The Road to Mesa Verde National Park

I think I mentioned that on Tuesday night it was supposed to be 29 degrees with a chance of rain. We poo-pooed that idea because the sky was clear. When I took Max out around 11 p.m. still clear! Around 5 a.m. heard a bit of rain on the roof and thought maybe some hail...instead we had some snow!

On the way to Cortez, Colorado we passed through the "Four Corners"! The land where the four corners meet, was found to not be the exact spot of the four corners, but has remained the spot for tourists. It is on Navajo land and some time since Ted came here as a child, they have started charging $3.00 per person to visit the spot. They also have booths set up for selling their wares. We did pay but didn't visit any of the booths.

We arrived in Cortez, Colorado and set up camp at the Cortez KOA campground. Today we took off to the Mesa Verde National Park. We arrived at the entrance when a gentleman with a bike asked if we could drive him and his bike the 15 miles to the Visitor Center. They were working on the road and would not allow him to ride his bike. Unfortunately we have the back seat full so he had to ride in the back on the spare tire with his bike. I did give him Max's pillow to soften the ride a bit! He was clearly unhappy they would not allow him to ride his bike!

When we got to the visitor center we spoke with him and he thanked us and was quite happy to have the ride, he would have had a difficult time with the road and found it is quite a steep road up the mountain! Dr. Melmed (Herzl) is 72 years old and originally from South Africa! He has lived in Denver for 33 years and is on a bike trek to Phoenix. His wife follows along in the car and meets him at hotels. She was about 2 hrs behind with the car. He has logged almost 5,000 miles on his bike in the last three summers and believes in eating healthy and exercising! It works for him! Herzl has a blog of his trek. Check him out at: www.herzl-biking.blogspot.com It's a great blog!

After we booked our tour for tomorrow, we were going to eat at the Lodge but the cafe was closed. We then decided to head to the Ute Mountain Casino. They have a nice campground there and hotel. We ate dinner and then did a little gambling. Ted sat down at a Jaws machine (again) and on his first spin got the bonus and $74.00! After all was said and done we came out of the casino $37.00 ahead! That's a successful gambling trip as far as we are concerned!

72 years old and still biking..."Ain't Life Grand!"