familyvacations

Summer Road Trip to Visit Family: Everyone

(Jun 05)

This summer we went to visit Lupe's family in Texas. We drove strait down spending the night just outside of Albuquerque. On our way, we stopped at a rest stop in Spanish Fork Canyon. There the girls found some Prairie Dogs that they watched and followed around. The girls had a blast, and as unplanned as it was this was one of the highlights of the trip for them and us as their parents. It is amazing how the little things can be so precious.

After spending the night in Albuquerque, we then drove the rest of the way to Odessa Texas. For the first few days we stayed at a hotel on the north side of town. There we relaxed and spent the time visiting Lupe's brothers. The kids enjoyed swimming at the pool in the hotel. It was very hot everyday, so the high point of the day was swimming in the pool in the evenings.

After staying in the hotel we went and spent several nights at David and Francis' house. They were very gracious hosts and we enjoyed staying with them. We invited them to come visit us in Salt Lake, but as always Lupe's family tells us that they are coming to visit and they never do. We spent a week visiting Lupe's family in Odessa, and then we left to go to the even hotter climate of the El Paso/Juarez valley. Juarez has become a huge city and it is nothing like when I was there on my mission. There, we visited Lupe's sister's on both side of the boarder. Lupe's sister in Juarez lives in an extremely poor neighborhood. However, they are very happy and have lots of family to make their lives full and happy.

Lupe's other sister in El Paso came to the hotel to visit us and go swimming. They live in a trailer and they don't have much room, so we chose to stay in a hotel during our stay.

The pool was dirty (it was a days inn), but that did not stop anyone, because it was so hot, that the pool was a welcome relief. After our last visit to Lupe's sister on the Juarez side of the boarder, we stopped by the Juarez temple. It resides where there was once a stake center and institute building. I spent many Zone meetings and mission president interviews in the chapel that was replaced by the temple. The place has special meaning for that reason yet even more importantly, Lupe and I went to institute there while I was dating her. We will miss the Chapel and the Institute classes, but the temple is certainly worth it. We as a family have been trying to visit all of the temples, and it seemed like a goal that would be achievable until after the year 1998 when the prophet had a marvelous vision of the need to build temples within the reach of all members of the church. What a wonderful thing, but it has become clear that we will never be able to visit them all. But we are going to give it a good try. You can track our temple visits at our temple visit log on line.

After we got done the following day we left for Cortez Colorado. Going though Shiprock we saw the recognizable land mark.

After arriving at Cortez we spent the night there in preparation for a day as a family at Mesa Verde National Park. So let me tell you about our little family adventure at Mesa Veiw from one of the mesas of the surrounding valley Verde. We woke up in the morning and loaded up the car and the lunches to go up to Mesa Verde. We had to drive about 7 miles from the edge of Cortez to get to park gate. We paid 7 dollars for a week pass (although we only were planning on visiting for one day). It is a fairly long drive from the front gate to where the visitor center is located. Along the drive there are some spectacular views of the surrounding valleys. The entire drive make the trip worth while and also added to the anticipation of getting to the top to see the pueblos and other structures.

Along the way the road is narrow and on the edges of cliffs. Near the top of the mesa, there was a cool tunnel through a large mountain. It was impressive. They don't make tunnels like that any more.

We took the family on two paid tours to see what is called the Cliff Palace and Balcony house ruins. First we went to Cliff Palace and we asked if we could take a 1 year old on the tours. The ranger told us that it would not be a problem. When we got to Cliff Palace they asked us to leave his stroller and we went down a flight of stairs and did some switch backs on a trail that finally let us arrive at the ruins. The girls seemed to really like it, and not only that but the girls started doing something called the Jr. Ranger program, where they were expected to go around the park and answer questions in a pamphlet that they were given. They would ask the ranger questions (more specifically Katie would ask the questions, Kelsey was still not overly interested and it was too belittling for Nannette). The challenging part of the tour was the climb out of the ruins. We had to climb 3-8 ft ladders to get back on top of the mesa where the car was parked. I did it with Alex in my arms. He was still not able to climb ladders on his own and the ladders were made of logs and tree limbs as rungs. After that experience we felt like we could take the family anywhere. But to our surprise Balcony house was not so benign.

Then drove Balcony house, to take a tour there. Lupe went and talk with the ranger and she told us that they did not recommend taking a 1 yr old on the tour, but that we could if we wanted to. We decided to go in 2 shifts Lupe would go first with Nannette and Kelsey. And I would go second with Katie while the other party stayed in the car watching Alex. So Lupe went first and I stayed with Katie and Alex. It was hot and we did whatever we could to stay cool. Although it was pretty borring in the parking lot. While we waited we watched on of the largest black crows that I have ever seen. When Lupe got back she shared her experience with the girls.

They went down a very long flight of stairs which extended part way down the side of a cliff. When they got to the bottom (halfway down the cliff), they walked down a short trail until they got to a large 35 ft ladder. When Nannette saw it she was very uneasy. She told mom that she was going back up the steps and that she would not go up that ladder. The other people on the tour detecting her trepidation, started applying large amounts of peer pressure to get her to go on with the tour and climb the ladder. After being the recipient of some coaxing and ribbing, Nannette succumbed to the pressure and started up the ladder. When she got about half way up the ladder she looked down. And shocked at the distance that existed between her position and the bottom of the ladder, looking down she exclaimed "Oh my gosh" and then after a short pause she continued: "Oh my gosh, if I fall and die Oh well" and she continued climbing to the top of the ladder. Later reflecting back on the event Nannette expressed " I nearly died" referring to her climb up the ladder. Mom and Dad have been having much fun with this event at Nannette's expense. It is a moment that as parents we will cherish for a long long time. Kelsey on the other hand was just the opposite. Lupe after arriving at the base of the ladder turned away from the ladder to talk to someone, and by the time that she had turned back around, she found that Kelsey had already scampered up to the top. Kelsey had no fear of the heights and for her it was just like jungle Jim. After their return to the parking lot, Lupe expressed how scary some of the tour was when you had to walk on the side of a cliff and she also stated that she should have let me go with Kelsey because it was hard.

Next, Katie and I went on the tour. We offered to let Nannette go again, because we had an extra ticket, but she declined stating "no way". So Katie and I went on the tour by ourselves. Katie was excited. When we got to the 35 ft ladder, she was not timid, and zoom right up to the top. I on the other hand was closer to Nannette's camp. The ladders were old and made of logs with branches crossing them as rungs. They were not what I would label as the most stable structure. Regardless, once at the top we found ourselves in a ruin pueblo of very ancient makings. It was very impressive, and even more impressive was the view from the windows and courtyards in the structure of the entire valley below. We proceeded through the tour but it was clear that we made the correct decision in not bring Alex with us on the tour. We found that in a couple of places that we had to climb though some small cave-like passages to get from one area to another.

In the last area, they had manos and metates which were used to grind corn. The guide showed us how they ground corn, and told us that they found several pots with ancient corn when the ruins were first discovered and that we could see it in the museum.

The pinnacle of the tour was the climb out. They made us climb another large ladder to start back up the cliff, and after the ladder the real fun began.

For me the most memorable part of the experience was the climb out on the face of the cliff. Before we went up the ladder, the tour guide told us the name for indentations that the Indians carved in the rocks. They called them toe and foot holds. We were not sure why they were telling us this but were soon to find out. After we had climbed up the ladder, we found that we had to use these toe and foot holds to climb up the cliff edge to the top of the mesa. Now the cliff was not completely vertical where we had to climb out. I was however, about a 60 degree incline with toe and foot holds to climb out and a chain supported by wimpy bars driven in the cliff face. I was definitely an adventure for me, although I know that most rock climbers would mock me for saying so. After we all got back to the car, we had continuous laughs at Nannette's expense. We would quote her "Oh my gosh, if I die oh well " and then have a giggle as Nannette was embarrassed. However, she was a good sport and took it well.

We then drove to the Museum, where the girls became Junior Rangers. They had a questionnaire, that the girls were filling out during the entire trip so they went to the font desk, turned in their papers and the ranger had them raise their right hands individually and take the Junior Ranger oath. Something about protecting the park, respecting the trails etc... The girls were thrilled and they were given a little plastic badge that had Mesa Verde Junior Ranger on it. We toured the museum and Lupe and I were impressed by the corn that they found in a jar that was about 1500 yrs old. That was good job of doing your food storage. We also noted that the museum was full of artifacts including moccasins woven from yucca plant leaves that was 1500 yrs old.

After the visiting the museum, we went down the trail to see the ruins call spruce house. At Spruce House we were able to go into a real Kiva. Nannette was trying to be a stick in the mud and she did not want to go down into the Kiva. Everyone in the family went down in the Kiva but Nannette. Katie and Kelsey really enjoyed climbing down into the Kiva. And she still resisted until finally Lupe convinced her to go into the Kiva. So she finally did. While we were waiting on Nannette to come back out of the Kiva, The ranger told us a joke. It went something like this: There was a vulture and he arrived at the airport and presented his ticket at the ticket counter. The airline worker ask him where he was going and asked for ID. After that the worker asked, do you have any luggage to check in? And the Vulture replied, no I just have my Carry-on. So we have kept the joke as part of our family Joke file. Overall, we as a family really enjoyed this vacation. Of course we enjoy visiting family, but the highlight was the day we spend at Mesa Verde, we will never forget it.

Revised: 03/09/07

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