Finished our visit to Mesa Verde and then a longish days drive back up to Denver where we were attending a 3 day conference.
First though, thoughts on Mesa Verde and what it tells us. As a european I know that we can be very sniffy about US history and culture but here was a reminder that there were peoples and cultures alive and well in the “New World” long before we rocked up. Mesa Verde and the associated ‘4 corners’ pueplo system had for centuries formed the core of a sophisticated agricultural based society that originated as far back as 2000 BC and was eventually stable and developed enough to allow the establishment of communities housed together in substantial structures. Part of the mystery of Mesa Verde and similar settlements is why did they people chose to move from the mesa tops down onto the cliffs, was it war or weather. Although, distinctively to european eyes, this move allowed a better defensive position the current thinking is rather that climate change bringing more extreme summers and winters forced the peoples to move into the relative cool cliff faces where, being South facing, they also benefited from the thermal gain from winter sun. I guess we’ll never know for sure as, although the local native american communities maintain a verbal history that relates them back to the early pueblo peoples they have no history of this era.
Back to modernity, Marriot Denver Tech Centre, a three day conference on ‘gaining stages’ providing advice and guidance on how to successfully establish a career in public speaking. This was driven by MJ’s ambition to become a motivational speaker as a new ‘career’ when she finishes in O&G Contracting. She has the experience, knowledge and skills to fulfill the role but needs to hone the self promotion skills and understand the required tools to reach a receptive audience. Although I felt it was to some extent a personality cult feeding the ego of they key presenters there is no doubt that there was some good advice being cascaded and that more was available if you signed up 🙂
A bit wordy today but here are a couple of Pics from the journey:
We have now moved on through 4 seasons of weather at Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, high desert of Idaho, down the Oregon Trail and into the Californian Redwoods so look out for more!