Sunday, April 24, 2005
Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Nageezi, NM - Mar 27-June 1(?)
It turned warm & sunny on the 27th , so we proceeded on to Chaco. The 16-mile dirt road was in much better shape than it had been last year, probably a combination of lots of moisture and more frequent grading. Apparently a county official was elected with a promise to improve this road (not for Chaco's sake but for the local people who need to use it), hence the more frequent grading. There is even talk of paving the road, but everyone in the Park is hopeful that this will not happen any time soon: Chaco would lose its remoteness and its character. 
Visitation would probably increase 2- or 3-fold, forcing the Park to be managed more like Mesa Verde, for example, with ranger-guided tours to a few historical sites as the only access (whereas now you can tour any of them completely on your own). This would completely change the "feel" of Chaco; it would lose so much of its current charm.
Many people were happy to see us return, especially since they had no campground hosts until we got here (which explains our big push to get here sooner). We were the only hosts for the first two weeks, until fellow astronomer Steve Speth arrived for 3 weeks. Another woman comes to take his place, but not until May 17. We enjoy most aspects of being campground hosts, but could do without the "policing" -- it is amazing how many people don't pay attention to rules or informational signs and who seem to have no respect for a site that has sacred meaning to others. 
We really don't know why they even come here. Thank goodness, most of the campers are interesting people who enjoy Chaco in a more proper fashion. The astronomy is great as always. With Jupiter and Saturn brightly visible every night, even through light clouds and even when the moon is at its brightest, everyone is happy. When we can show the more interesting deep space objects (galaxies, globular clusters, double stars, nebulae) they are even happier (and so are we). These are only visible on the darker nights of the month (about 2/3 of the clear nights).
The weather has been what they call "typical Spring", with cold & rain or snow for a couple of days, followed by increasingly longer days of lovely warmer weather. There have been many unpleasantly windy days. By now, however, the warmer days seem to have taken over, and it looks like we won't have snow again. The wind will come & go, but any day without it is a pleasure!
We are again adjusting to having the grocery store 90 minutes away, which allows for very few town trips. We are getting quite creative with our meals. So far we have made one town trip together, plus Willie went in with Steve Speth on a quick grocery run, mainly for fruits & vegs. That is what is hardest to keep up with, because of our small refrigerator and the short "shelf life" of some things (like mushrooms!). We have learned how to keep lettuce fresh enough for 2-3 weeks, so that helps. Salads just have less variety as the time goes by. There are frequent potluck gatherings, so it helps to have some casserole ingredients and brownie mixes on hand. This makes up somewhat for the inability to go out to eat on the spur of the moment.This year we have become involved with a rock art stewardship program in the park. We monitor rock art sites (using photographs in binders for reference) in order to check for newly added graffiti. There is hope that just by having people see us doing this and educating them a bit, it will cut down on some of the vandalism. It gives us a chance to get out & look around at places more closely than we would otherwise.
With no access to TV here, we were lucky to get our friend GB to tape the remaining Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament games for us. So we got to see all the remaining games and enjoyed them thoroughly. Now we are back to watching our "stash" of VCR tapes, recorded for us by our friend Mark Collier in Boulder. He keeps us up-to-date with our favorite shows. How fortunate we are to get this service!! Thanks Mark!!
The cats did not mind the ride in very much, which was probably due to the smoother condition. They seemed quite nonplussed by the event and seem to enjoy being here. Rainbow has lost more weight and is now down to 5.5 lb, so we are devising ways to entice her to eat more. As they get older (Rainbow & Gracie will be 15, Amber 14 and Trixie 10), they have more health "issues" which have to be dealt with in various ways. Luckily, they remain as loving as ever. It is cute how they adjust to the ever-changing location of their sun puddles.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 6:56 PM 
