Road Trip

 Well, I'm in Colorado now.  I had an interesting trip cross-country.
I stopped at my aunt and uncle's house in Ohio on the way, then headed
south to stop at the Creation Museum just outside of Cincinnati
(http://creationmuseum.org/whats-here/exhibits/).  I spent several
hours wandering through the exhibits, taking pictures of the dinosaurs
in the Garden of Eden, reading about how it was totally possible for
the Grand Canyon to have been formed in a matter of weeks (afterall,
creeks were cut in the ash of Mt. St. Helens in a few hours!), and
smirking at the claim that dinosaurs were probably taken on the ark,
but were overhunted in the last few thousand years.  I then left to go
to Mammoth Cave when, in what, short of a bolt of lightning from a
clear sky, is as clear an example of divine vengeance as one is likely
to see, I got in a car accident ten minutes after leaving the Creation
Museum.  I'd had my car loaded down with all my belongings, so it was
significantly heavier than normal, the roads were wet from non-stop
driving rain over the last few hours, and when I put my brakes on, my
car just didn't stop.  Fortunately no one in the car in front of me
(another Hyundai) was hurt - and, as a matter of fact, their car was
barely scratched - but when the tow truck driver arrived to take my
vehicle, he said it was 'borderline totaled.'



I got a second opinion at the body shop, where they said that, in
their experience, for cases like this where the airbags didn't go off,
the windshield wasn't broken, and there was only fifty thousand miles
on the vehicle, 90% of the time the insurance company would pay for
repairs.  So, I loaded up all my belongings into a rental car (paid
for, thankfully, by State Farm), left my car at the secure lot, and
took off for Mesa Verde - where, a day after my arrival, I found out
that my vehicle had been transferred to the 'Total Loss Unit' of State
Farm.  Finally, late in the day on Thursday I heard back from them.
Apparently, 95% of vehicles moved to this unit are paid out as a total
loss, rather than being repaired.  My vehicle was in the repair 5%.
Which is good: I had not been looking forward to doing car shopping in
Cortez, Colorado, or to eating the loss of several thousand dollars
between what I paid for my car and what I would get back from my
insurance company.  Now all I have to do is wait a couple of weeks
until the repairs are completed, drive my rental car back 2000 miles
to Cincinnati, pick up my car from the body shop, then drive it back
to Mesa Verde over a long weekend.  Whee.



Anyway, it could have been a lot worse.

I hope that you're all doing well.  I'm settling in at Mesa Verde,
enjoying the opportunity to reconnect with the seasonals I knew from
last year, and having a good time at work.  I saw Zombieland in
Durango Friday night.  Here are a few photos from my trip.  I'd post
more photos of the museum, but it's looking kind of lightningy outside
right now.

Best wishes,
Nathan