The Green Table

As you can see behind my very photogenic image here, our campsite is in the shadow of the initial mesa of Mesa Verde National Park.  Wow, what an amazing place.  The park experience starts with a somewhat harrowing drive.  In some places if you run off the road on either side you will plunge hundreds of feet to your rather messy end.  Switchbacks and hairpin turns abound, with nary a guard rail in site.

Once you arrive at the sites of ruins from  ancient Native American cliff dwellers (the reason for even daring the drive), you often find that you have to climb or descend ladders, (one of which was 32 feet high – pictured here), climb on your hands and knees through narrow tunnels, and squeeze through narrow cliff wall passages.   

If all the adventure of getting to and around the ruins wasn’t exciting enough, on their first guided tour through what is called the Balcony House site, once they got into the cliff ruins, torrential rain was followed by a tremendous crash of lightening that struck some 40 feet from where they were standing.  They actually got to see a park ranger jump about the same distance.  How do they know for sure it was that close?  After the excitement had settled and the ranger had collected herself, Dave smelled smoke.  A tree just over the “balcony” of the cliff dwelling had been struck by lightening and was now in flames.  Evidently the occurrence was not that uncommon as the whole park had been scarred by multiple forest fires caused by lightening.  It was however, quite an unusual event for my family.  They got to experience, in a very real way, what terrific shelter these Pueblo people had built for themselves.  Here is the ranger trying to decide whether to proceed on what had already become an extended tour in this pueblo.  You can see it was quite wet. 

So wet in fact, that this waterfall developed right near the 32 foot ladder they had climbed to get into the pueblo.  The ranger had never seen nor heard of this happening in this spot in her 15 years of guiding there.

In addition to being very functional and protective, these ruins, which you see me and the rest of the family pictured amongst, are engineering marvels, and well preserved works of art too.

Caleb said it best when he said, the Pueblo people certainly picked spots with great views to build their villages.  These hidden valleys are beautiful.  You can get the panoramic view of Long House Pueblo from Caleb’s video.

By the way, Mesa Verde means 'green table'.  And speaking of green tables, we met some nice folks from California whom we shared a potluck dinner with at our campsite around our green picnic table.  They shared a beef cut unknown to us Vermonters called tri-tip.  The family seemed to enjoy it – but you guessed it – I got none.  These two families sat near each other in Cortez, Colorado for what I am told was a spectacular firework display on the fourth of July.  Believe me, I chose to stay at home for this one – I don’t do fireworks…

Well, that’s all from Colorado.  We leave tomorrow for the canyons of Utah.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

A Bit About Responding to Our Blog

It struck me that some of you may want to write to me.  Yes, I am a dog - but I do converse quite effectively don't you think.  Friends and family have been having a bit of a problem posting comments because evidently you have to be on Facebook or Twitter or some other recognized social network.  Yes, I am tech savvy – I just choose not to reveal my entire life on these sites.  Kirsten and Dave feel the same.
I choose to blog.  After all I am “The Bloggin’ Dog”

So if you do want comment on my posts or Dave’s pics – just email me through Kirsten or Dave:

Kirsten:  OTMomma@Comcast.net

Or

Dave:  Huski@Comcast.net

Thanks and big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

A Bit About Things Cute and Not So Cute

It seems at each place we stop there are creatures cute and…well…not so cute.  First, in Austin, TX at the McKinney Falls State park we did encounter these cute little deer which I would have been inclined to chase given the chance. 

But, then we encountered this creepy crawly thing crawling through our campsite. 

Dave says it is a walking stick – but this is no stick I want to retrieve.  It was about 7 or 8 inches long.  They just don’t grow them that big back in our Vermont residence.

Then in Carlsbad, New Mexico we found that our campsite was riddled with cute little furry bunnies.  I did try to chase these - but only as far as the length of my rope. 

But, then both nights we stayed in this campsite we had these even creepier crawly things crawl through the camp site.  One night, as we were sitting by our campsite’s picnic table working on this blog, I alerted Dave to this creatures approach. 

He says it is a tarantula.  He also said that they could kill me if they bite me.  So perhaps I will not try to bite them.

Dave has warned the kids that each night as they descend from the camper to do their business, that they would need to have their headlamps on so that they can look out for strange creatures that they could step on.  Did he really anticipate the possibility of tarantulas though?

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Carlsbad Ain’t Too Bad

In fact, the campground we stayed at while in New Mexico was our best yet.  This was our first KOA campground (I read the sign as we drove in.) and it was very well maintained and the people were very nice.  And there were all kinds of dogs and other creatures to sniff, stalk and encounter.  (More on that later.) 

The family wanted to stay here so that they could go crawl into some dark damp cave nearby.  I didn’t get to go there, but from the pictures it looks as though they had fun. 

Both kids told me (yes – they too talk to dogs) this was the coolest place they had ever been.  We’ll see if that holds up for the rest of the trip.

I bet my bark would have echoed quite nicely in there!

Off to Mesa Verde, CO tomorrow.  Until then…

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

A Bit About Balance

Austin provides a bit of political balance in a very conservative state.  And while we love and respect our Texas relatives, I have a feeling Dave and Kirsten enjoyed being amongst the more liberal of the state while in Austin.  They saw many a bumper sticker and T-Shirt around this town that read, “Keep Austin Weird”.  I assume that Austinians feel a bit like a tiny liberal island surrounded by this gianormous state of conservatives.  (Hey, as I mentioned before I am very politically aware…)

Furthermore, Texas is indeed a lot about oil:  oil drilling, oil refining and shipping and piping oil across the country.  And we did see a fair amount of those classic little oil wells across the Western part of Texas as we drove towards New Mexico. 

And while they are burning their fair share of gas and oil as they travel even in their Hybrid Toyota Highlander the Eastman’s had a bit of peace and elation come over them on their travels.  As I am sure you know my family are about as environmentally sensitive as you can get.  So, the car was filled with joy as we suddenly came across miles of windmills across the desert landscape in Western Texas. 

There were thousands of windmills – windmills as far as the eye could see.  My family hopes that this picture is hope for the future.  Now it shows the windmills in the back ground and the oil well in the foreground.  We just hope that these positions will be flipped.  Frankly, it was nice for us all to see a bit of balance in Texas. 

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

A Bit About Our Car Ride

Here is Anika who sits directly in front of me.  She is in her typical position, (and Caleb’s too), while we drive from site to site.  We have put in a lot of miles at this point, almost 3,000 by the time we got to Carlsbad Caverns.  And during these miles Caleb and Anika have read quite a few books already.  Caleb finished two books totaling over 700 pages and Anika has read two books one of which was over 300 pages and she finished it in just a day and a half.  Personally, I am just thankful that I don’t have to endure the beeping of video games or the loud noises of DVD’s.  I can wile away the hours snoozing here in my backward facing position.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Austin City Limits

One of David and Kirsten’s favorite TV programs that they watch as I lie sprawled (often on my back) between them is “Austin City Limits” on PBS.  It features all kinds of bands, many of which my family have adopted as new favorites because of this show.

But, according to Dave, Austin is just a real nice city y’all.  He’s been working on his Texas accent – much to the embarrassment of his children.  They haven’t responded well when he sings, any chance he gets, “The stars at night are big and bright…”  And as expected nobody claps and sings the rest of it for him…except for Kirsten…I wish she wouldn’t encourage him!

I thought Houston was hot!  Wow – it hit 104 degrees while we were here.  Good thing our camper comes with an air conditioner.  We stayed in the McKinney Falls State Park which was nice, quiet and safe, but not much in the way of its namesake. 

This part of Texas and everything west of here is in a state of drought.  They haven’t had rain in some parts of Texas since last fall.

My      family  did enjoy some good food in the Austin area, some of which was introduced to them by Adam Richmond on the TV show, “Man vs. Food”.  Dave didn’t enter any eating contests, but he sure did pig out on BBQ at the Salt Lick in Driftwood and eating giant (Texas-sized) donuts at Round Rock Donuts.  The family reported that it was the best barbecue they had ever had and the donuts were not only big, they were delicious.   I can’t report on any of this myself as I was not even given a doggy bag!

The family spent some time at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center.  Here you will find the family and me amongst the flora in their botanical gardens.

And finally, the family did catch a quick listen of some live music on

6th Street in Austin.

Next stop on our tour - Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  Until then,

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”