Road Trips 2011

[Gene]

Terry, we just rearranged our plans for Sept. and signed up for the Balloons. I've asked Ken for more information on another thread and I guess there are spaces left, but will wait for a reply from him before making reservations in Alb. for the night before—I found a few spots in an Alb. CG and will reserve as soon as I am sure.

This means we won't go to see the Pacific in early Sept. as there isn't enough time to do both, but we can fit in a trip to the Montana Rockies, or Idaho, or someplace with trees and cool nights.

Gene

[Gene]

Balloon Fiesta: we'll be there and have a reservation at Enchanted Trails RV park near the Camping World where people will assemble for caravan to Fiesta grounds.

Back to Canyons of the Ancients NM. First we went to Lowry Pueblo, about 30 miles from Cortez off of US 491. It's paved road most of the way except for dirt for a 100 yards for so once you get into the NM. The ruins are partly covered by a large pole barn to reduce deterioration. When we got there we had the whole place to ourselves. There are picnic tables and pit toilets. I would not bring a trailer in as the last part of the road is narrow. Constructed about 1060 and inhabited for about 165 years. It had about 40 rooms.

Photos:

1. The info about it shows plaster covered walls as it was originally.
2. A view of part of the ruins with the canopy or pole barn.
3. Ruins next to canopy.
4. Ruins under canopy.

[Gene]

The Great Kiva was a community room and ceremonial space. There have only been about a dozen Great Kivas discovered and this was much larger than the ones we have seen before.

1. Not having a wide angle lens, I could only get photos of parts of it. The stone figure on the floor is either a winter or summer deity. There is also a place with a raised platform to hold a pole which helped support the roof. On the other side is the other—summer or winter, they were not individually identified.
2. The opening in the wall may have been where there were stairs into the Kiva, or a ventilation hole. The Kivas we have seen elsewhere would have ventilation at the side, but this looked different and may have been an entrance.
3. After we were there a while, 2 young guys came along and we saw them doing what you are not supposed to do, walk on the walls.

Gene

[Denis4x4]

Sold our t@b and delivering it to Chama NM next week. Then it's time to get the AS ready for a week over at Bogan Flats between Marble and Redstone. Just got back from a road trip to Lincoln NB with the Hallmark pop top camper pulling my speedster on a flatbed trailer. The Hallmark is one of the few things ( including the AS) that exceeded my expectations when it comes to quality and design. Planning on more car events now that I have the camper.

[Gene]

One way to understand the relationships between peoples is to know something about what languages they speak and what groups those languages belong to. One large group is Athabaskan. Navajo and Apache both speak Athabaskan languages. The Navajo calls themselves Diné, The People. There are several tribes in NW Canada and NE Alaska also called Diné. When we were in Dawson City in 2006, we visited the Diné museum there and found out some Navajo had visited there several years before and told them they had the same name and many of the same words. A long lost tribe, the Naha, are subject of stories in the Northwest Territories' Nahanni NP area. Since the word Navajo is supposed to come from the Pueblo Indians, this connection is unproven and when were in the NWT we asked some people in a museum about that and they found a reference to the Naha in an old book, but knew nothing about the tribe.

Some of the Pueblo Indians of today speak variations of Tiwa and others speak Keres. Keres may be related to the Uto-Aztecan group. The Aztecs spoke a variety of Uto-Aztecan called Nahautl and some still speak it in central Mexico. Aztec legend is that they migrated from somewhere in the north and were a fierce warrior tribe. Their legends said they came south around 1100-1300 from a place with herons, possibly an island, so they may not have come from the southwest. They called themselves "Mexica" which in 16th Century Spanish—the people who wrote these words down—would have been pronounced "Mesh-ika". Later the value of "x" became like the English "h" or "j" in Spanish. The Utes have 3 reservations in Colorado and Utah, quite close to the ancestral Pueblo or Anasazi lands. Before the last century they were nomads, and don't appear to have the same traditions as the Anasazi, though there are language relationships. The Hopi, who live on reservation surrounded by the Navajo, speak a Uto-Aztecan language called Hopi. They believe they are the descendants of the Anasazi as well. Like the Pueblos to the south and east and the Anasazi, they favor square buildings while the Navajo built round ones—Hogans. My 15 minute search did not reveal much about Tiwa. It may be part of the Kiowa-Tanaon group which comes from far to the east. What did the Anasazi speak? Maybe some earlier versions of Tiwa and Keres—I could see nothing showing a relationship between them.

All these language groups overlap and things changed many times over centuries. If the Anasazi spoke both early Tiwa and Keres it is possible they were not as homogenous as usually thought, or they simply split and some adopted another language.

Some Indians moved around a lot and others were more settled and agricultural. The Anasazi were settled, the Navajo and Ute were not for many centuries. The Navajo were seen as raiders by the Pueblo villages and the Spanish conquerors. There appears to be a lot of movement from 1100-1400 with some groups migrating south and east and some moving into the southwest to fill the void.

Maybe our resident linguists, Lynn and Maria, know more about this.

Gene

[Gene]

Painted Hand Pueblo is much smaller than Lowry and little remains. But much of this national monument has not been excavated, and when it has, often the area is backfilled to protect it and someday may be re-excavated and stabilized. There is little money for such things these days. It had about 20 rooms and instead of being on a hill like Lowry—a defensive position—is below a canyon rim. The area commands a view of the valley below and across to other hills. There may have been other communities nearby on the flatlands that could warn the resident here of any danger. About a 1/4 mile away, along the access road, there is a sign offering lots with ruins on them. The name comes from 2 white outlines of hands under a rock overhang within what was once a room. Handprints on rocks are common through the Four Corners, but most I've seen are red.

The county road to the area is paved, but the spur into here is a rutted dirt road. It had tire tracks about 4" deep and there must have been some serious rain and mud a week or two before. Unless graded, it is not for the family sedan. A primitive parking area is about a mile in and then there's a sign on the trail saying 1/4 mile to tower. A spur from the main trail has a sign, "Tower" and we followed it down some benches until we could see the tower below us. It is about 2 stories high and partly obscured by a tree. You can climb down to the tower from here, but I didn't because of old age, but trophy wife Barb did and wandered around for a while while I sat on a ledge bemoaning my arthritis, my declining body and what I used to do. Could I still scramble down 600' canyons as we did 23 years ago on our honeymoon? My young bride returned and we followed the main trail a hundred yards and it lead down to ruins—a much easier (not easy for me) way down and saw the hands, some more ruins and then the tower. We came back up the trail I had not wanted to go down because I couldn't see what it was like. My knees were unhappy, but I did it. We wondered if there were other communities across the valley and the tower was built to see them?

The next post with photos will be of Sand Canyon Pueblo.

Gene

Photos:

1. The tower from above.
2. The hands in an alcove with ruin below (not visible).
3. Ruins, possibly of anther tower.
4. The tower from below. Under the rock on which the tower was built there were one or two rooms in the alcove.

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

...Maybe our resident linguists, Lynn and Maria, know more about this. Gene

Not much more than what you wrote. (My specialization was generative approaches to acquisition, not Native American linguistics.) However, there are plenty of sources on the internet for that kind of info. Just do a search for "Native American languages."


Lynn

[Gene]

Lynn, I'm kinda wondering what "generative approaches to acquisition means", but probably don't want to know. This is probably a subject—Indian languages—that doesn't interest many people. I did see that Zuni or Zuñi is also a separate language from Keres and Tiwa. Various dialects, such as Towa and Tewa also exist. Zuni is also spelled Zuñi, the Spanish spelling, and indicates the "ñ" has been lost in English, but the word should be pronounced "Zunyi".

A lot of distinct languages are compacted into the small area of the Four Corners and the Rio Grande Valley indicating no one conquered anyone and forced language abandonment until Europeans arrived. All survive, although there may be only thousands or fewer speakers. Much interest in saving native languages has emerged in recent years.

Navajo has 180,000-200,000 speakers, but when you hear a Navajo native speaker speak English, they have virtually no accent (the only thing we can distinguish is a soft "d" which sounds almost like "th"). Navajo is a very difficult language for English speakers and when we listen to the Navajo radio station, sounds like a language that has a very long ago relationship with Chinese without so much tonal influence. If I live long enough, maybe I'll find time to study it. It has a sound and cadence that we find fascinating.

Sand Canyon is coming, but we haven't even unhitched the truck.

Gene

[eubank]

Gene, here, go study the meaning of this famous quotation:

"A language is a dialect with an army and a navy."

Generative approaches to acquisition involve the application of linguistic theory to the logical problem posed by language acquisition.


Lynn

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Lynn, I'm kinda wondering what "generative approaches to acquisition means", but probably don't want to know. This is probably a subject—Indian languages—that doesn't interest many people. I did see that Zuni or Zuñi is also a separate language from Keres and Tiwa. Various dialects, such as Towa and Tewa also exist. Zuni is also spelled Zuñi, the Spanish spelling, and indicates the "ñ" has been lost in English, but the word should be pronounced "Zunyi".

A lot of distinct languages are compacted into the small area of the Four Corners and the Rio Grande Valley indicating no one conquered anyone and forced language abandonment until Europeans arrived. All survive, although there may be only thousands or fewer speakers. Much interest in saving native languages has emerged in recent years.

Navajo has 180,000-200,000 speakers, but when you hear a Navajo native speaker speak English, they have virtually no accent (the only thing we can distinguish is a soft "d" which sounds almost like "th"). Navajo is a very difficult language for English speakers and when we listen to the Navajo radio station, sounds like a language that has a very long ago relationship with Chinese without so much tonal influence. If I live long enough, maybe I'll find time to study it. It has a sound and cadence that we find fascinating.

Sand Canyon is coming, but we haven't even unhitched the truck.

Gene

[Gene]

The truck got unhitched, the trailer is plugged into shore power, the TPMS sensors stored until the next trip.

Sand Canyon Pueblo had about 420 rooms, 100 kivas and 14 towers and was inhabited in the 1200's. It was in a U at the head of a canyon and had some plazas where people would work outside. A spring ran at the center of the settlement, but we couldn't see that it still ran. It may have been downhill, out of sight.

The site was partially excavated from 1983 to 1993 and then filled in to preserve it. Today what you see are mounds of rock where a long high wall on the upside of the canyon was—it may have been a defensive fortification. You can see other evidence of ruins, but towers are not visible. The trail runs from one end of the U to the other. Trees and bushes have grown throughout the settlement and make it hard to imagine what it was like.

It is likely all the surrounding trees had been cut down when the pueblo was built—woods was used to hold up roofs, provide lintels, and for cooking and heating. We have been in Cortez in November when it was in the upper teens; here it would be colder since it is higher. Lots of wood would be burned to keep warm. Today there is a dense piñon/juniper forest, but humans are known for depleting resources and this type of forest grows back very, very slowly. Once the settlement was well populated, residents would have to go further and further for wood. Once the forest is removed, the infrequent, but often torrential (and short) rains would run off fast, muddying the spring and quickly disappear instead being absorbed into the soils.

So, when you look at the photos, imagine no forest. There was a small town of mini-condos surrounding the head of the canyon with towers and plazas.

Next Rico, Lizard Head Pass and home.

Gene

Photos:

1. Taken from one end of the U towards the other end. We could see some ruins amongst the trees and maybe they can be seen on the photo, two places, center right.
2. Remains of the exterior wall.
3. More ruins.
4. Prickly pear cactus in bloom along the trail.

[Gene]

In our continuing upgrading of electrical things, I just ordered a Surge Guard to be hard wired into the system. The ones that plug into the campground box can be stolen (although there's a lock that can be bought), cost more and are just another thing to do when we arrive and leave. Hard wiring will require some extra wire and a junction box I think, but we'll see when it arrives.

I think it has lights on it to tell me things, so I'd like to mount it next to the converter panel on the side of the bed if I can avoid exposed 120 v. wires (they would wake me up fast when I put my leg down on the floor). Even if the lights don't tell me anything, I like red and green lights that go on and off because they look cool.

The good part is I managed to piggy back 3 discounts from Camping World—one for renewing the card, 10% for president's club, 20% for this item. Best price I could find on the internet by a few bucks. If you are thinking of getting a Surge Guard, the coupon # is 1043 and is good until July 11. You'd need the coupon if you go to a store, but not on the phone or internet.

Gene

[Gene]

I promised photos of Rico, an old mining town between Cortez and Telluride.

I chose the places to take the 2 photos of "downtown" because I could easily park there. The 3rd is behind downtown. The 4th photo is a view from Lizard Head Pass. I don't remember the name of the mountain, but you can't see Lizard Head Mtn. from the Pass.

Next week we go to Pueblo to see Barb's parents and then to Denver for a wedding. This is not very exciting. Towards the end of the month, we go to Alb. for a funeral and Barb's grandmother's 102nd birthday; we will stay in Santa Fe. These are not what I call road trips, but we will have the trailer. August is open so far. We may escape to higher country.

[OB Bambi]

Hey Gene: Where's the blonde model? In a broccoli field?

[Gene]

It's Marilyn Monroe dressed in a potato sack standing in an Idaho potato field. You can buy the poster at the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot.

I never bothered before to put the little picture in there. Who knows what's next?

Gene

[Gene]

The problem with my new MacBook is sometimes I am writing a post and it disappears. Not being a great typist—fast, but inaccurate—I hit a key that does that, but don't know what key that is. So, I begin again.

This is not really a road trip—it is a trip, and we have used roads, but not really going somewhere new or somewhere old we have explored before. This is visiting Barb's parents and then going to Denver to attend a wedding and see some friends and do some shopping. I think if we didn't take the trailer, it might have cost less since we'd use less gas and Barb's parents have not charged us to stay at their house. But we like our trailer bed and having a kitchen even though we have been eating out a lot. The restaurants have been disappointing. Denver's Imperial Palace (Chinese) used to be quite good, but yesterday food and service was mediocre. This restaurant has been around for decades and is something of an institution.

We stayed at the Pueblo KOA for 2 nights. It is located 6 miles north of the northern I-25/US 50 interchange in the desert. It is a well kept park with desert trees for a little shade. Fortunately it was not a 100+ degrees, a temp all too common in Pueblo in the summer. Wifi works pretty well. The owners have an Avion. Propane was reasonable for an RV park. Pueblo does not have much in RV campgrounds and this KOA os the closest place to the city that is decent.

Here, actually in Golden, we are at Dakota Ridge RV Park. This is the first place we ever camped at in 2007 since it is fairly near the dealer where we bought the Safari. When you walk in the office, the first thing you see are numerous signs telling you what you can't do. Guys on golf carts are constantly patrolling the grounds. When I said "there are a lot of rules", I was told they were "policies" as if that meant something. Since we are mostly out doing things the atmosphere doesn't matter much. I think this park was built when RVs weren't so big, so with a large population of motorhomes, a lot of toads are crammed in, sometimes partly on the access roads making maneuvering a challenge in some places. We are where the plains and the mountains meet. This is an ancient ocean bed. The park is built on a slope and soils here are unconsolidated and when they get wet, have a tendency to move downward slightly. Over time, it matters. Back in the '90's many houses in a subdivision not far from here were sliding down the slopes and had to be stabilized at great expense. Many lawsuits resulted. Our concrete pad was probably level when it was poured, but not now. We got the trailer level, but the slope on the pad was more than I've seen on a concrete pad. Our steps are so high off the ground, the gold cart guy has a wooden step available so we don't have to jump down. The park is well landscaped and kept clean. Wifi is ok except during the evening and morning just before people leave; bandwidth is insufficient. This is the usual case with wifi in the past year at most parks and a lot better than many in Cal. last fall. This is the almost the only place we've ever stayed in Denver and I'm not sure there is anything better. We did stay at another place here on West Colfax several years ago, Golden Terrace, and it was a long term park with very narrow sites and we've never gone back. Dakota Ridge is not a pleasing place located in an industrial/commercial area and if you like to sit outside a lot, it it probably noisy. It serves our purposes, but would not make everyone happy.

For the past week the Front Range has had daily severe thunderstorms, flash flood watches and warnings and some hail. We fear hail as large hail can mean a totaled Airstream. Denver has had some legendary hailstorms resulting in many millions, sometimes billions of dollars, of damage. We don't usually come to Denver in midsummer, but here we are. The monsoon season usually doesn't start until August, but not this year. We've had some heavy rain and thunder and lightning, but no floods and no hail. It's been in the low to mid 90's. Much has been written on the Forum about A/C when the temp is over 90˚, but we've been keeping it cool. A tip by Bob Cross seems to work—turn on the A/C to 60˚ when you arrive and the A/C compressor runs more and cools off the trailer faster than setting it in the 70's. But when I turn off the A/C to run the microwave, within a minute I can feel the heat coming through the minimal insulation. Makes me wonder what an RV park pays for electricity in the summer.

Weddings are not something I get excited about, unless it is my own. The wedding was held at place in the foothills near Lyons, an hour plus north of Golden. A very nice location. This place seems to have weddings all the time and the staff was very organized most of the time. The ceremony was supposed to be outside and started, but just before the bride showed, it started raining, the wind got intense and we all went inside the milled around for a while. The rain stopped in about 10 minutes, the chairs were dried off and the wedding started again. Lightning to the south threatened, but no more rain, the bride was beautiful, both were very nervous even though they have been together for at least 6 years since they were 16, and all was well. We got back to the Safari at 10:30 exhausted after a long day. Today Barb is at Summerfest in Evergreen seeing a friend and I am wasting time, reading and relaxing, much better than being at home and changing oil, wondering whether to mow more grass (weeds more likely) and fixing something.

Tomorrow we go home and have 4 days to fix things, change oil and filter, grease the truck, install an inline surge protector in the trailer, go to the doctor and get ready to go to Santa Fe and a funeral service and birthday celebration in Albuquerque—not exactly a road trip either.

Gene

[ROBERT CROSS]

Gene,

I came back from the worm hole in a mac, have you tried composing in text/edit and pasting.

Sometimes my head won't keep up with my hands and it works better if I sit on my fingers and wait for things to straighten out.

Glad you had FUN at the wedding. I've found from experience that if DW has fun so do I.
I just don't realize it right away.

Bob

[Lily&Me]

It may not be a trip, per se, but any time on the road in our Interstate is more fun than being at home.

We, too, like sleeping in our own bed and having the little kitchen to make our coffee, etc.

Travel safe,


Maggie

[OB Bambi]

Gene:
Here's a little more triva regarding Marilyn. She was the queen of the Artichoke festival in Castroville, CA (The Artichoke Capital of the World). Her likeness is still on Main Street there. If you can't guess, it was before she struck it big in Hollywood. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it.

Randy Bowman

[Gene]

We are home and I need to get something fixed on the Tundra. I think one brake rotor is slightly warped. When I cam going downhill, especially long grades with the trailer, I get brake chatter. I think it is coming from the left front wheel. Coming down McClure Pass, even though I was geared down, it got worse than it has before and I stopped. The front rotors were around 230˚. I think the heat under this type of situation is causing just enough expansion for warped rotor to act that way. I hardly used the brakes the next 50 miles, gearing down a lot, and when we got home the rotors were 100˚cooler and no chatter the rest of the way.

This is not a particularly hard thing to check and fix, but I have little time for the next 4 days and have to be on the road with the truck early Friday. I also need to do an oil change. I don't know whether the Toyota dealer will do this fast and will find out soon enough. I haven't got time to blunder through this.

And, Randy, I would like to see Marilyn dressed as an artichoke. I couldn't find a photo, but here's a story:
Monterey Peninsula Factoids: Marilyn Monroe, Artichoke Queen

Gene


Gene

[Frank&Mike]

Your road trips have been interesting to follow and the photos enjoyable to view. Hopefully we will get to see some photos from your upcoming trip to NM.

We are so anxious to get out on the road ... but unfortunately I travel every week with work so our trips this summer and have been few and far between. So following your trips allows us the opportunity to enjoy some sites and travels through your eyes.