Postcard #139: "Get a load of this guy..."

Text:

CHACO CULTURE National Historical Park

New Mexico

US-4283257

#19226 

This massive 5-story building is the center of a vast architectural complex which developed during the 9th through the 11th centuries in the four-corners region. Photographer-Russ Finley

NHS STAMP:

CHACO CULTURE NHS

JUL 26 2004

NAZEEZI, NM

I don't remember a whole lot of this road trip. I wonder if my dad or my sister do? I remember moments, like pictures in my mind But I've never really thought of myself as a photographic memory. I remember the drive to Chaco Culture. It was 20 or so miles of unpaved roads... I honestly thought the van we were in would fall apart. A lot of these sites in the middle of nowhere have been destroyed.  When cattle ranchers and travelers were moving west they would remove the wood from the support beams and rooves to these large structures to use for firewood. So all buildings /ruins have those large gaping holes where the beams once were...Then the elements sneak in.  And in time the ruins... become ruined. It eats away at you that when the people were building these ruins they never said "Someday years from now these will all be ruins."  Just like we do not say that about our cities and what we build.  

Favorite book: 

Voltaire's Candide

Sent to REDACTED via postcrossing.  So.  This gentleman from Germany wanted a postcard of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I suppose it is an interest that is close to him because he apparently lives in close proximity to one.  I went through some of the world heritage sites on the website and I learned that Chaco Canyon was listed.  I have had this postcard for 12 years.  This is one of MY postcards, from one of MY adventures.  I went on a cross country road trip with my father and my sister.   I got the card at the gift shop at Chaco Canyon and I got it stamped at the National Park Passport station while I was there.  This postcard represented the history of my trip and a memento of the trip.  I wrote about the trip there.  I wrote about how the Chaco Canyon location was falling apart.  I figured when I sent it..."Daaaaamn Tom.  You really knocked that one out of the park." I honestly thought he would make it one of his favorites or something.  That card has to be rare!  It was such a pain in the ass to get to...it is one of the least visited national parks for a reason.  This cat also wanted to know my favorite book...which I was happy to tell him.  

So he got the card...and replied back with this...

I was floored.  I read his short note (several times) and the first thing I thought was "Get a load of this guy..."  I REALLY want to think something was lost in translation.  Perhaps he did not mean for it to sound as rude as he did.  But then again, if he liked the card enough he could have just asked me for my name.  I think normally I would have eaten crow.  I would have apologized for somehow slighting or being unfriendly to this stranger.  Instead, I replied: