Daniel and Mom - throwbacks to the sixties?
Chaco Ruins- Aztec, New Mexico Daniel Bean blows into Durango about 8 PM. His hands are soot-stained, his clothes steaming with the cold and (when he finally thaws out) he’s more than a tad odoriferous. Dan has just spent two weeks on the high desert of Utah as a head staff person with Open Sky Wilderness Therapy.
A century ago Dan would have been poking cows and rounding up stray heifers on horseback. In 2007, he and two other modern-day wranglers ride herd on 8 troubled adolescents in hiking boots and backpacks. For the kids, it’s two months to shed their hang-ups and deal with their issues. Dan and his companeros keep them safe and working as a group while the wilderness strips them of their conceits and deals them a big slug of reality. After two months, most of them “get it”. A structured after-program tries to insure that they don’t “lose it” again once they return to civilization.
The responsibility is huge . In the two years since he’s been in this line of work, Dan has acquired some amazing skills. I’m so proud of him – my full-grown, dreadlocked, cowpoke, therapist son.
Dan cleans up nicely and we go out with him to a local brew-pub for dinner with the Open Sky Wilderness crew. It’s a tradition whenever they hit town after two weeks on the range. Rena and I skip the equally traditional wine party that follows and meet Dan for a wonderful breakfast at the New Rochester the next morning.
After breakfast we leave Durango to check out the original inhabitants of this high desert- the Anasazi. There were actually two native cultures that thrived in the area around 1100-1300 C.E. The more well-known is the most recent – that of the ‘Mesa Verde’ cliff-dwellers. The ‘Chaco Canyon’ culture preceded the cliff dwellings by a couple of centuries and we are going to see their ruins today.
The Caddie whisks us South on US 550 to Aztec, New Mexico. Mad Marvin is feeling particularly low today so we have to stop in town to get an earful of directions from the nice lady at the Aztec municipal museum. We find the Aztec Ruins National Monument just north of town. The ruins are those of a typical “Chaco” style Pueblo Indian community.
“I just love their sandals,” enthuses Rena.
She’s disappointed when we tour the small museum inside the visitors’ center and find a pair of original Chaco sandals in a glass case. They are woven out of yucca fiber and look like tiny placemats with a hole in one corner for the big toe.
“No wonder they died out,” sniffs Rena, “with sandals like that!”
We’re the only visitors at the ruins this morning. It’s like being the last people at the end of a civilization - just before the inhabitants close the doors, throw away the keys and leave. Although the Chacos have been gone 1000 years, their structures survive. Some are three stories high! This is a very spiritual place. If it wasn’t so cold we could plop down and meditate a bit.
Meditation would be a culturally appropriate activity. It seems the Chaco people did not actually live in these ruined cities. They lived in the surrounding countryside and commuted to the capitol city for ceremonial occasions and cultural events. Sort of the way Washington, D.C. is today.
Chaco architecture is a cross between leggo-land and an ant farm. The hallway had not been invented so each room is connected to another by a low skinny door (apparently arches weren’t invented yet either). If you had neighbor problems, you could just brick up the door and poke another through one of the other walls.
In the afternoon, we return to Durango where Dan and I borrow a pliers from the Rochester Hotel desk clerk and wrestle with the lock on Dan’s Van’s rear door. After a struggle, the door yields to our efforts. Now we can’t close it but at least Dan can get to his wardrobe.
Meanwhile, the Caddie has been ticketed by the local gendarmes. Maybe tomorrow I’ll read about it in the Durango Herald police blotter. (4:46 PM Black Caddie ticketed in the 700 block of Main Ave. for attempting to drive on snow.)
Here’s todays entries:
9:05 AM A man was getting into another man’s face and yelling at him in the 800 block of Camino del Rio.
1:02 PM A woman’s boyfriend stole her paycheck and cashed it.
1:04 PM A controlled burn was out of control and burning next to a barn in on County Rd. 213.
4:17 PM A dog attacked another dog in the 700 block of Animas Avenue.
6:20 PM Someone saw a person in a black van pull into a driveway and go through another person’s mail in the lower 100 block of Folsom Place.
7:28 PM A woman reported that her aunt was harassing her in the parking lot of the Durango Mall.
9:05 PM A drunken man was refusing to pay for items in the 600 block of Main Ave.
A century ago Dan would have been poking cows and rounding up stray heifers on horseback. In 2007, he and two other modern-day wranglers ride herd on 8 troubled adolescents in hiking boots and backpacks. For the kids, it’s two months to shed their hang-ups and deal with their issues. Dan and his companeros keep them safe and working as a group while the wilderness strips them of their conceits and deals them a big slug of reality. After two months, most of them “get it”. A structured after-program tries to insure that they don’t “lose it” again once they return to civilization.
The responsibility is huge . In the two years since he’s been in this line of work, Dan has acquired some amazing skills. I’m so proud of him – my full-grown, dreadlocked, cowpoke, therapist son.
Dan cleans up nicely and we go out with him to a local brew-pub for dinner with the Open Sky Wilderness crew. It’s a tradition whenever they hit town after two weeks on the range. Rena and I skip the equally traditional wine party that follows and meet Dan for a wonderful breakfast at the New Rochester the next morning.
After breakfast we leave Durango to check out the original inhabitants of this high desert- the Anasazi. There were actually two native cultures that thrived in the area around 1100-1300 C.E. The more well-known is the most recent – that of the ‘Mesa Verde’ cliff-dwellers. The ‘Chaco Canyon’ culture preceded the cliff dwellings by a couple of centuries and we are going to see their ruins today.
The Caddie whisks us South on US 550 to Aztec, New Mexico. Mad Marvin is feeling particularly low today so we have to stop in town to get an earful of directions from the nice lady at the Aztec municipal museum. We find the Aztec Ruins National Monument just north of town. The ruins are those of a typical “Chaco” style Pueblo Indian community.
“I just love their sandals,” enthuses Rena.
She’s disappointed when we tour the small museum inside the visitors’ center and find a pair of original Chaco sandals in a glass case. They are woven out of yucca fiber and look like tiny placemats with a hole in one corner for the big toe.
“No wonder they died out,” sniffs Rena, “with sandals like that!”
We’re the only visitors at the ruins this morning. It’s like being the last people at the end of a civilization - just before the inhabitants close the doors, throw away the keys and leave. Although the Chacos have been gone 1000 years, their structures survive. Some are three stories high! This is a very spiritual place. If it wasn’t so cold we could plop down and meditate a bit.
Meditation would be a culturally appropriate activity. It seems the Chaco people did not actually live in these ruined cities. They lived in the surrounding countryside and commuted to the capitol city for ceremonial occasions and cultural events. Sort of the way Washington, D.C. is today.
Chaco architecture is a cross between leggo-land and an ant farm. The hallway had not been invented so each room is connected to another by a low skinny door (apparently arches weren’t invented yet either). If you had neighbor problems, you could just brick up the door and poke another through one of the other walls.
In the afternoon, we return to Durango where Dan and I borrow a pliers from the Rochester Hotel desk clerk and wrestle with the lock on Dan’s Van’s rear door. After a struggle, the door yields to our efforts. Now we can’t close it but at least Dan can get to his wardrobe.
Meanwhile, the Caddie has been ticketed by the local gendarmes. Maybe tomorrow I’ll read about it in the Durango Herald police blotter. (4:46 PM Black Caddie ticketed in the 700 block of Main Ave. for attempting to drive on snow.)
Here’s todays entries:
9:05 AM A man was getting into another man’s face and yelling at him in the 800 block of Camino del Rio.
1:02 PM A woman’s boyfriend stole her paycheck and cashed it.
1:04 PM A controlled burn was out of control and burning next to a barn in on County Rd. 213.
4:17 PM A dog attacked another dog in the 700 block of Animas Avenue.
6:20 PM Someone saw a person in a black van pull into a driveway and go through another person’s mail in the lower 100 block of Folsom Place.
7:28 PM A woman reported that her aunt was harassing her in the parking lot of the Durango Mall.
9:05 PM A drunken man was refusing to pay for items in the 600 block of Main Ave.
2 comments:
WHATS NEXT FOR DAKTARI?
THIS BETTER THAN CABLE.
Dear LJR-
Next comes the scary part.
Real ice, real slick, and guess who forgot to go potty.
Daktari
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