Jun 13, 2013 - Carlsbad Caverns

Thur., June 13th – Today we did what brings everyone to Carlsbad – toured the caves at Carlsbad Cavern National Park. We chose to do the natural entrance self-guided tour. Rangers told us to be sure we were up to doing this walk as everyday someone has to be carried out. We walked into the cave from ground level and meandered through a 1 ¼ mile, 20% downhill grade to the Big Room at over 800’ below the surface. Whew! (It really wasn’t that bad.) Then we walked the Big Room loop for another 1 ¼ mile trek. The formations at every turn were...

Jun 13, 2013 - Carlsbad

We drove through more flat desert landscapes to Carlsbad today, seeing many pump jacks and oil storage and oil rig operations along the way. As we left Orla on Hwy 285 our windshield was hit by a rock, now it's no longer nice and new. The chip is just over the size of a quarter and it's on the passenger side, so we are hoping that Safelite will be able to keep the crack from spreading and they are supposed to come out tomorrow. As we crossed into New Mexico we changed to Mountain time and we started to see more hills, also some farming and...

Jun 12, 2013 - Carlsbad

Wed., June 12th – After traveling northbound across 150 miles of absolutely nothing on hwy 285, we arrived at Brantley Lake State Park 12 miles north of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Now we knew from the images on Google this was a desert setting, and it certainly didn’t let us down. We’re parked here in the 102◦ mid-day heat with an occasional jack rabbit as our only wildlife sighting. But as my sister who lived here for many years always told me, “It has its own kind of beauty.” Speaking of my sister, since Steve and I never ventured out this way...

Apr 12, 2013 - Brantley Lake State Park (Limestone CG)

Friday - After getting MH situated at SP CG Bill & I went to the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park for a few hours. Saturday - went into Roswell to view Alien museum. Had Forrest in truck and ended up getting too hot to leave her in truck so Bill went into museum while Forrest & I hung out in the truck.

Apr 10, 2013 - Carlsbad KOA

WEDS - Cruised around Brantley State Park in truck and on foot. Decided will move to SP CG on Sat. when KOA reservations expire. THURS - Went to Carlsbad Caverns from 9:30am - 2:30pm. Picked up Forrest and attempted to go to Sitting Bull Falls but park gate was locked earlier than noted.

Feb 7, 2013 - Day 206 - to Carlsbad, New Mexico

Today's drive was very eye-opening. We have been in rolling hills and mountains for the last week and today we came over the mountains surrounding Fort Davis and it opened up to plains, flat as southern Saskatchewan, from horizon to horizon. It is still desert with sandy looking soil and cacti, but obvious areas of irrigation that were very green. A couple hours of driving and we could again see mountains ahead. We skirted the edge of Carlsbad and went about 15 miles south to Whites City that is near the Carlsbad Caverns Park. We booked a...

Jan 18, 2013 - Carlsbad, NM

Carlsbad is a nice place and the campground is great. On the way here we passed through more oil fields and we get to put a new state sticker on our RV map of the US. In December we became aware that our plans to tour the whole states of Nevada and New Mexico were inadviseable in the winter. The northern portions of those states get colder weather than the southern halves due to the higher elevations, and they even get snow! So we rerouted our reservations and routes to stay on the I-10 or south. Even so, we are still hearing about a freak...

Nov 14, 2012 - Carlsbad NM - Brantley Lake Campground

Once the wind died down, we took off for Carlsbad NM, home of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We spent one day exploring the caverns and looking at all the stalactites and stalagmites. It was really neat. You’d be walking along a narrow path, round a corner and find yourself in a large “room” full of beautiful rock formations. We took two tours – one self-guided and the other was ranger led. On the ranger guided tour, the ranger wanted to give us a sense of how dark being in a cavern could be, so he turned out all the lights. Boy, that...

Oct 16, 2012 - Carlsbad Caverns

We stayed outside of Carlsbad, NM in a place called White City. It was like a ghost town with a small rv park. The good thing about that was that we didn't have to drive the 20 or so miles from Carlsbad to the caverns. The RV park was at the foot of the mountain where the caverns are located in the Carlsbad Cavern National Park. There are several caverns within this mountain, but we went to the one they call the "Big Room". You are taken down to the cavern in an elevator......700+ feet. I think the ranger said it was equal to 59 stories....

Sep 28, 2012 - High School Reunion

On the 28th, we drove to Carlsbad, NM, to go to my high school reunion. The classes of 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954 got together and had a party. Just before we arrived at the RV park in Carlsbad, friends called to say that they had just arrived at the same campground. We had a quick visit with them before going to the first event of the reunion Friday evening. It started raining just as we arrived in Carlsbad and rained and rained and rained. That had us parked in a huge, shallow lake. Water was everywhere. We were up to our ankles in water,...

Sep 6, 2012 - Into New Mexico

We drove through another oil boom area today in West Texas & New Mexico. From Pecos, TX, to Carlsbad, NM, we saw so many drilling rigs we didn't try to count & tanks & tanker trucks. We finally decided that a lot of the tanker trucks we were seeing were actually transporting water to the drilling rigs. We saw signs on a couple of small drilling rigs that they were drilling for fresh water & putting in water terminals. And we saw several of the blue plastic-lined water reservoirs. We saw one truck that had "hot oil tanker" painted on the...

Jul 2, 2012 - Bat Flight

After many months in the Southeast, we were back in Big Country. There's no doubt about it - distances are bigger in the West. The last of the family, who had joined us to see the Fandangle, left us on the 1st. By 10:00 AM we were on the road and had 300 miles to drive to Carlsbad, NM. My original plan had been to go in Lamesa, TX (which has free RV parking in the city park). Our kids changed those plans. Our daughter, her son and his friend were going to Carlsbad to do the Caverns. Number one son and his family had gone to Carlsbad from...