One problem was that we couldn’t do the walk we wanted because there were no maps
of that walk
available at the starting point. The alternate walk that we started had directions,
but we got messed up when we encountered some construction that appears to have
eliminated some of the landmarks on which the directions depended.
That and the fact that
I can’t tell my left from my right, and we got thoroughly lost. Finally we just gave up the
Volkswalk and just spent a couple of hours walking around the historic Mesilla area and
called it good.
Monday evening found us in El Paso, Texas, where we stayed in a motel for the evening. A helpful clerk at the desk gave us the name and instructions to get to a really good Tex-Mex place. By this time, we were ready for a good Margarita and some Mexican food. We got both, and that improved our outlook. We went back to the motel, and after watching PBS for a little while (the one aspect of TV that we miss, but only a little) we found ourselves asleep by 9:00. I guess we needed a good nights sleep, because we slept for most of 10 hours before we got up and got on our way again.
Tuesday morning was the first business day after a long weekend, so we took care of a couple of items of business. We went by a AAA store and picked up some tour guides for the areas we are planning on going to next, and we stopped by a Post Office to find out what we are supposed to do to get mail sent to us in a General Delivery mode. With that taken care of, we headed toward Carlsbad Caverns National Park. When we got up, the weather was pretty nice, and we saw a glorious sunrise from our motel room. As we got underway, however, it took a turn for the worse. It was very windy, and we could see shower activity all around us. We stopped for a while at Guadalupe Mts. National Park (it is one of the few places for a rest stop between El Paso and Carlsbad), and one of the rangers said that a hail shower had just passed through. Before the shower, the temperature there had been 53 degrees, but after the shower, it dropped to 39. It was also socked in enough so that I couldn’t get any good pictures.
(As an aside, I found it interesting that the Guadalupe Mts. are the remnants of an ancient coral barrier reef. The reef itself extended around the periphery of large inland sea that is now much of the Chihuahuan desert. Most of the reef remains under the current land surface, but the Guadalupe Mts., including Carlsbad Caverns, is a portion of the reef that geological motion has pushed up to the surface.)
In regard to pictures, the whole trip up through a part of the Chihuahuan desert was another trip through a region for which the grandeur cannot be captured in a picture (by me, anyway). Once again, much of the beauty comes from the immensity and the subtle colors. I will include a picture of the area taken from atop the Mesa at which the entrance to Carlsbad Cavern is located, but to really appreciate these views, they really must be experienced.
Once we got to Carlsbad Caverns National Park we took a self
guided tour into the caves.
I am including a couple in
hopes that it will introduce a little of the thrill of being there.
Tuesday evening finds us in a RV park in Carlsbad, NM. A problem that we have encountered today is that the 12 volt system in the coachworks (the Camper part, not the automotive part) in the car has failed. It is probably something simple like a fuse, but I haven’t been able to locate the one that is supposed to be there. We will see to that in the morning (we have 110 volt service available tonight). In addition, the drain for the sink is running very slowly. A gentleman at the park office suggested that we might just pour some bleach in it. Other than that, I may have to take apart the P-trap, and try to clean it out. Other that those two minor inconveniences, things are moving along pretty good.
Tomorrow, we start a long journey into the heart of Texas. Our next stops will probably be Fredricksburg, TX (the Mecca for Volkswalkers), San Antonio (and the Alamo), and Austin.
