Denver

This was a stop which we reduced to a night due to budget but we had decided to make sure that we made the most of our time there.

Denver is the State Capitol of Colorado. It was founded in 1858. It was a frontier town. We decided to do a tour. So of course we picked the Banjo Billy Bus Tour:

There's a saddle if you want one

We learnt that money talks in Durango and were regaled with some tales of some of the colourful residents of the city (included Margaret Brown aka Molly Brown (played by Kathy Bates in the film Titanic - or so I'm told as I haven't seen it).

We also learnt that the wealthiest streets and park were actually built on a cemetery and people were a bit careless about moving the bodies before doing so, with the result that when a new pavement was laid a short time ago work kept having to pause when an arm or a leg popped up.

The history of Denver seems to be about personalities as opposed to "events" as, after all, 150 years is not very long at all. It is an interesting city with a really nice vibe. I was particularly interested in the public arts program. Since 1988 any capital improvement project over $1 million must spend 1% on the inclusion of art in the construction and design. The result of this is that there is arty stuff every where in the city which I think is pretty great. Then arty stuff makes more arty stuff and arty people go to live with the arty stuff so more arty stuff is made and then the airport is made all arty so that the underground bunker will be pleasant for all the toffs.

We also decided to hang out in the hip and trendy area. I had interesting cocktails and we chatted to the locals. The end.

(It tasted like cucumber.  The other one I had tasted like Christmas)

Because we are tourists so we must do the must-dos even if it makes our holiday brains ache a bit

So we are going a little bit back in time to leaving Santa Fe and spending some time in Durango. When we left Santa Fe we took that detour to Chimayo and then we went to Bandelier National Monument before going to Los Alamos then on to Colorado. In Colorado we went to Mesa Verde National Park before "that" trip to the four corners monument. I will combine the two visits because there is a common thread between them. Mesa Verde National Park is the only archaeological national park and was created in 1906 to preserve the archaeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people. Bandelier is a monument which protects evidence of human activity from over 11,000 years ago. So basically our visits were exploring people which existed in America before the Europeans "discovered" it.

From AD 550 to 750 the people lived in pit houses which were dug into the ground. Because things were going well for them and the population was growing, by about 750 AD they began to build houses above ground, with upright walls fashioned of poles and mud. They built their houses against each other in a curving row. Pit houses changed into Kivas (probably used for spiritual and social stuff).

By AD 1000 skills had developed to stone masonry. They also were doing more farming than previously and so they cleared land for agriculture.

From 1150 to 1300 AD most lived in compact villages of several rooms, although in about 1225 many of them moved back to cliff dwellings.

By 1300 Mesa Verde was deserted.

It was really interesting to march around these two places and explore a history that doesn't really impact at all on UK history.  At the same time as the Pueblo people were moving back to the cliff alcoves, the Magna Carta was being affirmed.  I don't really know how Americans view this period- is it part of the history of their nation but somewhat detached from that of the USA. The bumpf didn't really try and bring any commonality in and it did feel like "the other America", probably because there was no direct impact from Europeans and the Ancestral Pueblo civilisation had moved south long before Columbus was born.

Bandelier National Monument

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Mesa Verde

See the road on the right? That used to be the road through the park. eek

We walked a few miles in temperatures of 38 degrees through this terrain,...

...to get to the Badger House Community ( 600 years of changing architecture).

We then went to Spruce Tree House which is the best preserved cliff dwelling:

Mount Rushmore, Deadwood and Bikers

When “we” (for “we” read “Chantelle”) were planning this whole endeavour, we got to this part of the trip –between Colorado and Wisconsin- and found that many places around Rapid City, South Dakota were entirely sold out.  This area was really convenient for us, so we just assumed at the time that these rooms weren’t available because we were booking too far ahead and ended up booking a motel in Wall, SD (home of Wall Drug store, advertised for literally 200 miles in every direction as the home of free ice water and the 5 cent coffee).

Anyway, we were talking to a couple at a bar/restaurant in Denver the night before (it transpires he was a food critic for the Denver Post) and we were talking about our difficulty finding accommodation in South Dakota.  With some mirth they pointed out that the reason for this is the imminence of the Sturgis Biker Rally – a rally of several hundred thousand bikers, biker-related vendors and interested observers.  It is also the 75th anniversary of said rally. This explained a few things.  It also explained why the entrance to Mount Rushmore (which is in the vicinity) looked like this:

We got in eventually and did some obligatory tourist photos (I thought it would be bigger, btw)
. 

Good call on Teddy Roosevelt;  Dude got shot and kept on giving his speech.

 
Pictured: Photos of non-comparable majesty.

So now we knew what we were in for and because I’m a fan of the show, we popped up to Deadwood for a nosy.  Deadwood is next door to Sturgis, so it had one or two bikers in attendance.

 

Not pictured: thieving Cornish miners and Chinese Butchers

What I didn’t know is that Deadwood, true to historical form, is maintained and financed by gambling.  Thing is, gambling is illegal in South Dakota as it is in the majority of the United States, so it has it’s own exceptional concessionary licence.  The booze, gambling and motorcycles lend it a certain appropriate decadence. All I needed now was Lovejoy hanging out a window and yelling “Cocksuckers!” at the crowd.


Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: (Changing back to perfect case as it’s more comfortable) Wir haben unsere  Reise zwischen Denver und Milwaukee zufällig wahrend eine grosse Motorradsternfahrt gebucht. Genau genommen, ist es am größten Motorradsternfahrt  (hoffentlich habe ich das korrekt raten, wie sagt man dass) in Amerika. Auf jeden Fall, haben wir Mount Rushmore und Deadwood gesehen. Wir haben die Motorradfahrer sehr freundlich gefunden. 

(I might’ve made a right mess of that translation.  My German teachers would be shocked, I know. Let me know the scale of the damage by email)