Day 12: Thurdsday May 14, Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings

I spent the morning trying to get hold of someone about fixing the Microwave. The Microwave is fine, it's just the screws keeping it in place are not. Or more accurately they have decided they no longer want to be associated with the microwave, or the wall it's screwed into. Whenever we have driven for awhile, we find two or three microwave screws on the floor, We are afraid we are going to enter the trailer one day and find the microwave in pieces on the floor. Seems no one can really help. Turns out we have everything under warranty, and even though if anything goes wrong you can take it to any service center. We inaccurately heard that as, "If anything goes wrong 'while you are on your trip' you can take it anywhere to be serviced." What that really meant was, if you bring it here in Fresno we will get you in immediately, however, if you bring it anywhere else, you will be at the back of the line for repairs, and that could mean up to a month or two out. Really??? what good is a warranty repair while you are on the road, if you can't get anything fixed on the road??
Did find a dodge dealership to take a listen to a sound the truck developed. Turns out it's an exhaust manifold leak. Nothing to stop us from our trip, no harm to truck, just makes a ticking sound sometimes. That's a relief.
Now, onto something fun. The Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings   are a small self guided attraction. You can use the  QR code on your cell phone and listen to an audio tour.  What I really liked about the place was the up close and personal aspect. It's self guided so no waiting and you get to walk through and on and under all parts of it. Be sure to watch your head, low ceilings.


The average height of the men back then was 5'4 and the women 5'.

I'm 5'5 and I managed to bang my head twice on rocks and beams, ouch!

This is an example of a special T shape entry way with hand 'rails'

 Making it easier to enter and exit with the ledges on either side to hold onto. All houses of the Puebloans whether cliff or mesa dwellings had the high threshold doorways.(but not with the T shape) Speculated to keep rodents out and kids in.









There was a really nice museum there too. Learned a lot about the way of life back then. These are speculations as to how the above ground mesa dwellings were built.  

also the Puebloans had cradleboard heads from being carried around in hard wood cradles. Note the Basket Maker Indians (skull on the left) did not have the cradle board skulls as their cradles were made out of flexible reeds woven together allowing the soft skulls of infants to shape correctly. 

When I got back to the RV Park, I went in and asked our hosts where there was live music and food for the night. He gave me a bunch of good suggestions and I was headed to the r-pod to change when I noticed our neighbors next to us, the ones with the two cute dogs, were sitting outside in their chairs. Being the shy unsociable one that I am (ha), I asked if I could say hello to their dogs. So that turned into them inviting me in for wine and peanuts, showing me around the inside of their RV, and we talked and talked about their trips, our trip, etc etc until their dinner was ready. I scooted back over to my r-pod and didn't want to go out anymore. I had such a wonderful time with Sam and Sally and their two dogs. I made some Rice a Roni (broccoli au gratin) had some wine and crawled into bed and watched This is the End on my computer. It was a good night. Missed Daryl, but it was a fun day/night.