April 23rd, 1998    Today we woke up in Cortez, Colorado. We packed up our bags and we headed to the lobby for our continental breakfast. I had some Frosted Flakes and coffee and orange. We left the Best Western and we set out for Mesa Verde. We paid to get in and we headed to the Visitor's Center where I got my passport stamped. We bought some stuff there. We went to the museum and took some pictures of the dioramas and we bought some books and stuff like that.

We headed for the 11 o'clock tour of Cliff Palace and the guide took us down there but I was wearing these black corduroy shorts that kept falling down and we had to climb ladders and I had all of this stuff in my hands. Cliff Palace was awesome. It was mostly restricted and you could barely go in to it. We took a lot of pictures and headed up 3 ladders and we walked back to the car. From there we drove to the Mesa Top ruins which weren't very impressing because they looked likes things that you could make in your own back yard with a shovel and some rocks but they were still cool. We went to about 5 of those sites when we decided to go to Sun Temple. This really made me angry because when dad was a kid they could get up on top of the walls and walk around. Now they have a big fence around it, and if you are 5'8" or below, you can't see a

thing. We left there and went to some overlooks and got pictures. We saw signs for Far View site. These were really cool because you could run through them and climb the walls. We went to 3 villages, 2 kivas, a pithouse, and an ancient reservoir or tribal area (they don't know for sure). We left there and went to some overlooks and got pictures. We saw signs for Far View site. These were really cool because you could run through them and climb the walls. We went to 3 villages, 2 kivas, a pithouse, and an ancient reservoir or tribal area(they don't know for sure). We left Mesa Verde and we were tired so we headed back to Cortez and ate at the Sonic and headed to Durango. We got to Durango after listening to some Simon and Garfunkel and Neil Young several times. We drove up to Randy's house which was your everyday rich person's house. No one was there so we waited for 30 minutes outside of his house. He drove up and got out and it only took him about 4 words until he started cussing. We went into his house and got the bags and he took me to a barn with his 4 wheelers and we filled up a flat tire and he told me to jump on front of the 4 wheeler and ride with him. That guy drives like a maniac. He almost got me thrown off or run-over about 5 times. Then he went over this super steep hill and if I fell off he would of run me over and flipped the machine. We got down the hill and he drove out in a field where some of his employees were hauling dirt and filling up ruts left by the pivot. He drove up to Mike and said that Mike would show me around the farm and get on the machines. Randy left and Mike took me up on a dozer and started filling up ruts in the field. We got out of the dozer and we hopped into a digger. We loaded a truck up with dirt and then we hopped back into the dozer and started smoothing out the

dirt and putting it into a big pile. He showed me how to work the dozer and let me do the work for about 15 minutes. I did pretty good I guess. Randy and dad came back and we drove back to his house and then we went out for dinner. During dinner Randy kept on asking me if I wanted to walk around town so I did. I came back right when the dinner was being served. After we finished he did it again so I walked around the town some more and I almost got my hand bit off by an evil dog. I came back and we left for home and we went into the living room where Randy pulled out 3 large guns. A Rifle Carbine, a Paratrooper Carbine, and a Mini 30 (or as Randy likes to call it: The Cannon). After looking at those Randy promised we would go shooting, and I went to go type this up. I can't wait to go shooting tomorrow!

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