The plan was to get up and be out by 9am today (Sunday)...yeah, whatever. We had breakfast downstairs [Travel Tip --> Holiday Inn = you pay for breakfast separate from your room, Holiday Inn Express = breakfast is included! It's a bit more than continental, there's sausage, pancakes, biscuits, bagels, mini-muffins, cereal, milk, coffee, yogurt, fresh fruit...pretty good fixin's if you ask me.] After breakfast we sluggishly made our way back upstairs to get ready to head out. I think the drive was catching up to us. It was more like 10:15...ish by the time we got in the car.
GPS to Carlsbad Caverns unequivocally sucks. No exceptions...VZ Navigator, Sprint Navigation and MapQuest...all lame. They take you to the Carlsbad National Park Visitors Center, which is not in the park at all, but about 28 miles north of it. If you leave there, heading to where the caverns signs send you...GPS tells you to make a u-turn and go back because you're wrong...although you are very right. Needless to say...we followed the signs. It was an easy ride from where we're staying - all on one road. At least it wasn't bad once we started ignoring the technology.
Park entrance fee is $6 per adult that you pay once you're in the visitor center. We decided to do the "natural entrance" to the park (instead of the elevator entrance - ticket covers either). The natural entrance is about 2 miles of winding pathways at about a 30 degree angle most of the time. It was a true challenge on your ankles for sure but totally worth the scenery. It took us about 2 hours to do the entrance. I was pooped and a bit over the caverns at that point. So when we got to a crossroads where the elevators and rest rooms are, I decided to take a break. Ratac (to be further known as "R" so I don't have to type so much) said, "I'll go on and get some more pictures and meet you back here." Dummy that I am, I say "OK" and off he goes. About 10 minutes later, I looked at the directions board again and was thinking I should have just gone with him. Ten minutes after that I was thinking, "I have to p..." so I went to the restroom. The whole time I was concerned that I was going to be lost in the caverns forever and he wasn't going to find me. I didn't have my cell phone, he had the car key. It was an awful feeling. Turns out he was having the same thoughts about coming back to get me. It won't happen again...no separating while underground at all. I promise.
We rode the elevator back up from the Big Room and the operator told me its about 750 feet up to the top. He had us look down between the elevator and the floor to see the little spec of light that represented where we had been.
Amazing. I used the word "WOW" a lot today. The caverns are insane. R asked if I'd been to Mammoth Cave. The answer...yes, when I was a child but I did NOT go inside the cave. I took that bus trip all the way there and then freaked out. I can see why I did, but good news is I didn't this time.
We did some gift shopping and eating in the cavern restaurant, then decided to head to Roswell, NM so we could see what didn't happen and where it didn't happen. It was interesting. They don't ham it up half as much as we thought they would, but still some interesting places. There we shopped at Roswell Landing - nice place for t-shirts and they are open late, even on Sunday. The guy there looked alien-esque if you ask me, but he was a very helpful man and obviously a local. He knew some great restaurants in the area and we took his suggestion of tia Juana's - food was great.
Its been an eventful weather day here. We had rain as we were walking into the park, then huge clouds and rain on the way to Roswell, then HAIL on the way back from Roswell. When we first saw the hail it was on the roadway and looked like there had been trucks salting the road, but then we noticed it was on the shoulder. Why would they salt a shoulder? Then R says "I think its hail..." Cue me with the "are you nuts?" look. So, then all I could think was that I wanted to pull over and see...so we did. It was hail.
One more thing, of course we've been rained on today, more than once, plus it was cold, moist and somehow sometimes warm in the caverns, so my hair is NOT at its best. (I wonder if I'll still have a friend named Michael by the time I get home...arrrrghhhh! I want BRAIDS!) Anyway, we're leaving the caverns, in the car on the way to Roswell and R says... "Have you loooooked in a mirror?" Cue me with the "oh my goodness, is it that bad?" face! I said yes, and he said "oh ok, I didn't want you to be shocked when you saw your curls were...well...gone." I breathed a sigh of relief, yes, I knew, they were gone and I'm going to be OK with that. LOL
Sounds like you're having a blast... You better not be checking emails!
ReplyDeleteA true friend tells you when your hair is jacked :-) Good job R!!!
ReplyDeleteTru Dhat!
ReplyDelete