Friday the 13th Horror

July 12 – We got up at 7 to make sure we left between 8 and 8:15. Just a quick bowl of cereal and some cantaloupe and I packed lunch of sandwiches, veggies, fruit and potato sticks for Bill. We each took a granola bar in our packs and several bottles of water. We managed to be out of the park by 8:15 and all the way there Bill was worried we left too late and wouldn’t make it to our first tour at 10:30. I just kept my mouth shut as there was no point in getting into an argument that early in the day.

Cliff Palace in background

We arrived at Mesa Verde National Monument, Cliff Palace tour starting point at 10:20. That gave us time to go to the bathroom and get to the meeting point. Bill did the videoing and I did the still camera and I felt like a pack horse with my waist pouch with 2 bottles of water. I did finish one and some of the other as the elevation was higher than in Arboles and I kept drying out. The Cliff Palace tour was ranger led and it involved descending uneven stone steps and climbing 5 ladders for a 100 foot vertical climb. It was only about ¼ of a mile but it’s the ups and downs that get you. It really is a spectacular site when you first get down and come around the corner and view the entire dwelling site for the first time. The Anasazi first came to this area in 600AD and for 200 years lived on top of the mesa and evolved from being hunters and gatherers to farmers. They eventually left their pit houses on the mesa and built stone structures in the sides of the cliffs where they could better defend themselves. Eventually the weather conditions changed and there was no water for farming and they had depleted the wood supply and killed off all of the animals and just took what they could carry and left. They did not have any beasts of burden at that time.

Final view of Cliff Palace as we left

This was our third visit to Mesa Verde and we always come away with more knowledge of the area because they are continually discovering more dwellings and more information of the lives of the people. Our tour lasted an hour and then we only had a short drive to our second tour at Balcony House. We gave ourselves an hour in between so we could have lunch and regroup. We ate in the truck and got to use the lovely pit toilets. Ugh! Not pleasant on any day, but worse on a hot day.

32 foot ladder to leave
Balcony House

Our second ranger tour was led by a native Navajo male ranger and he gave a more native perspective of life there as well as the religious aspect of their lives. He took us back in time when we would have had to make our clothes, hunt our food and haul the rock and stone on our backs to build our homes. He was very insightful and we really enjoyed his tour. Well, except for the climbing a 32 foot ladder, crawling through a 12 foot tunnel and climbing up a 60 foot open cliff face with stone steps and 2 10 foot ladders to exit the site. Bill is not big on heights and wouldn’t look but straight ahead, but me, I got half way up and turned to see below. This was the most strenuous of the tours they have at Mesa Verde. They said about 120 people at a time lived in Cliff Palace but only about 40 in Balcony House. It was much smaller but quite interesting.

Kiva in Balcony House

They have other tours but we knew after two we would be done for the day, so on the way out we stopped at the gift shops and took a ride through the campground there just to check it out. You’re pretty high up on the mesa and the views down over the towns and valleys are beautiful. We could see a storm in the distance and thought we might run into rain at some point but never did. We stopped at the shoe guy again so Bill could take his other shoe in and at Wal-Mart and the gas station. We got home at 6 and unloaded. We had some new campers in and saw 10 bundles of firewood so we knew the fire ban must have been lifted. There was a notice on our picnic table that is has been modified and they are to keep a 5 gallon bucket of water ready if they have a fire and it must be attended. Bill was not a happy camper.

We had leftovers for dinner and then walked Xena and updated our camp log. There were several sites that vacated. We watched a show, well Bill watched and I listened and typed. Then show on was not one Bill is too interested in so he went out and raked the sites. When he got back we shared the rest of the peach/blueberry cobbler and he went in the bedroom to read. So here I sit for 2 more hours editing photos and blogging while he leisurely reads. Oh such is life!

July 13 – This Friday the 13th was true to its reputation.

Since we took off most of Tuesday going to Cortez, we knew we needed to stick around the campground and get things ready for a really busy weekend. After breakfast we rode our bikes up the office to pick up reservations and were pleasantly surprised that we didn’t have any. We stopped by Rosa camp to see Marion and Jerry and ended up visiting longer than we had planned. When we got home I took Bill to pick up a lawn mower and that was his task for the day and I headed out to work on my weeding. Marion and Jerry came by and brought me some avocado salad for my lunch and we finished the bulk of our work by 12:30.

I heated some leftover rice at Marion’s suggestion and had my avocado salad over it and made Bill a hotdog and cottage cheese. After lunch I filled the bird feeders and tended my garden and then went to modifying my Mule roof design. We had the board we had used inside on the bedroom window and it was about the right size to fit above the bars of the roof, so I cut some of the zip ties and angled in the board to make it higher in the middle so the water would run off and not pool on top. I re-fastened the roof with zip ties and that chore was done.

We rested and read for a while and then got showers and dressed to go to the casino. I had some coupons from online that we thought we could use for $25 each for free money on our player cards. Well, there was no expiration date on them but they would not honor them and said they expired in October. So I used some of my prior earnings and played for a while, but NO LUCK!

It was free pie night at The Patio Restaurant in Ignacio and they have some super delicious pie there, so we headed in for dinner. Bill had chicken and I had liver and onions. I tried the green chili potato soup and it was delicious, but my liver was kinda thin and a little dry. I’d rather they have one thick piece instead of 2 thin pieces. I have learned if I’m going to have the pie to pick it out and tell the waitress right away as that is what a lot do when they arrive so they don’t miss out on their favorite. I had the coconut cream and Bill had Berries of the Forest. We saved them until we got home.

Then things went really downhill. Xena was ready and waiting for her walk and the park was close to full. Bill went with Marion to refill the TP and I started around with Xena and turned tickets along the way. Bill joined us at about half way and we were 2 spaces before our RV and I was still walking Xena as Bill was turning reservations and checking dates but was right beside me. The entire way around I made sure I walked Xena on the pavement as it had rained pretty hard earlier and I didn’t want her walking in the mud. I spotted a dog moving towards us out of my left eye and noted it was on a restraint so didn’t give it a thought. Then the dog started running full speed at us and I thought the restraint broke but later found out the collar broke. It was a 45# boxer and it went straight for Xena’s neck. Poor Xena yelped and yelped and Bill was hitting the dog and trying to pull it off and I could just see that the dog wasn’t going to let go and rip her neck open. I was on the ground with my arms wrapped around Xena and someone got the dog off and I thought I had gotten bitten but was trying to calm Xena and I was crying and Bill was trying to get me to let go of her but I was so afraid she was torn up and would run off and I waited until she seemed calm and some lady came and looked and said there was no blood. Then I let Bill take her from me and we were oblivious to everyone around us and took Xena inside and she was just shaking so bad and yelped if we touched her neck area. Then we found a gash but it wasn’t really bleeding so we wrapped her in a blanket and tried to get her to drink and eat a snack to calm her down. Then I took off my hoodie and saw I had a kinda big puncture on the bottom of my right forearm and 2 small ones on the top and a scrape. Bill said I needed to dress it so I did and then we got on the phone to find an emergency vet. It was about 7 pm and we found 2 so ended up going to Kindness Animal Hospital just before you get into Durango. One of the vets had said I needed to go to the emergency room. We saw Barry, one of the volunteers, as we left the park and told him what had happened in case anyone was looking for us as we are supposed to be here on Friday nights. The vet saw the big, well big to us, gash and 2 smaller ones and a scrape on Xena’s jaw was said she was going to be fine since it didn’t penetrate into muscle. She got 2 shots, 2 kinds of pills and a cream and instructed us to use hot compresses on her 3 times a day and to bring her back on Thursday.

The Urgent Care closed at 7 so we had to go the hospital emergency room. I was the only one there and got right in. They irrigated all my wounds and the big one the water went right in it and swelled up my arm about ¾ of an inch and a few inches wide and it started hurting. The PA attending said my body would absorb the fluid but let the nurse gently massage a lot of it out because it hurt. They didn’t want to stitch it as it would heal better, just like Xena’s, from the inside out if it was left open. I was to clean it and put a bandage on to keep it dry and clean. I have to go back tomorrow.

So we arrived home at 10 pm and Manuel, the Ranger, was there as we got out of the truck. Barry had told him and he had to report it to animal control. If you get a puncture in this county, maybe the state, the dog has to be quarantined for 10 days. He had spoken to the owner, who is a young girl and gave her an incident report to complete and left me one to do also. I got it done and then we ate our pie. It was delicious and so full of coconut and more toasted coconut on top of 2 inches of whipped cream. The filling was jus the right firmness. Oh yum! Bill said his fruit pie was good and he put whipped cream on it.

It was a very scary thing to go through. Xena doesn’t deserve to die that way. She’s so passive and now that she is deaf she has no ability to escape an attack. It could have been so much worse, I just can’t imagine going through that. Bill was so upset and would have been devastated had Xena died. She was pretty worn out when we got ready for bed, but then, we all were.