Aztec Ruins and Farmington

August 9 – After a breakfast of fruit, bacon and Bill’s favorite red velvet pan waffles, we got ready to leave at 8:30. The plan was to get to Aztec Ruins National Monument before it got too hot out. It’s less than an hour away in NM. We were there 10 years ago, but I swear not one thing looked familiar. Bill recognized the visitor center but not the site itself.

Ariel view of Aztec

We timed it just right as we had about 10 minutes before a ranger tour. There were only 3 of us on the tour so we were able to ask a lot of questions. The ranger had been at Chaco before coming here so we were able to discuss comparisons and theories about the two places with her. There was only one small entrance originally to the entire complex and it ran along a long wall before you could actually get inside the plaza. There were 10 clan kivas inside the complex and the Great Kiva. The structure of it was different so they knew it was for special ceremonies or the hierarchies of the clans. We got to go inside, which had been totally reconstructed. It’s very different than any of the other kivas we have been in. There are 2 walls all the way around with the space between them as galleries with openings so the people in them could watch the ceremonies or so they think. If they were not of high enough standing to come in the main part of the kiva, then they maybe could observe from that otter area.

Park made interior doors through the rooms

One of the small kivas

The ranger took us through a series of exterior rooms on the ground floor of what was at one time 3 stories tall. The original “doorways” would lead from room to room towards the plaza, but in the early 1900’s school groups could come to the ruins and excavate in the rooms and they made openings parallel to the back wall, so the park service later made those openings into doorways styled like the real doorways. Once the tour ended we went up on the top and took some photos and it was getting hot by then. We stopped at one crappy gift shop on the way out but only bought a few postcards.

We headed into Farmington and I had a list of things to get and places to go. I was asked to ice and decorate a cake this weekend for a girl at the marina whose last day is Monday and they asked if I’d get some things to go in her goodie bag. That was a challenge in itself. The JoAnn’s is tiny and must have only had 20 cake related items, it was sad. They had more at Wal-mart but of course were out of what I needed. We went into downtown to go to the old trading posts. I did find earrings that go really well with my gaspiete pendant. Couldn’t believe I found triangle ones like the pendant. We also went several places to find a 5 or 7 pound refillable propane tank for our grill but no luck.

We had lunch at Wendy’s because I had coupons and I could have my favorite berry chicken salad. Yum! Then we kept on going and finally made what was to be the last stop at Wal-mart but the didn’t have my NM wine, so we stopped at Safeway in Aztec and I got it there. This might be the last time we are in NM so I got some extras to take home.

On the way home we called Carole to check the results from Herb’s stomach scope yesterday and from our conversation with Doug this morning on his status. A lot happened in between. Herb had emergency surgery for a ruptured ulcer and he was bleeding to death. Had he not already been in the hospital he would not have made it. They removed part of his stomach and is expected to recover, but it will be a slow process. He will be in ICU for a week and another week at this point in a regular room after. Carole was there and got up when she realized he was up and he was having a seizure. She got the tech who hit the alarm for the emergency response team. She said they were amazing in their quick response and organized efforts to get him on oxygen and to ICU. The same doctor performed the second surgery.

Of course the post office was closed by the time we got home at 6 so we will have to go back tomorrow for the mail. We had quite a few new campers from this morning. We took a ride around after dinner and turned the reservations and introduced ourselves. We’re expecting quite a few more tomorrow for a pretty full weekend again. We watched our shows and Bill watched some football.