Day 13 - Carlsbad Caverns

We checked out of our hotel and planned to s kip breakfast and just have an early lunch on our way out of town.  I needed to pick up some toiletries at the grocery store and we went to Albertson's Grocery Store, a chain of stores out west.  When we got inside, Randy said I'll meet you back here (at the checkout) so I went on and got my stuff and headed back to the front.  I thought he was probably buying something to snack on for the afternoon.  I waited.  I looked around the checkout area and I waited.  And I waited.  El Paso is right at the border crossing at Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.  Many people whose papers are in order cross over to do their shopping and then return to Juarez and it seemed that most of the folks in this particular grocery store were from Juarez because no English was being spoken.  Announcements over the public address system were in Spanish.  I sent Randy a text message saying "Are you still here? I no speakie the Spanish".  I got no reply.  I was afraid to leave my spot, afraid that he would appear and wonder where I was.  I waited.  Finally when I was wondering how I would be able to get back home because I surely had been abandoned, he appeared!  He had been in the pharmacy trying to get some allergy medication and had to wait to speak to the pharmacist who was busy with an elderly woman.  What a relief!

We left Albertson's and headed to the border.  It was pretty amazing.

The river there is almost non-existent.  There are a series of fences on the border.... one on the side of Mexico and two on the side of the US with a road in between that the border patrol drives on.  They are installing a huge fence that looks 12 to 15 feet tall along the side closest to the US.  Randy and I were discussing this... is this any way to have a neighbor??  Our solution is to PUT PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT OF OUR BORDERING COUNTRY AND THOSE TO THE SOUTH OF IT SO THAT THEY CHANGE THEIR WAYS SO THAT THEIR PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!  Then we can have borders with Mexico the same as we have with Canada.  You don't have to agree with me but it's just how I feel.  My life here would have to be pretty miserable before I would consider leaving my country and my family and going somewhere else to live.   Now, off the soapbox and back to the trip....

Border Patrol Headqarters 

Cross-over from Cuidad Juarez

I

Cellular Tower Tree

Large sculpture on Mexico's border side 

We drove back into town and had a quick lunch.  On our way into El Paso we had seen signs for a Trading Post called Saddle Blanket.  It was a 2 acre store with 3 acres of parking.  We hunted the store down and got a couple of treasures. I even found these two little ladies here...

We left Saddle Blanket and headed toward Carlsbad, NM.  I could remember hearing about the Carlsbad Caverns when I was in elementary school and my Aunt Pauline had visited there when she and her husband, Bill were on vacation.  The thoughts of caverns and caves have always fascinated me and I just couldn't wait to see them.  This was a deviation from our original plan but the more we looked online about it, the more we looked forward to seeing them. 

I had my old road atlas on my lap... it was 14 years old but the main roads were still on there and as we drove along I felt that I knew about how long it would take us to get from point A to point B.  Before long there was another Border Patrol Station where we were required to stop.  The young guard was outgoing and friendly.  After he ascertained that we were US citizens, he asked where we were heading and we said, "To Carlsbad Caverns".  He saw my map and said, "I hope you know that map isn't going to be any good for the next 14 miles."  I was puzzled and said, "It's 14 years old and probably isn't very accurate anyway".  He said, "Oh, it's still accurate here... you just won't have a turn off for over 14 miles."  We all had a good laugh but as it turned out, he was absolutely right.  There was not a path or driveway for more than 14 miles.   In fact, you couldn't see anything of any kind other than desert, brush and scrub.  

Eventually we did pass a road but for the most part, the entire trip to Carlsbad was empty land.  There were signs offering land for sale, lots of land for sale.  We couldn't figure out how people would have electricity or water that far out. 

 Eventually we came to El Capitan which is part of the Guadalupe Mountains in New Mexico....

We passed the park entrance and were only about 17 or 18 miles away from Carlsbad.  We drove on into the Carlsbad Cavern Park and got our bearings about the place.  The drive in was just beautiful with all of the cactus plants in bloom.  The rose-like flowers of purple and yellow against the mountains were a welcome bit of color in the otherwise colorless landscape.  You learned quickly to appreciate subtle colors of sage and veins of colors in the mountain rock formations.  

The weather for the next few days was expected to be clear and hot, in the upper nineties (hot for us for May).  But as they say, it's a dry heat.  This means that you sweat freely and it dries quickly.  After being in the air conditioned car for a few hours, the heat was like a slap in the face.  The Park Center was cool and inviting.  We got information from the Park Rangers  and then headed into town to our hotel.  We found an enormous Chinese Buffet for dinner and made our plans for the next day.  We planned to be at the front of the line when the park opened at 8:00 am.  We wanted to beat the crowds and have a leisure look at the caverns.

Day 5 - Albuquerque

We left Oklahoma City to head to Albuquerque.  I had always heard about Oklahoma being a "plains" state but didn't really get a glimpse of it until we got on the western side of the state.  There, the landscape changed to one that looked as if all trees and shrubs had been swept clear by the wind and the only thing left behind was the grass.  Rocks and hills were worn smooth.  It was exactly as I had imagined it would be.  We began seeing dust devils... they are winds that appear to be a tornado but they move the dry dust along.  Some were quite large.

We continued on I-40 into the Texas panhandle.  We noticed that the auto dealerships no longer offered cars.... just trucks.  We couldn't believe just how many they had on their lots but imagine a  dealership with just trucks... all colors but only the full sized or super cab ones.  It was mind boggling. We stopped in Amarillo for lunch at the Salt Grass Steak House, a chain of steakhouses in the states of Oklahoma and Texas.   Amarillo receives much of its electricity from wind farms that we passed that were miles long and almost as far as you could see on the horizon and believe me, you could see a long way on the horizon there.  Thank God for Google because we used it to answer all sorts of questions we had as we drove down the road.  It seems that these wind farms share fields with livestock farms.  Farmers rent the space that the wind turbines are on for 3 to 5 thousand per year per turbine.  Most groupings of turbines were no less than 30 and many were larger than that.  These farmers have it figured out!  We saw huge fields of yellow flowers.  Google told us that these were canola fields.  Who knew that canola came from Texas?  There were also cattle feed lots that were fenced lots a hundred yards or so square with a covered feed trough.   They were lined along the service road on the highway with more in behind.  It was almost sickening to imagine the slaughter that would eventually take place.  We pondered why some deaths are so acceptable and others are not.  It happens every day to countless cows, pigs, chickens and we don't bat an eye.

That afternoon when we needed gas we watched for billboards.  After several miles a billboard said that just ahead at the next exit was a station.  We got off, crossed the bridge and the gas station was closed....long closed.  We stopped up on the bridge that we had crossed to get to the gas station. Randy got his camera out and did a 360 degree of the landscape.  There was nothing but highway and a few cows on that flat land as far as you could see.

 We got back on the highway and were luckier at the next stop which was a small town.  We realized we were not in good old NC anymore with its gas station at every exit and we vowed to make sure we stopped to gas up as frequently as we could.

The landscape began to change as we neared New Mexico.  The flat plains gave way to mountains in addition to the scrub dotted desert.  The mountains were very different from the ones in North Carolina.  These were bare of vegetation and resembled the rocky mountains you see on Mars.  Just huge hills of rock piles... big rocks.  The only trees were small mesquites.  Sagebrush grew thick and arroyos (dry creek beds) showed that at some point they had rain in this dry desert like area because there had been enough at some point to cut small valleys over the landscape.

We continued on into New Mexico, our I-40 route going parallel to Route 66.  We arrived in Albuquerque around 5 p.m.  As we drove into the eastern edge of the city, out of the corner of my eye I saw a big white glamorous older Eldorado Cadillac convertible in the rear view mirror easing up behind us.  I could see hair blowing in the breeze and imagined a retro loving woman who might be driving it.    I slowed down a little to let her catch up with us but she seemed to slow down as well.  We went on for several miles with me keeping an eye on the mirror, waiting for her to come around us.  Finally she did and when the car got beside us, I saw that the car wasn't as pristine as it had looked in the mirror.  It was showing age and had scratches, dings and rust.  Likewise, the driver was a little older.... and was a long haired man with his gray tresses flying in the breeze beneath his sun visor hat.  

We arrived at the Hotel Andaluz, an older historic hotel in downtown Albuquerque.  As he was unloading the car, the valet asked us if we had come into town for the Pow Wow and we said no, that we didn't know anything about it.  He said that if we had no plans, we should go to it the next day.  It was being held at The Pit, an arena at the University of New Mexico.  We thanked him for telling us about the Pow Wow and made a mental note to look it up online once we got settled.

The hotel we stayed in was really beautiful.  It was an old, grand style hotel and had a really unique lobby with small individual rooms that had sofas and chairs for small private groups.  There was a lovely screen made of pieces of stained glass between the lobby and the elevator entrance.  It was really elegant.

There were many people in town for the Pow Wow and also for a wedding reception that was being hosted in the hotel lobby so there were people milling about everywhere.  We went out to find some dinner and every place within walking distance of the hotel was packed. Finally we settled on a restaurant bar called The Library.  It was right across from a Gentleman's Club that had all sorts of sleazy looking characters loitering around out front.  We were able to watch their comings and goings as we had our dinner.  They even had a sign posted that said "Discrete Entrance in Rear".  Apparently there are people who go there who are ashamed to be seen going in the front door.  Hmmm.   Randy remarked on our waitress' attire... Specifically her skirt.  He said that maybe we should take up a collection and buy her some clothes.  I think it was supposed to remind the viewer of a school uniform with white blouse and plaid skirt.  The skirt looked like it was about 12 inches long and when she would quickly turn you would get a glimpse of her bottom.  The bartender was wearing the same "uniform".  She wasn't a very good waitress but I would guess that given her costume and the usual clientele, that didn't usually make her tips total any less.  Randy remarked that as a minister, in many ways he had lived a sheltered life.  Apparently I have too.  Well, we are certainly enlightened now.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and collapsed.  All this driving and pushing westward was catching up with us and we would finally have 2 nights in the same bed.  Whew!