Mesa Verde Co.

. Dateline Durango Co.
Strater Hotel March 15th 2012

Mesa Verde
Day 6

I once wrote a piece about making movies. In it I wrote of the importance of the director. How his value could at times supersede the cast. But I did learn that as valuable as a director is, the cast held as an important role in whatever was accomplished.
I find that this principle fits bus tours as well. Dr Grigg's, our highly esteemed professor, and guide keeps raising the lever with each passing day. As we prepare for our final destination, Monument Valley, it feels as if the orchestra is tuned, and we as a group are about to hear Beethoven’s Symphony No.1 in C Major.
However how we arrived here is part of the story. We have a very talented and sweet bus driver named Kathy Baca, who handles this mammoth tour bus as though she were driving her grand kids to school in a minivan back home. Oh and she give it with the big boys, ask me when you see me, about the late night skill she has on a golf cart in the middle of New Mexico. Then I will finish the story about how a bumper sticker ended up on the back of her bus.
As for our travel today, you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow. Primarily because I am beat from the hike we had today down into a canyon to walk where the cliff dwellers from years gone by lived and worked.