious and military ceremonies, daily markets. It marked the end of the Santa Fe Trail from 1821, when the territory opened.

We walked around the plaza and came to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The Cathedral was finished in 1869. It is a great dramatic contrast to Santa Fe's adobe architecture with its Romanesque style. It houses a beloved 380-year-old statue of the Virgin Mary. As there was to be a celebration for the Bishop later that evening we were unable to go into the church, we were only permitted to look in the windows.
The next stop on our tour was the Loretto Chapel. It was built in 1873 and is an impressive, stone, Gothic chapel built for the Sisters of Loretto and called The Chapel of Our Lady of Light. A miraculous, spiral staircase with legend is part of the chapel. The chapel was patterned after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It was to be 25' by 75' and 85' in height, with a choir loft at the rear. When the structure was about finished it was discovered that an error or omission had crept in somewhere along the line. The chapel was beautiful and so was the choir loft, but there was no way to get up to the loft. Because of the height of the loft, a conventional stairway would take up too much room in the chapel below. It was a question of wither using a ladder or rebuilding the balcony.
The Sisters of Loretto were quite disappointed, but being ladies of great faith, they decided to do nothing drastic, to wait awhile, and t make a novena of Saint Joseph. As the legend goes, it was on the last day of the novena that a gray-haired man with a donkey and a tool chest stopped by the Chapel. He wanted to know if he could be of some help to the Sisters in the building of a stairway. The only tools used by the old man were a saw, a T square, and a hammer, along with a bucket of water that the man filled with water and soaked pieces of wood. When the stairway was finished Mother Magdelene looked around for the man to pay for the work he could not be found. Even the local lumber yard had no record of any wood being purchased for the project. The stairway, which the builder apparently left as a gift for the Sisters is circular, consisting of 33 steps and two complete turns of 360 degrees each, without a center support. It rests against the loft at the top ad of the floor at the bottom, where the entire weight appears to be supported. Wooden pegs, rather than nails, were used throughout. the wood used is not native to New Mexico, where it was obtained is still a mystery. The staircase was built without a railing and one was added two years later.

Many experts marvel at the construction and felt with out a center support is should have crashed in a heap the first time is was used, yet it still stands today after many years of daily use.
Some want to believe that the carpenter was Saint Joseph himself. Regardless of how willing one might be to accept this legend of the Miracle Staircase, one cannot help but be impressed by its architectural beauty, its engineering design, and its sound construction that has stood the test of time.

Further around the square is the Hotel, LaFonda, which was once a Harvey House. If you have seen the movie "The Harvey Girls" with Judy Garland, you would know that Harvey Houses were built by Mr. Harvey to feed the passengers off the railroad trains that came through the towns on the Santa Fe trail.

We ate lunch in a local restaurant which was very good. Walking around town there are so many shops with jewelry and souvenirs that you get dizzy with so many stores. So we finished our tour and caught the bus back to our RV Park.

That is all for today. We are leaving for Durango, Co. in the morning so will catch up later.
Candy and Johnny

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Monday, June 16. As it was still early we decided to drive north of the city to see what there was to find.
Our first stop was at the San Ildefonso Pueblo spread among cotton-woods between the rushing Rio Grands and towering Black Mesa. The village is known for its fine pottery, and you can meet the artists who create it.

From there our tour took us to the White Rock Overlook , with its sweeping view of the Rio Grands far below. The scenery was spectacular! The photo does not do it justice!

Continuing on we entered the town of Los Alamos, where World War II's secret Manhattan Project created the first atomic bombs. Closed to the public until 1957, Los Alamos now welcomes visitors eager to learn about its state- of -the -art research at the Bradley Science Museum. The Bradley Museum is free to the public and offers more than 40 high-tech interactive exhibits. There is an excellent time line of events leading up to World War II and the development of the secret project to develop a new weapon, one the derived its power from splitting the atom.

The photo at the left are mock-ups of the bombs named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man"

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the premier scientific institutions in the history of the world. The core mission of the Laboratory is national security. Scientific discovery and technology advances to ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, reduce the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and counter terrorism. In addition, a broad variety of Lab programs are aimed as solving national problems in the areas of defense, energy, environment, health and infrastructure. A most interesting place.

We then found ourselves at the Bandelier National Monument. Here we found Ancestral Pueblo dwellings scattered across a landscape of broad mesas with steep walled canyons. The main trail (a 1.2 mile loop) in Frijoles Canyon provided access to the remains of ancient
homes, Like the past inhabitants, you can climb ladders into several of the small carved rooms (cavates).

There was much more to see and do here but our time was short as the park was about to close. Another day!

That is all for this entry, tomorrow we are off to see the town of Santa Fe.

Until later,
Candy and Johnny

Port Gibson June 13, 2008

"

On Friday we drove down to Port Gibson, south of Vicksburg. It was a warm sunny day and a beautiful drive. We stopped by the Ruins of Windsor. It was built in 1860, west of Port Gibson by Smith C. Daniell, II. Unfortunately Smith died shortly after the house was completed. His family continued to live there but struggled during the war. In 1890 the main structure was destroyed by fire, leaving only the stately columns as mute evidence of a glorious, historic past. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We stopped at the Grand Gulf Military Park. The park is a Civil War Battlefield site. We climbed the observation tower to get a glimpse of the Mississippi River. There are many buildings and artifacts including a cemetery on the grounds.

Port Gibson provided a unique chapter in the pages of American History, During the Civil War it grew in strategic value as the struggle for the control of the Mississippi River intensified. General Grant made Port Gibson his first objective in his 1863 campaign to capture Vicksburg.

Port Gibson is a beautiful town with many antebellum homes along Church Street. General Grant is reported to have spared the town because it was "too beautiful to burn".

After returning to Vicksburg we went to Goldies for BBQ which was great!

Saturday morning we left Vicksburg at 6am and headed west across Louisiana and Texas. Shortly before coming into Dallas we encountered rain. This is the first time that we have driven in rain since we bought the coach last year. The traffic in Dallas was awful! We finally made it through Dallas and on to Denton, just to the North of town. It was a long day of driving. Got some laundry done and a good nights sleep before we were off again on Sunday morning, early once again. Today we are headed to Amarillo for the night and to watch the NASCAR race.

Tomorrow, Monday, June 16, we are headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a couple of days to see the sights.

That is all for today. We wish all the fathers out there a Happy Father's Day.

Be sure and scroll down and see the photos that I posted for our Vicksburg stop and see the grave marker for Daniel the Camel.

Until the next time.

Candy and Johnny

National Battlefield Park

 

 

 

Here are some photos from our Thursday outing.
Candy

Vicksburg, Mississipppi

Thursday, June 12,2008
It is going to be a very hot and humid day here again today, but we decided to venture out to see the sights.

This morning we decided to go to the Vicksburg National Military Park. This is where the battle for Vicksburg took place for 47 days in 1863. The battlefield is covered in trees since then so you have to imagine open field with the North and the South fighting eachother across the open fields that were on the banks of the Mississippi. It takes about 2 hours to drive thruogh the park and visit all the stops along the way. We had a CD that was a self guided tour that was a huge help.

In the park is a meuseum there that contains the remains of the gunboat Cairo. It was one of seven city class ships named in honor of towns along the upper Mississippi. These powerful ironclads were formidable vessels, each mounting thirteen big guns. On tghem rested, in large part, Northern hopes to regain control of the lower Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two.
As the gun boats passed Vicksburg in the night disaster struck the Cairo, she was rocked by two explosion which tore holes inn the ship's hull. She sank in twelve minutes and was the first ship in history to bge sunk by and electrically detonated torpedo. All on board survived. The smoke stacks were cut down so that the South would not know just where she sank and there she lay in the mud until 1956 when efforts were made to raise her and reveal her treasure of weapons, munitions, an array of naval stores, and the personal gear of the dailors who served on boad were recovered.

Also in the park there is a National Cemetery that contains the remains of 17,000 Federal soldiers and sailors, not all casualties of the Vicksburg Campaign. Only 4,000 are identified; the remainder are unknown. Upright gravestones are used to former, while small blocks of stone are used to indicate the latter.

Confederate dead from the Vicksburg Campaign are buried in the Vicksburg City Cemetery. There are approximately 5,000 Confederates intered there, of which 1,600 are identified. We also found the grave of Douglas... old Douglas was the faithful, patient" camel of the 43rd Infantry Vols. CSA.

From here we went to the Walnut Hill for llunch of fried chicken with all the southern fixin's. It was the best fired chicken that I have ever had!!

We did some more touring around town and down by the river where there are murels painted along the walk depicting the history of Vicksburg.

That is about all for today. Check in later and I will add some photos. Until then.

Love and Miss you all (that's y'all).
Candy and Johnny

Summer 2008 RV Trip

 
 
 


Hi All, We are off again! We left Palm Coast,FL on Monday, June 9 at 7:45am. We drove 393 miles to Troy, AL. It was an easy drive and the weather was sunny and warm. We stayed overnight at the Deer Run RV Park. As with all new trips we ran into some small trouble. The hot water heater was not working. Thank goodness for the FMCA travel assistance program that we have. We called them and they sent us up to the Alabama Motor Coach, Inc. in Montgomery,AL.
They were very nice and got right on the problem. It took all day from 9:40am until 3:40pm to find and fix the problem. I have to say that the cost was not as much as I would have thought. Anyway it was fixed and we were off once again. We stayed overnight in Montgomery,Al at the Capital City RV Park. We were off again the next day at 6:30am, headed to Vicksburg,MS. We are at the Magnolia RV Park in Vicksburg. It is very hot and humid here but plan on staying here for several days as there is so much Civil War history here.

We have found out that Mississippi is known at the Magnolia state and there are Magnolia trees everywhere! It was also the 20th state admitted into the union.

There is so much to see here in Vicksburg. For the history buff, there is the 1,800-acre National Military Park, America's most monumented national park, where the fate of a nation was decided in 1863 during the war of Northern agression (as John calls it! ... remember, he is from Alabama). Historic Downtown Vicksburg offers a variety of restaurants and shops. So far we have gone to the Cornor Drug Store that has a huge collection of Civil War artifacts and the Coca-Cola Museum, where the first ever Coca-Cola was bottled in 1894 and to the Old Court House Museum, a National Landmark, which survived thr Civil War with minimal damage. It now houses over 10,000 artifacts from pre-Columbian times to present day. They also have dockside casinos where we stopped but did not try our luck. There are also many antebellum homes that we plan to visit.


Well, that is all for tonight. I will have more later. Hope all is well with everyone. Remember to keep in touch with us this summer. We miss you all.

Candy and Johnny