Thurs. May 12, 2011

Miles from Wednesday: 340 miles and about 4.5 - 5 hours of driving.

Thursday we went straight down the road a few minutes to Mesa Verde National Park. Jeff and I have been here before, childless. It's hard to imagine ever having been childless, especially after 4 days in the car from SC to now CO. Actually though, everyone is doing quite well and traveling great. Although I must say baby Katharine Ellis is the best little traveler I've ever seen. She hardly wakes up except to eat and sometimes I have to wake her up for this. She'll stay awake for a little bit and look at and grab toys we hang from her car seat but then the motion of driving puts her back into slumberland quickly.

Mesa Verde with its Indian dwellings was more fasciniating than when we went before. Jeff and I had not taken a guided tour before. We got Junior Ranger books at the Visitor Center and that gave us some activities to do in the car as there is some driving inside the park from overlook to dwellings. We stopped at a couple of the dwellings you explore on your own and the guided tour was great. Called Balcony House, this dwelling can only be reached by a 32 ft. ladder going up the side of the cliff area and is only exited by climbing through an 18 inch wide 12 ft. long tunnel. We thought this one would be great fun for the children and it was. Asking about the tunnel, etc... the guide at the VC where you purchase tickets thought we were concerned about carrying the baby through and kept reassuring us it was very possible. No, that's not the concern, it's me, I finally said; I'm scared of heights and small enclosed places, like tunnels. I think they got a big laugh out of that. If you're wondering, we carried the baby in a front pack facing the chest. Actually Jeff did, I had enough trouble getting up the ladder without looking down much less carrying anyone. The children were scrambling ahead and trying to "help" me. "Come on Mommy, you can do it; it's not much farther." At some point, do they become the parents and I the child?