Day 6. Morning. June 5th.

Day 6. Morning. June 5th.

Included in the pix is a shot of our security chief, Ranger, taking a well-earned rest after a grueling security check undercover. He’s very conscientious about his undercover work, does a thorough check every morning, seeking out terrorists, thieves and rapists. He keeps his findings to himself, isn’t much for either verbal or written reports but that’s okay cuz his judgment on these matters is legendary. He is the security chief after all.

Chaco’s amazing, a center of activity and culture circa 800-1150, they built dams, canals, 400 miles of roads, all with stone tools. Several great houses with 500+ rooms and sophisticated masonry have been excavated but hundreds of smaller dwellings have not. They traded far and wide, some of the artifacts such as seashells and conches coming from the Pacific coast and chocolate from Central/South America.

This seems an unlikely spot for 2000-6000 people to live for over 300 years. It gets down to 35 below in the winter, 100+ above in summer, elevation is 6200’, and average rainfall is 8”. The culture, activity and occupancy shriveled in the latter years, due, it’s thought, to a major long-term drought. The people dispersed, heading for greener pastures.

Just a minute: now that I think on it for a bit, the upper midwest has the same temperature spread – and it’s NOT a dry heat.

If you want to learn more about Chaco, you can check out the national park system website or of course you can google it and get a zillion hits.

Hot here, 97 high yesterday, same forecasted for today, about 10 degrees above normal. We’ll be doing a guided tour of the largest ruin, Pueblo Bonito, see brochure pix, this AM, and also viewing some of the other lesser ruins. We originally scheduled 3 nights here but 2 will do it. Had planned 2 nights in Durango, will expand that to 3, maybe get the RV leak fixed, play some golf.

Had salmon over the campfire last night, with sides of snow peas and heavy duty whole grain French bread; leftovers tonight.

Yeah, I know: one of the pix is up there twice. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to delete pix.