Rosalie's Traveling Buddies

Rosalie wanted to share with you some of her traveling buddies.

Bluie, Bluie, Orange1, Orange2,  brownie1, brownie2, white1, white2

And some of her other buddies ....

Day 6 - Mar 29 Roswell and on to Alamogordo, Nm

A travel day.

We were off to Alamogordo to see the White Sands monument as well as tour a pistachio farm. We had two routes to take. A short route through a pass that had a snow fall last night and a very steep grade going down the mountain or a longer easier route that passes through Alien country, Roswell.

We opted for Roswell where we toured the International UFO Museum Web Site to learn all about the events that started the public UFO craze. It was an interesting visit, though was a bit rushed. Something about trying to keep a 4 year old entertained.


On the way out of town we stopped for a family picture. I don't "think" the visit had any effect on us....

We arrived just outside of Alamogordo about 5 or so. Staying at the Edgeington RV park.

Day 5 - Mar 28 Carlsbad Caverns

Once again we are off to see a cave. Today we drove down to the Caverns. The visitors centers sits on top of the bluff making up the edge of the Guadalupe mountain range. The main cave is at about the same elevation as the local valley floor.

We took the self guided tour first, stopped for lunch, then took one of the ranger guided tours. The formations did not have much of a color variation but they were very impressive anyway.

The ranger told us the history of the cave, the effort that went into exploring it, as well as the effort to get other folks to come visit. In an effort to promote the cave they help meetings, weddings, rally', etc in one of the main cave rooms.

Part of the tour was to turn off all the lights for about 5 mins. Total darkness is something we seldom can experience but, we all did fine with it. 

The bats are not back yet so we were not able to see them. They have a colony of about 4 to 5 hundred thousand. Not as many as we see at the Austin river bridge, but then again there are literally a few more tons of insects for them to eat in Texas.

Carlsbad Caverens web site.

Some of our pictures: Carlsbad Pics.

Day 4 - Mar 27 Guadalupe National Park

Today we headed off to Guadalupe National Park. This park is set on the Texas/New Mexico boarder about 110 miles or so from El Paso and about 55 miles south of Carlsbad.

As has become our custom Rosalie earned another Junior Ranger badge. As part of that we took a short stroll down to the local stage coach stop. The stage ran through here for 11 months until a safer route was developed. 25 days from St Louis to San Francisco, averaging 120 miles a day. Them was some hardy folks back then....

The park is spread out over a large area with a few entrances quite a distance apart. Unfortunately we did not make it to the other park areas.

Guadalupe National Park

Day 3 - Mar 26 - Living Desert, dinner, shopping

Today's highlight was a visit to the Living Desert State park just outside of Carlsbad. We spent a few hours there walking and seeing the desert plant and wildlife exhibits. It's a nicely put together facility on the bluffs overlooking the city. The local rattle snake even shook his tail for us. I fear we shall discover that we neglected to keep our walking muscles toned during our time back in Texas.....

One of the hard things about rolling into a new town is finding a nice place to go out to eat. Every city of any size and even some that are not have the usual fast food burger and sandwich shops. The Urban spoon mobile app helps but we are usually in the hunt before we think of using it. At times we almost give up and hit the national chains even though we would rather not.

But we do have our far share of luck as well. Tonight we stopped at the Yellow Brix just because they had a nice looking patio. Rose had a craving for a burger ( we almost stopped to take her temperature but realized  she was not sick, we had only half starved her... :o) )

At first we thought it was a run of the mill sandwich shop, then realized it may have been a bit too upscale, but we finally found they were serving the lunch menu so ended up with the best chicken tortilla soup ever ( even though it was a bit spicier than we are used to) and a great Mexican hamburger. Yes, Rose attacked hers with a vengeance.

Seems the cave tours were full up for Thursday but we did get res's for Friday. So, tomorrow is Guadalupe National Park day. Perhaps another junior ranger badge for the young one. Oh, yes they now have a senior ranger program..... 

A few pictures: Picasa Web

Day 2 - Mar 25 - Arrive in Carlsbad, Nm.

Again we were struck by the numbers of electricity producing wind towers in west Texas. It would be interesting to compare the numbers in Texas with those in Iowa/Minn. These in Tx we had seem before and expected but Iowa/Minn. That was unexpected.

We left Sweetwater about 11:00 or so and rolled into the Carlsbad KOA about 6 or so. The park is about 15 miles north of Carlsbad out in the middle of no where, literally. Not too far from a state park lake but 15 miles from the nearest town.

We got settled and had a delicious dinner served up by the master chef of the team. She truly does do a great job of keeping the team fed.

We will head to the Living Desert State park tomorrow, just outside of Carlsbad, then into town for dinner and a bit of shopping. We are planning to go to the Caverns either Thursday or Friday depending on tour availability. 

Day 1 - Mar 24 - Adventure west - Sweetwater, Tx

Finally after what seems to be weeks of preparation we be gone....

True to form we rolled out of the house at about 11:30. Hit traffic trying to get out of Dallas. First stop was Sweetwater. Tx. They have a municipal RV park that charges $10 per night for water/electricity. What we found out was it was a bit out of town and we were the only ones there. We got semi lost a couple of times trying to find the park but made it in the end.

No problems through the night...

We almost be gone....

By tomorrow evening I hope to report that we are once again on the road. A good friend once said that it's easier being full time. At least then you need not re-pack ever so often. We are a bit reluctant to leave the unit packed when it is stored off site.

But....

I think we are about there. Should be out terrorizing the other motorists tomorrow....

The next adventure begins - soon

We are gathering it up to head it on out.

This trip has us headed west via New Mexico, Arizona on to California. Some of the planned highlights:

- Carlsbad Caverns N.M.
- White Sands N.M.
- A Road School convention in Tuscon
- Biosphere 2
- San Diego
- Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite national parks
- San Francisco
- some vino in Napa.

Now, if we can just find places to stay....

A new experiment for the blog this time. We are going to try to put some pictures up on Picasa and provide a link to them rather than try to embed in the blog posting. We shall see....
The album is a bit sparse at the moment, but it's experimental...  Link to Picasa web album

Since the last trip we have:
- installed new tires on the trailer. One of the originals tread was starting to separate so we replaced the entire set with, hopefully, a better set.
- added some drawers under the dinette set to store the pots/pans
- figured we will try to take our bicycles this time. They will ride on the read couch... At least until we mail them home  :o)
- added a toolbox to the truck
- a new ladder - hopefully the pilot will quite falling off of them (silly)

More as we get on the road....