Dear Maia, Isaac, and Virtual Wanderers,

Today, my mom would have turned 107. Makes me sound older than I am. But, not that much.

Life is short. Perhaps that the lesson of the Ancient Pueblo ruins. They spent generations building some of these grand sites. They lived relatively short lives compared to our average lifespan. Yet, their work still stands.

When my travel plans for this trip changed 10 days ago due to an upcoming family event, I threw this trip together. I wanted to honor my new tradition of leaving on the 22nd. I had to merge plans for a 7-10 day New Mexico road trip (August) and my 4-day Hovenweep trip (September). But, I only wanted to be gone 1 week this year. It took me an hour to plan and book sites, so I can’t say this is a trip I researched much. Visiting some old favorites.

Today took us from Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado to another amazing Ancient Pueblo Ruin – Aztec Ruins in New Mexico. These are grand ruins – I can see why they originally thought the structures were Aztec. Aztec an outlier of Chaco Canyon further to the south. Chaco Canyon was a spectacular cultural center that holds the same kind of mystic as other ancient cultures.

We got there early afternoon and fortunately it was a cool enough day to leave the dogs in the car because it is not dog-friendly. I worry a lot about leaving them in the car. I speed through the tour because even though I’m really cautious about checking temps, my dogs are seniors with some health issues.

I finished the self-guided tour in about 20 minutes, then we had a picnic in the dog-friendly adjacent park. I enjoyed the ruins enough to plan a stop here, but I crave our upcoming stops at dog-friendly ruins.  Twenty minutes is just not enough time to soak up new learning.

Tonight, we are camped at Navajo Lake. It rained, again, this evening. But not like last night. The monsoon moisture cools things off, and that’s good. We will probably be hoping for rain again in a couple of days.