First thing on the agenda for the day is to get gas after last night's fiasco. We had eaten breakfast at the hotel so we were ready to roll...well, we couldn't leave town without taking a picture of Paisano Pete, the largest roadrunner of its kind.
Shortly after we left Fort Stockton, we came across our second border patrol checkpoint. The procedure was the same except one of the officers had a K-9 dog that sniffed around the outside of the van. Guess we are in the area of the country that this has become a way of life. No thank you! We were sent on our way and continued on.
Scenery was still a lot of bare desert with some mountains in the horizon. Then oil derricks starting popping up. We saw methane stacks burning as well. We had seen chemical plants in Houston, but these were the first oil derricks we had seen in Texas.National HIstoric Site #5 - Guadalupe Mountains National Park
We decided to add Guadalupe Mountains National Park to our day before going to Carlsbad Caverns. It was only adding about 1 hour to our day. We were still in Texas, but changed to Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) on the way to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. That meant we picked up an hour so we were ahead of the game.
We arrived at the Visitors Center and went in to watch the movie about the park. We always do this first thing because it gives us an overview of what to expect. We knew this was mainly a hiking park, but knew there were a few things we could see. The mountains were beautiful, especially El Capitan which has a very flat face. Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas at an elevation of 8749 feet. We also went to the site of The Pinery Butterfield Stage Station Ruins. The stage coach ran right through the park long ago.
State #6 - New Mexico
As we left Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we finally left Texas and arrived in New Mexico.
National Historic Site #6 - Carlsbad Caverns National Park
We arrived at Carlsbad Cavern National Park and were given the choice to ride the elevator down to the Big Room or to walk the back and forth ramps all the way down. Robin, having studied about Carlsbad with her kiddos, knew it was 800 feet down to the Big Room. If you add the back and forth ramps to make the slope not as steep, It had to be at least double that in walking distance. However, Dean wanted to do it so we did!The Natural Entrance was very cool and we watched birds fly all up inside the dome. Immediately as you got inside, the musty, damp odor hit you. As you began to walk the steep ramps that wound back and forth like a ribbon, you saw the daylight opening get smaller and smaller until it vanished.
We hadn't gotten very far and Dean was sitting on one of the benches. We were using muscles in our legs and back we obviously hadn't used very much. Since you are walking on a slope, you are trying to stop yourself from going too fast. There were many more stops along the way as we kept up this "guarded" position. After 1 hour and 20 minutes, we finally made it to the bottom.
Robin had told Dean all about the boxed lunches at the lunchroom. However, by the time we reached the bottom, everything was closed. Dean reminds Robin often that he was promised and never got his boxed lunch.
We found a ranger who told us we hadn't even begun to explore the Big Room. He said if we didn't make it to the halfway point by 3:45 pm, the ranger there would not let us into the back half. It was already 3:00. How big was this Big Room? Although our bodies felt like just riding the elevator back up to the top and going on, we knew the Big Room was supposed to be spectacular and we would regret not going. So on we went.
We did make it to the halfway point with a few minutes to spare in order to go on. However, since the ranger had told us most of the spectacular ones were in the front half, we decided our bodies needed a break. So we headed to the elevators and back to the top. We did a little shopping in the Visitor Center bookstore as well as the gift shop.
We had hoped to be able to stay for the bat fly out which happens each evening. Thousands of bats fly out of the Natural Entrance. However, another ranger told us since they don't fly out on demand, it usually ranges anywhere between 6:15 - 8:30 pm. It was 4:45 and we still had almost 2 hours to drive to our hotel. We decided that the bat fly out would have to wait for us this time. So we left Carlsbad Cavern National Park without seeing one bat!
We drove to Roswell, NM for the night. Robin's kiddos had teased her about not letting aliens abduct us while we were there. As we entered into the city, there were alien references everywhere. There were museums, gift shops, businesses saying, "Aliens welcome", murals on buildings, alien street lights, and more.
Although we were enjoying seeing the sights, we were definitely hungry (because Dean didn't get his boxed lunch). Upon check in, we asked the front desk people at the Fairfield Inn for their suggestion and they headed us across the street to a steakhouse. They also gave us a coupon for a percentage off. Before you go thinking they were pushing this restaurant, they gave us a whole list of restaurants that would offer the same discount because we were staying with them. However, they said the steaks couldn't be beat at this restaurant.
We took our luggage inside and walked across the street to the Cattle Baron. The salad bar looked outstanding with a variety of toppings, dressings, and extras. We both ordered filet mignons and baked potatoes. We thoroughly enjoyed the salad bar, but the filets were exceptional. The meat melted in your mouth it was so tender. Robin could not finish all of hers so Dean sliced it up and we made a sandwich for the next day's lunch.With sore bodies and full tummies, it didn't take us long to head to bed. We just hoped the aliens stayed away tonight!
