Summer Journey - Part 3

Day 7, Thursday, June 18th (488 miles)

This was the day of the "big drive"--488 miles, our longest stretch--from Holbrook, AZ to Carlsbad, NM. Even though we didn't stop anywhere for sightseeing, it was still an interesting day. We stopped for food and fuel, and even one special errand, along the way. (You might notice something different about Leland in subsequent pictures.)

We cruised along Interstate 40 through Albuquerque (lots of road construction) and made our turn onto 285 south. I can honestly say that I've never been on a more desolate stretch of road. For the most part, it's a divided highway with 2 lanes in each direction...and for much of the drive, we were the only vehicle on the road.

Sometimes, when we get bored on a drive, we'll play the "Alphabet Game," where we find words on signs and vehicles that begin with each letter of the alphabet. On 285, however, there were as few signs as vehicles, so this game was out of the question. Instead, we decided to find a word beginning with each letter of the alphabet that described the area we were driving through. Here's our list: Abysmal, Barren, Creepy, Desolate, Eerie, Forlorn, Gigantic, Hellish, Inhospitable...you get the idea.

We had one small adventure on this highway, again, due to our nav unit. We were about a hundred miles from Roswell when George announced that we had about 75 miles' worth of gas in the truck. So, we turned to the nav unit, requested the closest gas station and it told us that it was 50 miles behind us! Given the descriptions of the road, above, you can imaging our (okay, my) panic. However, we pulled out our Road Atlas to find that we were about 20 miles from a town at the junction of two highways. We traveled on, found a gas station there and breathed a sigh of relief.

After a quick dinner in Roswell, we completed our journey to the Carlsbad KOA. Whew!

Day 8, Friday, June 18th

We ventured to Carlsbad Caverns (http://www.nps.gov/cave). It was an awesome experience. We learned about how the caverns were formed, the discovery of the natural opening and the initial explorations, and the scientific value of the caves' environment. We took the self-guided tour through the natural opening, which led 750 feed underground, and then took the "Big Room" self-guided tour, which wound about a mile and a half around an area into which you could fit 6 football fields! Due to the cavern's darkness, the few pictures we took didn't illumninate much more than the kids, but I've included one anyway. You'll have to take my word for it that the cave formations were amazing.

Leland earned his third Junior Ranger badge at Carlsbad Caverns after we attended the bat flight viewing at sunset. Hundreds of thousands of bats spiral out of the natural entrance and fly off into the twilight to consume half their weight in bugs. Cameras are not allowed at this event, but you can visit the website to see some impressive images.

We were treated to another one of mother nature's spectacles last night: a desert thunderstorm. The lightning lit up the sky and the thunder boomed for hours. We fell asleep to the rhythmic patter of rain on the trailer.

Day 9, Saturday, June 20th

Today dawned clear, and we're relaxing a little bit. I'm doing laundry as I type this entry. Later today, we're headed back to Carlsbad Caverns for a ranger-guided tour of an area you can't visit on the self-guided tours. During part of the tour, we're supposed to experience "total darkness." It should be interesting.