-- Carlsbad Caverns (Day 7)

Today we're heading east to a place called "Carlsbad Caverns." My dad says it's like a humongous underground cave, but don't tell that to my mom.  She'll freak out.

... which means: You are now entering Texas.

 

When we were near El Paso, I saw a gas station named "Howdy's." 


Haha, now that thar's funny.

 

 

We climbed up, up, up through a mountain pass.  Dad says it's the Guadalupe Mountains.

 

I think I can, I think I can...

 

 



We stopped at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Dad says we might camp here for the night.

 

 

 

 

It was colder than heck in them thar mountains.  I decided to wait in the warm Supervan while Mom and Dad checked it out. 

 

I'm freezin' my bahjoombahs off -- wait a second, I don't even have bahjoombahs

 

Is that snow on the ground???  Holy crap, no wonder it feels so cold!

 

 

 

 

 

Mom loves to sit on benches, but there's no way she's about to park her butt on that snow-covered bench!

 

 

 

 

Mom and Dad decided to forego the campgrounds at Guadalupe.  Dad wants to check out Carlsbad Caverns.  So it was back on the road...

 

And then I got confused, because even though we continued east, somehow we crossed back into New Mexico!

 

 

 

 

I had to wait in the Supervan while Mom and Dad went inside, so I hunkered down for a snooze and put Mom in charge of the picture-taking (get ready for a bombardment of photos, folks. There's sure to be an overage charge on this month's Verizon bill for uploading all this data).

 

They took an elevator down to the caverns.  As it plummeted more than 700 feet below ground, Mom was getting a little claustrophobic (hang in there, Mom -- take one for the team).

 

 

 

 

Okay everyone, it's time to channel those Science-101 lessons and recite after me:

 

"Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling... Stalagmites might grow up..." 

 

 

 

 

Epic selfie failure, Dad.

 

That's my dad's silhouette in the middle

Here's where Mom tried to get fancy:


Diagram on sign

Mom's photo



Getting bored yet?



Too bad, cuz she took more photos

Okay, you can all wake up now.


Tonight, we stayed at an RV Park down the hill from Carlsbad Caverns. 

Not the Four Seasons by any means, but lots of gopher holes! Yippee.

We stopped by the general store.  Dad went in to register for a campsite and Mom and I waited in the parking lot.

Take you to my leader?  Oh, my dad's right inside the store.

 

 

sniff sniff -- Hmm, what have we here?

 

Egads.  Hope he didn't eat beans for lunch...

 

.