Carlsbad, NM 4/12 - 4/15Apr 12, 2009
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Me at the entrance to the cave
John is taking pics at the top entrance, This is where the...
The bats fly in the cave in the morning and out in...
| Sunday, 4/12/09 Easter Sunday, We attended church at First Presbyterian Church in Artesia. It is a small church similar to our home church, the original sanctuary. It was really quite lovely. It also reminded us of Pastor Bonds church in Thousand Oaks, California. There were not very many people attending, around 50, but they were all very nice and friendly. It is a depresses area. We decided to leave Artesia, and go south to Carlsbad. We are planing on visiting the Caverns, so thought we would camp closer. It was a short drive about 36 miles. We are now camped at Carlsbad RV Park. The office building looks a bit like it use to be a KOA. They have an indoor pool and laundry etc. It is still a gravel campground and a lot of dust, but I guess it is the area. We are paying way too much to be here, but the choices are slim and there are no campgrounds in our Camp Club USA here. The Fee is $33.50 a night. There was a potluck dinner in the rec room and John wanted to attend. He needed to get some visiting in. It was 3 o'clock and I did not have time to prepare anything so we went to Thrift way and bought some salad. There were nice friendly people to visit with. Monday, 4/13/2009 Today we were going to go to the Caverns, but John was up sick last night. He thinks it was something he ate or not. But sick he was, so we just layed low, and he slept most of the day, and I caught up on some other things. We did take a drive later in the afternoon, and checked out a couple of parks. But the main think we did that day was go to a Drive In Movie. That is one of the things I wanted to do on vacation is find a nice drive in and enjoy. We don't have many left at home. I have great memories of the Fife Drive In as probably my friends do also. But this was really a cute one. There were three screens, one really nice snack bar, and of course you use your radio. The people are friendly and sit out with their lawn chairs, and it is fairly warm, and just down home. The movie wasn't great, "Knowing" and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone but it was fun. Monday night special, $3.00. Tuesday, 4/14/2009 The Caverns: We did the Caverns! We spent the entire day on the Caverns. Our first tour was our hike down to the bottom, about 800 ft to the bottom. You know I am not good at dark creepy places, but I overcame. Actually the hike down was not too bad, the trails were great, and there was lots to see. The first section was the bat cave part, and I don't really like bats that well, so because we were the first people there that day and the first people to enter the cave at 8:30 AM, the Bats were still returning to their home. Creepy. They are noisy too. I have been to the Oregon Caves several time, but I think these caves are really impressive. After about an hour and a half downward, we were on the main level of viewing. We signed up for a tour of the Kings Palace and that was about a hour and a half, but was something to see. I was starting to get a little chilled so we took the elevator to the top, (yes there is an elevator, so why did we walk down 800 ft. The experience I guess.) We had lunch at the top snack shop and returned below for our self guided tour of the BIG ROOM. And it was the biggest room I have ever seen, something like 8 acres or more. Yes, we hiked the Big Room. John was loving everything, and he is in such good shape that it wasn't bothering him a bit. I found out that hiking down 800 feet does something to your knees and finally the pain began. My knees were killing me about half way through the BIG ROOM. It got so bad that every time I had to walk down hill, I would have to turn around and walk backwards, so ease the pain. On the flat I was fine, but going down his was not a good thing. All I could think of was Jason's Hot tub. We didn't have a hot tub at the campground, only a pool, and I really needed a hot tub. I know the next day would be a tough one. The Caves were worth the pain. Seeing the Grand Canyon really does something to you spiritually, and seeing the caves does the same thing in a little different way. We really enjoyed the caves, all 5 hrs of hiking. What a day. |
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