Day 11: In a cavern

 

Our night in Carlsbad was not very good.  When I arrived I was thinking it was going to be a good night.  The hotel was really nice,  I was super tired from the long, long drive, the kids were tired too. 

But no.

First, I’m sure as a result of all the caffeinated beverages I’d had throughout the day, I couldn’t get to sleep.  It was so frustrating because I was just exhausted, but kind of wired at the same time.  Finally I gave up and took a sleeping pill and put in ear plugs.

At 3AM Rachel woke me up in tears.  She was almost frantic with frustration, saying that the radio in the next room had been playing for an hour and she couldn’t get back to sleep.  I groggily called the front desk and they took care of the problem.  Then Jenna told me that she’d been awake from 12-1 with an upset stomach, and Jared said that he’d been awake for the last hour with an upset stomach.  It took a long time to get everyone settled back down and asleep again, and in the morning I had a hard time waking up. 

We were going to go to Carlsbad Caverns that day, and then to drive to my cousin’s in New Mexico to spend the night.  Because we had moved up the day of our visit my cousin was going to be gone all afternoon and evening so we were in no hurry to start our day.  I took the kids over to the hotel pool to swim and then tried to take a short nap before we packed up and left. 

Then we drove to Carlsbad Caverns.  I had no idea what to expect, and really enjoyed our afternoon there. 

First of all I was surprised by the number of flowering cactus plants (cacti???) there were on the drive.  We learned on the tour that this is one of the wettest deserts in the world.

The caverns were bigger than anything I’d EVER imagined.  First there was the descent.  The trail into the caverns was 1 1/4 miles and 79 stories down!!!  It was so steep that almost the whole way I felt like I was walking on my toes.  It took at least an hour to walk down, and I cannot imagine trying to walk up.

It was only after we were done walking down that we saw the most amazing part, which was the Big Room.  The Big Room is the size of 14 football fields—except that instead of plain green astroturf, it’s a landscape of strange and wonderful formations.  It is so big it’s like being in a very dark cathedral that never seems to end.  Jared was really not feeling well by this point and he was a real trouper.

When we were all done we took the elevator back up 75 stories and had a great time exploring the gift shop where we found a Christmas ornament that showed stalactites, stalagmites, and bats too. 

After we ate we started for my cousin’s house.  It was an interesting drive.  First we drove from mountain time (the caverns) back into Texas and central time.  We drove through El Paso & saw the turnoff to Juarez, which Russ forbade me to take.  (Don’t worry—the current level of violence in Mexico makes that a no-brainer for me.)  Then we drove back into New Mexico and into mountain time again….

We stopped at the first rest area in New Mexico to get a map to add to Jared’s growing collection.  This lovely sign greeted us when we pulled up.  We were very cuidado.

A couple of miles before we reached my cousin’s house we drove for miles past beautiful trees.  I finally figured out that they must be some kind of nut, and sure enough, this area is filled with pecan trees. 

For the first time on this trip I had problems with my google maps directions.  The directions told me  that “after crossing the river” I should “turn onto the levee road.”  I crossed the river (the Rio Grand—is it this low everywhere??)

and this is what I saw next.

You know I’m a pretty good traveller, and it just did not seem like the right place for me to be.  Apparently there used to be a way to get from that road to my cousin’s house, but now there’s a barbed wire fence in the way.  So it’s a good thing that I called Russ and got him to give me alternate directions instead…

miles travelled: 223                                                                                               total: 2486

 

(I just made an executive decision and decided that as anal as I am about chronology, it’s bugging me to put my maps at the top of my page if I do my driving at the end of the day!  So now the maps are going to go in the post where they belong time-wise.  And the way I travel most days, that’s likely to be at the bottom.)