Carlsbad

{{most of the flowers pictured in the previous post were outside our Carlsbad airbnb; of special interest to me were the reddish orange ones that appear to be one flower and then upon closer examination, you realize that they are made up of many tiny flowers clustered together to complete the optical illusion}}

Carlsbad was a lovely little town with many areas of interest:  an old aqueduct, a lake, beaches, the surrounding desert, parks, paths, and about half an hour to the south, the Carlsbad Caverns.  The caverns were the main reason for our visit to the area, so we set off Friday morning in the daylight.  First, we stopped at Church Street Grill, a walk up/drive thru food stand that had the best breakfast burritos ever.  And very cheap too.  I also had the very first shake of the day, it was super thick and lip smacking good.  The best peanut butter shake I've had in quite some time.

We headed south, out of town, into the desert and then turned to the north toward the caverns.  We wound around and up into the mountains, some of the views were so amazing that the drive alone was a destination in itself.  When we pulled into the parking lot for the caverns, we saw what could have been a village of adobe style homes.   The ranger told us that most of them are residences for various forms of law enforcement and fellow rangers, temporary and permanent.

Altho I had seen lots of cactus and yucca, I had not seen this type of cactus before.  This relatively thin, spiny segmented cactus was completely unfamiliar.  Prior to this trip, I'd seen some of the flatter, smoother kind with more oval type appendages.   But still, cactus is not something I see so often in my daily surroundings that I've grown immune to its strange beauty.

When we first went into the building, which sits perched atop a very steep peak, we saw the elevators that take you down into the depths of the caverns.  There are many write ups on the 120+ rooms of the Carlsbad Caverns, here's just one.

Not all of the rooms or caves are open to the public, but enough so that I doubt many complain.  Toward dusk, in the evening, the rangers do a good presentation on the many bats who take to the skies and mill about, swooping and frolicking about in their lil bat ways.

In the next post, I'll share some pix of the caverns themselves.  Jerry and I both were having some congestion, so I stayed up in the gift shop, museum, book store, and cafe.  But Jerry took some tablets and armed himself with the camera and ventured forth.

About an hour and half later, he came up to join me in the cafe.  He gulped down a few pints of water, while rubbing his knee.  I knew the temperatures below, in the caves, might get a bit chilly for him; so did he, so he wore long pants and socks with sneakers and a long sleeved t.

He remarked again, as we'd marveled several times, that it seems folks are always in a rush.  Even in retirement, even on vacation, even on scenic byways that warn you ahead of time that there are lower speed limits and quite possibly twisty, curvy, steep roads ahead.  He took his time, tho he did end up skipping a room or two, simply because there were very loud crying children or crowds within.  He gave me the camera to review his chosen shots and I was glad he'd gone and enjoyed himself, what an opportunity!

We didn't notice til we'd gotten home, unpacked, and washed the above pictured shirt that it indeed is a large, but it's a youth large and so doesn't fit Jerry.  One of the grandkids will get it, I'm sure.  We didn't buy tons of souvenirs, tho he did manage to find ONE V~neck shirt for me.  It's a tad snug tho, so will have to wait til I lose some weight.

Also, we'd bought some fridge magnets featuring the various parks we visited.  And of course, we picked up some post cards.  We both read lots and will probably use them for bookmarks more so than using them to send on to others.  They are always of good views that I wouldn't usually find myself so well placed to capture with my camera.  We were sure to save the brochures and maps we did use, so that we can look back and remember what we saw at various places.

Our trip was soon to come to an end and we had mixed feelings about that.  We were both tired and wanted to sleep in our own bed, be in our own home, and snuggle with our lil dogs.  But we had both been enjoying the trip so much and seeing all the different parts of our country that are so new and unusual to us.  We had paired appropriate audio books with various regions and states, so we felt like we'd gotten that much more from our trip.

Saturday would see us driving the width of Texas, skirting Fort Worth and Dallas, to spend our final night on the road in Shreveport, La.  That's for tomorrow.

OH!  And while in Carlsbad, we did stop to eat at a regional franchise, Blake's Lotaburger.  They're located throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.  They are celebrating their 65th year and are contemplating possibly opening a few stores in Oklahoma.  National Geographic named them as the "World's Best Green Chile Cheeseburger" and after having tried them for ourselves, we agree.  Other than that, all of our eateries were locally owned businesses that were truly unique.  Most of the time, we were not disappointed.

We also were able to drive along Route 66, "Main Street of America".  Our trip through the western part of Arizona captured just a small part of the highway's offerings.  That would be a nostalgic trip, I think, for most anyone wanting to get their kicks on Route 66.

Jerry's Dam Shirt