Carlsbad Caverns
We woke up just in time for the free breakfast - full breakfast, not just a
continental one, as was pointed out to me when checking in. Downstairs we found
an embedded Chinese restaurant where four choices of breakfast were being
offered, while during the day the restaurant switches to the full blown Chinese
repertoire which lists broccoli beef, pork and chicken as well as sweet and sour
chicken, pork, and prawns as six individual house specialties, or about 50% of
its menu. We eventually both got someone else's order, further supporting the
theory that restaurants in New Mexico are somewhat chaotic.
We drove through Carlsbad, with its very own courthouse, Physician's Rehab
(whatever that is), and even a university - probably a school of irrigation, a
psychiatric clinic, a Wal-Mart supercenter and of course my ever favorite
drive-in restaurant, one of the most bizarre inventionws I have ever seen. But
soon we were out of Carlsbad and on the way to the Carlsbad Caverns. With a
number of other people we entered the cave through its natural entrance, which
is full of bats during the summer months. No bats to scare anyone today, but the
thought of entering the cave seemed to be a bit too much for little Chandler, a
maybe 3 year old boy who was afraid of entering the cave. It seemed that daddy's
"selling" of the cave helped, as we later saw Chandler and his five siblings
having a great time in the cave.
On the descent of 750 feet, during which we got to see some fascinating
formations we were passed by a group of Japanese tourists who were living up to
their reputation and pretty much ran past the other people. Maybe they were
planning to see the sunset at White Sands, who knows. Eventually we made it down
to the Big Room, which is indeed big - the largest cave in the western
hemisphere. In a way, our visit to the cave was just beginning. Numerous
stalactites, stalagmites, columns, yes even popcorn and some nipples and other
highly suggestive formations were abundant. I took some of the pictures with a
particular friend in mind - hope you enjoy them =)
Click on the first image
to start a slide show for this day (37 pictures)
Images shown below are a small selection.
In slide show, click on image to return to index.
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Back to the top we rode an elevator, operated by a friendly ranger; I wonder
whether she gets motion sick after riding the elevator with glass walls up and
down through the narrow tube all day. Back at the car Essan ate some snacks, I
drank a liter of grapefruit juice, fearless of the consequences, and off we were
on the way to nearby Texas, the lone star state, home of our very president,
elected by a minority of the voting people. At least on the way from the caves
to El Paso we saw some desert, desert, and more desert, some of it polluted with
garbage. The closer to El Paso we got the more polluted things got, until the
air was almost brown. This way we completely wasted the magic hour of light -
there was simply not much to use it for, plus Essan was getting rather hungry,
and I knew perfectly well what that meant. Since we skipped lunch we treated
ourselves to an Italian dinner which was very good and filling, even though the
service was more resembling that of some Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area.
From El Paso we decided to motor west as far as we could, since it was dark and
probably not very scenic anyway. The Border Patrol station west of Las
Cruces was temporarily out of comission because one of the officers just arrived
from the nearby town with some fresh coffee a bunch of donuts, so we were spared
a traffic jam and some excitement. When the iPod battery died we had to once
again rely on the airwaves, which was moderately painful until we found a
station playing the "Saturday Night 80s" mix; at that point it became only
painful for Essan, as I was clearly having a blast, which was more than obvious
thanks to my dorky dancing at the steering wheel. The station disappeared just
around the AZ / NM border, and we retired for the night shortly later in Wilcox
AZ. It's interesting that the towns around I-10 in this area all seem to have
just three streets - Motel Drive East, Main Street, and Motel Drive West.