Vacation: Day 5 (August 7)
The Day The Meltdown Happened.Sure, we should expect that too much time confined alone in the back seat would wear thin. And it does. We just didn't think it would happen this soon. What with the books, games and DVDs we packed along, plus drawing and craft supplies, we figure we'll make 8 or 9 days before things blow up. Wrong.
Today we travel from Pagosa Springs, Colorado to Gallup, New Mexico. The scheduled highlight of the day is Mesa Verde National Park. But first a side trip into Cortez, Colorado to buy Emma some shoes; the sports sandals she insisted on bringing with her for hiking are too small. Sandals in hand (or rather, on foot), we backtrack a few miles to the Mesa Verde entrance. On the long road up to the mesa, as I'm reading "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to an appreciative audience, Kristi sees a cougar crossing the road. Neither Emma nor I see it, which makes me quite sure she actually saw a feral poodle -- but I'm not about to tell her that.
If the skies of the American southwest don't speak to you, I think there's something wrong with your heart and/or head.
We visit Spruce Tree House, the most accessible cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde. (The tours of Cliff Palace are booked up through the late afternoon.)
It wis while we are at the visitor's center that Emma melts down. She asks Kristi to read her the display card on a stuffed-and-mounted cougar. Kristi starts to read, and Emma walks off -- so Kristi stops reading. This apparently is the crime of the century as far as Emma is concerned, and she enters her patented Contrarian Fugue State, wherein anything you say is 100% wrong and cause for screaming, even if Emma was saying it herself 30 seconds before. It's almost amusing when there's no audience, but in the middle of a national park visitor's center, it's more than embarrassing.
It's hard to blame Emma, in retrospect. She doesn't have a sibling in the back seat to fight with; it's only natural she'd want to fight with us instead.
Kristi and I confer. Our original plan has been to go from here to Bryce Canyon and Zion in Utah. However, Emma is clearly not enjoying the Great Outdoors as we'd hoped she would; neither is she enjoying the driving. After some angst, we decide that the smart thing to do would be to head for California as quickly as possible. So we have dinner at Nero's in Cortez, then head south on the Devil's Highway and spend the night in Gallup, NM.
Google Maps mileage estimate for Pagosa Springs to Gallup is 239 miles, but add another 60 easily for the side trip into Cortez for shoes and driving within Mesa Verde National Park -- so call it a 300-mile day.
Labels: travel
posted by MeanMrMustard @ 3:39 PM
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