Mesa Verde, co

Home of the Aztec Indians of Colorado

July 9, 2005

Penny rekindles her archeological fires!

Penny has a masters degree in Biological Anthropology from Cambridge University in England. Her deep love of culture and history pretty much guarantees that I will get my own, private guided tour of about any society which has left ruins! Here Penny is looking at the stone work in the Aztec’s homes in Mesa Verde. As you can see above, the natives lived under ledges along the cliffs in the canyons of the Mese Verde area. The architecture, although over 1,000 years old, was VERY impressive! It makes you realize that we really haven’t evolved much in many ways!

July 9, 2005

Ancient Aztec Art

11:00 AM
Penny looks inside one of the Aztec dwellings and comes to the realization that these people couldn’t have been very large because this was on of their entry doors. When Penny looked up and to the right, she saw this beautiful Aztec wall painting, which I photographed so we could share the experience with you and others.

Sacred Water Hole
The park ranger informed us that this water hole was one of the only sources of water for some distance
and that the local Indians worshiped this water as sacred. To this very day, Aztec Indians come to collect
this water for healing purposes, and to continue their worship of this special water source. The water seeps into this spot slowly from the rocks and although the supply is not large in volume, it has apparently been
consistent for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Earth, Home, Spirit

The Kiva
Looking at the larger photo on your left, you can see round pits called “Kivas”. These were covered with a thatch roof of sorts when the Indians lived in them. In the bottom is a hole that may have been used for a fire to keep warm. In each Kiva, just in front of the fire pit, there was a small hole (see bottom photo). The Aztecs believed that the human spirit came up out of the earth through these holes that were made in all kivas to facilitate growth and development of the tribe; new human spirits given to them by Mother Earth. It was impressed with how evolved their spiritual philosophy and astrology was!

July 10, 2005

Heading home by way of Flagstaff, AZ

Morning Workout!
While on the road, I worked out with Russian Kettle bells and Clubbells and stayed in great shape!

Four Corners + Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico

It’s mid-day and VERY HOT!
In route home we passed through Four Corners, where four US states meet. Here you can see this little guy trying to add consciousness to this region of the world. I told him he would probably be more needed at the White House!

Flagstaff, Arizona
We stopped at this beautiful National Park in Flagstaff to stretch our legs. Flagstaff is an absolutely beautiful mountain town. And, I found an excellent espresso shop after a long wait as we waded through many little po-dunk towns on the way where all they drank was typical American crap coffee...how does anyone drink that stuff? I was very impressed by the Flagstaff Park Ranger’s attempts to preserve the soil. Signs warned you not to damage the little soil organisms that are so vital to protecting the soil and plant life...which feads the animal life...

HOME STRETCH!

El Centro, California...Life and Death!
Late in the day as the sun was beginning to set, we came into El Centro. It is very hot here and El Centro is the beginning of a large farming community. I took this photo because we had just come out of the Arizona desert and were now bordering farmlands and here, you can literally see the desert (right of highway) meet the beginnings of life (left of highway). And man, as usual, is draws yet another dividing line.

WILL THERE BE FOOD IN JULIAN AT 10:00 PM? 9:20 PM
We’ve been driving all day and we are HUNGRY. But, as you can see, Julian is still 50 miles away, and this is
50 miles of goat trails too....not smooth highway driving. Being a little cow town in the mountains of California
not but an hour’s drive from our home in Vista, Ca, Penny and I were not sure if we would get to eat a real dinner. Unfortunately, everything was closed so we snacked on carrots and bits n pieces until we made it home to eat some canned fish. We were tired and the house was empty...

Next Morning
I am ALWAYS excited to return to my library. I absolutely love it in my library and if it weren’t for the fact that I really love sleeping with Penny (she’s nicer to cuddle than even my best books!), I would never leave there.

Silver Cloud
I hadn’t ridden my lovely Harley Davidson Road King in some time and boy was it nice to ride her to work; I call her my fat chick on the side!