New Mexico

November 3rd, 2008, Monday: What a great travel day! The weather was absolutely perfect. So much so that we drove the ENTIRE day with the windows open in LaFawnduh. The fresh mountain air made us invigorated and we ended up at Lyman Lake State Park, north of Springerville, ARIZONA!!!! Geez we're getting used to this RV'ing. We drove north from Carlsbad and went through Roswell, New Mexico. We felt a bit anxious that the person that we were speaking to may actually have been an alien that we continued with haste. Cocoa acted a bit strange, we couldn’t put our fingers on it, but she acted differently as we were in Roswell. We moved westward. The terrain changed from predominately sagebrush to a combination of pinion pine and juniper. We moved over a pass into the valley of the sun. This also happened to be the place where the first nuclear device was detonated and we got as close as we could. In the post 9-11 world the site is closed to the public. Back in 2000 when I was last in Socorro you could visit the site. Strange what a few extremists have done to our society. Shame on us for having such a "knee jerk" reaction to the attack of 9-11. But, even though we couldn't drive to the old visitor center we could gaze across the plain to where it happened, southeast of Socorro. I preached again to the girls that they are here largely because of the use of the Atomic Bombs in August of 1945. Their grandfather, Bernard Filicsky was onboard a troop ship bound for Japan when the B-29's ended the war. Thankfully for him and millions of American and Japanese alike, the war ended before the amphibious assault of the mainland of Japan happened. We continued westward. We happened upon some land for sale, 23,000 acres non-dividable. Con said, “No.” So, we continued westward. The highlight for the day was most definitely our stop at the Very Large Array (VLA). There we took a self guided tour of the site and had the place completely to ourselves. A German couple was leaving as we were arriving. They told us that they were going to Roswell and later Con remarked that they didn’t look very German to her. Hmmmmmmmm. The Very large array is a group of 27 radio telescopes, that are arranged in three rows (120 degrees). If they are spread out to their maximum distance they are the same as a single radio telescope that is more than 16 miles across. . . . 9 Nobel Prizes for Astronomy have resulted from work at the VLA which began operation in 1980. The site was central in the movie, “Contact” based on the Carl Sagan book (I enjoyed the book far more than the movie). The kids “got it” and grasp radio astronomy as much as a fourth and sixth grader can. Audrey was explaining things to her Mother quite accurately. For me, it was almost as good as being at the Kennedy Space Center. Before we began the tour I tossed the ball for Cocoa and as she ran for it 5 jack rabbits scattered. You should have heard Hannah and Audrey as they saw these “large” rabbits run. Back on the highway we continued westward climbing to over 8,400 feet in LaFawnduh (she knows she’s back in the west) and crossing the Continental Divide (7,796 feet) near mile marker 56 on US Highway 60 in New Mexico. As we neared the Arizona border we were back into stands of Ponderosa Pine (my favorite tree). We were nearering home. Our campsite for the evening is one of those unexpected and absolutely marvelous finds. On the shore of a lake surrounded by hills on all sides. So much so that we don’t have any Verizon reception, or antenna reception for the TV, and the stupid ol’ satellite is only picking up European channels. Geez. Tomorrow we move northwest towards The Grand Canyon, That is if I fail in my attempt to have a rest day here at this beautiful spot, paved sites, long enough for LaFawnduh and Kip without disconnecting, 50 amp service, covered picnic tables, full hook-ups and all of that for $19 a night. Best value in my estimation for the entire trip. FYI: Mileage for the day: 426 in LaFawnduh Quote of the Day: provided by Hannah, “Do you know what I like about this road? No dead animals.” November 2nd, Sunday: It’s good to be back in the west. We are all feeling as if we are “close” to home, reminding me that it is simply a matter of perspective. For we are the closest we’ve been to home in the past three months albeit a long ways away. Two friends of ours, NPS Rangers Marge Koehler and Mike Murphy were stationed at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. There they met and were later married. Mike, a geologist always raved about the caves in the area and today we were able to see them with our own eyes. Not to mention the 3-1/2 mile hike we made in the cavern, at least 750 feet beneath the surface of the earth. It was fascinating. Although there were others in the cave at the same time we were, people were speaking as if they were in a cathedral, which in a way was exactly where they were. A natural cathedral whose beauty was remarkable. We all had a good time. At times we all pierced the solemn atmosphere with our laughter. There are over 3,000 known caves in the Guadalupe Mountains. The cave that we were in and almost all of the others have bats, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) the bats had already left on their migration to Mexico, so where we were there were none, other than their guano. We were told that in one of the neighboring caves (in Slaughter Canyon) the guano dates back 200,000 years. Unfortunately we ran out of time to see that particular wonder of the world. Shucks. Maybe next time. While we were at Carlsbad Cavern we met a gal wearing a tee shirt which read, “I Am a Mexican Not Latino”. I struck up a conversation with her and one thing led to another. She ended up being from Carlsbad (United States last time I checked) and she recommended a restaurant to us. The girls and I went to the off the beaten path, Rojas Mexican Restaurant, and we happened to be the only white people there (out of thirty or so patrons). I enjoyed traditional menudo, a soup made of . . . . Stuff. Things that you might not want to know what they are. But, it was pretty good and the meal was finished with Sopapillas, similar to my family’s fried bread, but dusted with cinnamon and sugar and drizzled with honey (because the sugar alone wasn’t sweet enough). Con raved about the handmade tortillas. H & A had huge smiles on their faces as well. Nearly every female at the restaurant (including our waitress) looked like Sonia Robledo, or at least as if they could be her cousins. To finish the day’s activities we stopped by the Department of Energy’s Visitor Center which happens to be next door to our campground. There we learned how the nearby Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is disposing of defense related nuclear waste (processing material and the old warheads). The waste is being buried 2,150 feet underground in 250-million year old salt formations. I suppose you have to do something with it as it isn’t yet feasible to launch it into space and plunge it into the sun. So today we studied geology, physics (nuclear decay), desert ecology, botany, zoology (desert mammals, reptiles and birds and discussed how animals have adapted to living even in Carlsbad Cavern 750 feet beneath the surface and in total darkness (bats, spiders, crickets, and of course the always adaptive ant). Oh yeah, and we learned of the four S’s to avoid down here. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, and skunks. Last night Connie and I were both awakened by a familiar, obtrusive odor. That of a nearby skunk. Today we also discussed how different our experiences of today were when compared to our experiences of New York City. That gal is probably still working at the New Jersey toll booth, taking everyone’s buck fifty, and probably still there with an attitude of “this sucks”; While we felt very fortunate to be looking at cactuses in bloom and even spied trees in red fall foliage. Man, the air smelled great even though a relatively short distance away were barrels of decomposing uranium and plutonium and other chemicals. Of all the branches of the government to work for, I think it is a good thing to avoid working for the Department of Energy. But, that is just a personal opinion. I’d hate to be that schmuck in the salt mine. November 1st, Saturday: This past Monday we were in Florida. Today we crossed the border from Texas into New Mexico and as we did we entered the Mountain Time Zone. It was instantly an hour earlier at the border crossing. Tonight we roll our clocks back and it will be another hour earlier. So, we gained two hours simply by stepping across a border. I don’t know why but as we crossed the border the number of oil wells greatly diminished from what the number had been in Texas. To the untrained eye (mine), the land looks identical. Strangely, what we see in abundance here in the southeast corner of New Mexico are cotton fields (I was expecting to see bean fields, not soy beans, but bean beans). We pulled into Carlsbad, NM after putting 425 miles on LaFawnduh. This is the highest single day total of the trip thus far (surpassing day one when we put on 421 miles driving between Port Angeles and Post Falls, Idaho. It has been a long week of driving LaFawnduh. Quite a change from the mostly leisurely pace that we had from Danville all the way to New Orleans. Our reason for being here is of course Hannah. She has insisted that we see a cave for more than a year before the trip began. She had begged to see Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but we didn’t go to Kentucky. Sunday Hannah will be in Carlsbad Caverns. She is looking forward to it.