We started out with a visit to Mesa Verde National Park and visiting Spruce House Cliff Dwelling. What we thought would be just a short trip went much longer. It was 36 miles down the road to the exit and then another 20 miles to the site. However, those 20 miles were one lane, pilot car escorted traffic. It took an hour... each way. Seems like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka Stimulus Act, is repaving about half the roads and bridges across the western states, especially in National Parks. These must have been the shovel-ready projects The slow drive to the site was worth it. It's pretty amazing that these were built around 1200AD. We only saw one of the dwellings, as time was tight and getting tighter. We wanted to get to Four Corners. The boys have been talking about it for weeks. They have joked about playing twister at the sight. Well boys, let me introduce you to one of the clearest example of 'Whitluck.' Four Corners Monument was closed for major construction. What could be 'major' enough to close a pair of perpendicular lines in the desert? Ever hear the phrase, close enough for government work? Apparently, the monument has been about 150 feet off of dead center since it was created. Supposedly, this was discovered during the satellite survey of the area. My guess is that countless numbers of boys scouts whipped out their GPSs and said, 'Hey, wait a minute?' So those of you who have gotten your picture previously at Four Corners, you were probably only in Utah or Colorado. Time for another Road Trip for all of you. 
Next decision was to drive along US191 through Monument Valley or take a different route and go to Meteor Crater. If you ever saw Starman then you know about the crater. We decided to deviate from our original plan. So about 2.5 hours later we arrived at the crater. Again we were worried, website said they closed at 5pm. We decided to take the chance and drive down. This time Whitluck was in our favor, it was open until 7pm. We went through the museum and went out to the rim of the crater. Wow!! That is all I can say. Also it was very windy. Crater is a mile across and not quite as deep as the Space Needle is tall. Research has concluded that the entire thing disintegrated into dust when it hit. We then headed to the hotel and looked for a place to eat. Ended up in downtown Flagstaff at the Monsoon. Great Food. Highly recommend. Back to the hotel and the nightly swimming ritual.
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