The rain was our nemesis.

My best friend, the friend of my youth, is here visiting. Our big plan was a road trip to Hovenweep and Mesa Verde. I have wanted to see Hovenweep for a really long time. I know that it doesn't have the scope of Mesa Verde, let alone Chaco Canyon or other ancestral Puebloan sites. But still: I loved the idea of its remoteness and its non-national park status. I probably was cherishing a ridiculous notion of Hovenweep being kind of a secret.

Well, we drove south and east, and got all the way to Blanding, but Blanding proved to be our Waterloo (wait for it): there were flash flood warnings in the area. Rain was sheeting down, and as it did, I remembered what I had read about the roads in Hovenweep, and what I recalled was the basic message was a caution to potential visitors about possible dangers, flash flood-wise.

I am here to say that I shall return to Blanding, and thence I shall arise and go, and go to Innisfree, I mean Hovenweep. However, not on this trip.

We turned around, Blanding and its flash flood warnings having routed us from our intended destination (1) and drove straight to Monticello, and then Cortez, and then Mesa Verde (destination 2), where we slept at the Far View Lodge, after having eaten a lovely dinner, and then we arose this morning to see the following:

I have more to say about all this, including what the sky looked like, and how the little birds flitted their songs above the canyon, and the way the canyons felt, with the coolness of the water seep. But for now, let me say that I think we did all right. Even without Hovenweep.