You Have to Want to Go There Pretty Badly
On Monday Ray and I headed home from our eighth homeschool convention in ten weeks. This time we were traveling with Nate, Mary Evelyn, and Clara. They had offered our curriculum at the Arizona state convention, while Ray and I had done the same at the state convention in Colorado. We decided to stop at Chaco Canyon National Monument on our way home. You have to want to go there pretty badly to make it to Chaco Canyon. It’s certainly not on the beaten path.
Mary Evelyn had called ahead to find out what we needed to know before we came: no food sold in the park except water and the last five miles of the road before you get to the park is dirt. We left our trailer parked at the Frontier Motel in Cuba, New Mexico, and headed toward Chaco Canyon in the van. The description the lady gave Mary Evelyn wasn’t exactly right. We did find a $3.95 granola bar at the nice Visitor Center (I’m glad we had brought our own food); and the road was not dirt for the last five miles. Make that sixteen miles, and she didn’t mention that long parts of it were like a washboard!
Since Mary Evelyn is expecting in September, we all worried about her as we bounced up and down on the road. She finally decided to get out and walk for a while. Nate joined her as Ray, Clara, and I continued bouncing in the van.
None of us regretted our decision. God created a breathtaking landscape in Chaco Canyon. Mesas rise from the canyon floor. Giant rocks are scattered below the mesas. Every view is beautiful.
Chaco Canyon is the site of many well-preserved ruins of the ancient Chacoan people who are the ancestors of the modern Puebloan tribes of the Southwest. Archaeologists believe that these sites were built around 1,000 years ago and were occupied for about three hundred years. The architecture is spectacular.
We explored room after room and tried to imagine what life was like there so many years ago.
At the end of the day, we headed back across the same “washboard” with Mary Evelyn again getting out to walk part of the way. Ray, Clara, and I bounced again; Nate took the opportunity to explore the wilderness nearby. Mev was rewarded by spotting this prairie dog by the side of the road.
Our experiences on the road to Chaco Canyon remind me of homeschooling. You have to want to complete this task pretty badly to stick with it all the way to the end. Perseverance is worth the effort.
. . . pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:11, NASB