Monday, July 31 –

Trying to get a quick trip in before the summer ended, we decided to visit Carlsbad Caverns over in New Mexico. We arrived in the town of Carlsbad before noon (since we gained an hour on the way). We walked around the “river walk” where the city has really made a nice area around the Pecos river that runs through the city.

There’s a long walking bridge that goes across the river over to a large “castle” park. We were so wishing we had all the grand kids with us.

We rented a room in White City at the Rodeway Inn and the kids really enjoyed playing in the water park that was on site and included in the room price. In fact, they pretty much had it to themselves. The sun had come out and it was a good time for a quick swim before exploring the cave.

yeah, that’s right, we’re country people…

Now that they were cooled off, we drove to the Carlsbad Caverns Visitors Center.

Here’s the entrance to the cave. It’s really impressive when you see it for the first time, or for the fifth time for that matter.

The view from inside looking up. It takes a while to walk down the bottom and then go through the entire great room, but it’s well worth it.

That night we drove into Carlsbad to eat supper. A bad thunderstorm hit while we were at a Mexican Food place. The lights went out during our meal and were apparently out all over town. We had to finish up in the dark. Sadly, the restaurant had no candles for the tables, and when it came time to pay our bill, the staff had no idea how to do anything by hand. They were all in a panic wondering how to get along without their computers and cash registers. Our little waitress finally brought us a hand written ticket and tried to convince us that our total was 126.57 for 4 dinners. When Nathan laughed and told her that that was impossible, she said “But I added it up twice!” Good grief. Is our society that helpless now? It was funny and scary all at the same time. (Here’s a picture I took of it. You can see the first total marked out.)