Day 9

I woke up with a rude awakening morning and one minute I’m sleeping like a fluffy kitty. Then the next minute I’m running outside shirtless cause the fire alarm went off.(Breakfast was being cooked the fire alarm is very sensitive) The fire department came by to make sure every thing is alright. The security of NMSD arrived around the same time as the fire department to turn off the fire alarm. What a great way to start the 4th in July……NOT!

For the first time in nine days I ate a cooked breakfast. We had Rattle Snake for breakfast! (I’m kidding everybody.) In reality we just had sausages, eggs, bacon, and small pancakes. All I ate was sausages and bacon with a cup of milk.

The ride to Chaco Canyon National Park was three hours loooooooonnnnnggg! I slept a little on the way, looked out the window and listen to some Rock & Roll and some Pop songs. The only song I heard that I knew the lyrics to was the song, “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis. It is kind of nerving to know the words of this song, never the less I highly recommend you to listen to this song. It’s that good. Looking out the window I noticed the landscape started to change right before my eyes. It went from a prairie biome to a desert biome. Then the prairie transformed to desert sand with lots of bushes with rock formations is a freaky and wicked thing to see.

Chaco Canyon National Park is based on another group of Pueblo Native Americans. The only thing different about this park is that it has more complete buildings to the point where there still rooms still being attached. This ancient Pueblo town gives you a pretty clear idea of what life was like there in 850 AD. It is like New York City AD except without the noise. We were given a tour around the ancient site by our tour guide. Near the end of the tour I asked him this question: “Since you mention that Middle America may have influence the Pueblo. Could it be possible that the pueblo also believed that the world will end in 2012 due to the fact that other cultures and civilizations and Native American groups have thought the world would end in that time?” The man looked at me and shook my hand because I was the first person to ask him that question in his four months of working at the park. Of course he did not know the answer to my question but I am proud to be the first on to ask that question! The tour guide didn’t know how the people here left and for what reason and the mystery is that the question that will never be solved in our time.

Even though I was smacked down in the middle of a barren desert I saw a lot of wildlife. I saw so a lot of wildlife to the point where I’m starting to believe that I have the abilities of Dr. Doolittle! I saw countless lizards, a few rabbits, hawks and a lot of insects. I founded few snake holes and I did not put my hand down the hole to see if there was a snake in the hole. I found a hole on a rock formation and below it was a decaying rat with many bones surrounding the perimeter. Due to the finding of owl dropping I had concluded that I had found a owls’ nest that is placed in that hole. (I am like Sherlock Holmes of the animal Kingdome!)

Later in the evening we did a program about the stars. The presentation was out of this world. The National Ranger said that all he presented was based on speculation. The pueblo had discovered many different ways of predicting the summer & winter solstice. Ranging from setting up their buildings to see the sun rise and set in a certain spots to setting up three plates of rocks to predict the solstice. It is an all complex topic and it is very hard to explain it on paper due to the fact that it can be a confusing topic. Near the end of the presentation the man showed us some pictures that we could see using a powerful telescope. One of the pictures was of the sister galaxy of the Milky Way. I raised my hand and asked, “Is that the same galaxy that will collide with the Milky Way?” The man did say yes and will be billions of years before that happens.  Besides the man said that before that our sun will have a “hiccup” and blast the earth to smithereens but that will also happen in a billion years. According to the Mayans the world is “supposed” to end in 2012 in 4 year. When the presentation ended we headed out side to the powerful telescope to see the universe! One little issue happened and that issue was the moon. The moon was too bright to see any of the stars also the clouds covered up the sky to the point that we couldn’t see the moon through the scope. Sadly the universe did not wanted to reveal it self. We got on the van and started our loooooooonnnnnggg three hour ride back to NMSD. On the way back we saw fireworks exploding left and right in the desert sky from nearby cities! It was like WWIII only a lot more colorful.

Today was educational and fun. The wildlife was fascinating and the fireworks were cool to see in the barren desert. I didn’t see the universe but least I saw the moon.