"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

April 28, 2008 We got up and hiked a few miles down to the overview of the gypsum salt dunes. It was a good walk, but not much as far as the dunes are concerned. White Sands Dunes are gypsum dunes and they can be seen from an airplane. Will played a little guitar and we sang some songs. We were just getting ready to head out when Law Enforcement Ranger John came along. He chatted a bit and gave us a verbal warning for parking the night here; the park likes to help out the little RV Park by not permitting parking or camping. He told us that a German artist just bought land here and is setting up a studio in the old movie theater in town; his cabin is about half a mile back on this dirt road. Orange Systems just bought up lots of ranches south of here and are testing their rockets to become a private company bringing cargo into space. Guess Ranger John wasn’t in a hurry or maybe he just doesn’t see many people; he kept Will talking for about an hour. We headed back down the dirt road a...

April 27, 2008 The winds were still blowing. We stayed in bed waiting for it to blow itself out, but we finally had to get up. We bundled against the winds and walked down to the deck. A few birds were braving the winds. We decided that today would be a good day to drive! We stopped in White City, did a little internetting, walked the shops and then headed west. We got to the visitor center of Guadalupe Mountain National Park in time to see some of the exhibits where Will gave the little ground squirrel a finger to gnaw on, to watch the slide show with the squeaky chorus background and get a patch before closing. This park is mostly for the hiker, but some of the views of the mountains from the road show how rugged and vast the American West can be. The mountain is one of three areas where the ancient reef is exposed. The two areas are the Apache Mountains near Van Horn and the Glass Mountains near Alpine; all three are in Texas. Kathy decided to take us on a wild adventure. She saw th...

April 26, 2008 Sitting around the BLM Cottonwood picnic area we saw lots of different birds: vultures, hawks, ducks, yellow headed blackbird, grebes, turkey, egret, swallows, woodpecker, tanagers and LBBs (little brown birds). It was so relaxing we did a little craft work, read and puzzled. We have visitors coming to fish or swim, walk their dog or take a hike. Coming back from a walk down to the deck with their dog a young girl yelled ahead to her boyfriend who was running the dog, “Run, Forrest, run!” We climbed inside at dusk and watched Forrest Gump….not really we watched Red October about a Russian submarine. We climbed into bed and were just ready to fall into that deep dreamy sleep when it started. The wind. It blew steady at first then the gusts came. Not so bad, but we had the awning out so the canvas would blow up and slam ino the rods. When the gusts came it sounded like the whole awning was going to rip right off the van. So Will went out to check it out and Kathy followed ...

April 25, 2008 This is the most highly decorated set of chambers in the cavern. Words don't describe it so you will just have to watch the slide show or better yet, come on down!

April 25, 2008 Up with the sun and off to Carlbad Caverns once again. Left Hand Tunnel Tour is a lantern-lit guided adventure on unpaved trails. We saw formations; cave pools and Permian Age fossils. Our Rangers, Barry and Mark, beelined us to the end of the tour with just our lanterns lighting the way. Seeing the shadows cast from the formations had their own beauty. On the way back we used our flashlights and lanterns, stopped to see every nook and cranny, explore formations and learned history of the cavern. It all began about 250 million years ago with the creation of a long reef in an inland sea formed from the remains of sponges, algae and seashells mixed with the calcite from the water. The sea evaporated and the reef was buried under salts and gypsum. Just a few million years ago erosion and uplift uncovered this buried reef. Then drops of water seeped downward through cracks and at the same time hydrogen sulfide rich water migrated its way upward from vast oil and gas fields. ...

April 24, 2008 Morning at BLM then, went on Lower Cave tour with Rangers Terry and Beth. It was a moderately strenuous tour starting with a decent down a 10-foot flowstone slope using a knotted rope for support. Then we climbed down 50-feet of ladders into the darkness. We were rewarded with beautiful formations, cave pools with cave pearls, and a wonderful walk and crawl underground. We waited in the parking lot for the bat exit; we made some dinner and Will practiced on the guitar while Kathy sang along. The sunset and we waited. One bat was all we saw flying zigzagging through the sky looking for bugs, nothing like the thousands that came out the other night.

April 23, 2008 Went in the Natural entrance and spent the morning looking around. There underground the temperture remains a constant 56 degrees. There are air currents so we buddle up so we are not chilled. We carry our own flashlights so we can look into the nooks and crannies. We found some cave crickets, adapted to the dark they have extra long antena and are almost see-thru. We headed over to the BLM Cottonwood picnic area where we relaxed for the rest of the day. We watched Chicken Run before bed.

April 22, 2008 In Carlsbad the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is a state operated zoo and botanical garden specializing in native species of the Chihuahuan Desert and New Mexico. Beginning just outside the Visitor Center is the 1.3-mile self-guided walking tour. The first stop was the walk through mixed vegetation and sand dunes that naturally exist east of the Pecos River and into Texas. We recognized the Texas state tree, Honey Mesquite. Our favorite stop was the aviary where they have birds of prey so we could see the hawks and eagles up close and inside where we spent hours watching the roadrunners building a nest. Continuing the walk was the Gypsum Sinkhole with big rock crystals. That led us to the Arroyo. Just like a typical dry streambed we have walked through in the desert, this one had high walls to capture the flash flood waters, but this one was made of cement! You have to look closely to see it because it looks so real. The javelinas have a little exhibit here in the shallo...