The Road to Texas

Leaving Roswell
We awoke the next morning in Roswell, feeling a bit tired and lacking sleep. Perhaps abduction was the reason. We may never know.

But soon we were continuing our relentless journey southward through the arid deserts of New Mexico.

So far on this trip we have climbed mountains, marched through deserts, kayaked rivers and scoured ancient dwellings. But we have not yet descended into the depths of the earth. Today will be that day.

Carlsbad Caverns
There is something rather unsettling with taking a small elevator 700 feet below the surface. As the elevator descended, the elevator operator chatted casually, then suddenly turned the lights of the elevator off because she thought it was a neat thing to do. I found it to only amplify my concerns with descending 700 feet into rock.

Hungry
We were pretty hungry when we got to Carlsbad. To our delight, there was a small cafe 700 feet below the surface!

We decided to split a small ham sandwich. You might be asking yourself...If we were so hungry, why did we split a small ham sandwich? If you knew the expense involved with purchasing a ham sandwich 700 feet below the surface of the earth, you would know why we split it.

We felt the need to slather it with all the free packets of condiments that were given us.

But hey, we were dining in a small cafe 700 feet below the surface. How cool is that?

Exploring Carlsbad
After receiving a meager portion of nourishment from our sandwich ration, we were eager to expend our short burst of energy by exploring the caverns. So here we go.

Expansive and Awesome
Our pictures can't really capture the expansiveness and grandeur of the caverns of Carlsbad. The caverns were huge and full of fascinating shapes and structures.

Here are a few more pictures of closeups.

There was one point where Nicki and I got separated. I finally found her.

Okay...creepy...I don't know what that was all about. Time to go above ground, catch some fresh air and contemplate our day of spelunking.

The drive from Carlsbad Caverns was very scenic and interesting.

Texas!
We finally reached Texas! We are far far from our previous home. This was pretty exciting! We were pretty happy to reach Texas with no car breakdowns, no major problems. This was a huge milestone for our trip.

Did you notice Texas's welcome sign? No, no Texas. This is NOT the way to welcome visitors to your state.

Rather than any sort of hospitable welcome message, the sign starts things off by scolding its visitors: "Drive Friendly - The Texas Way". It's like a parent telling their kid to behave while he's at grandpa's house. It seems rather condescending. It is implying that everyone not from Texas drives in an unfriendly way.

No Texas, this is not good. This is no way to greet your visitors.

Sun Sets in Texas
We drove as far as we could into Texas. This state is huge.

As the sun set, our mood was changing. We have had a great time on this trip. We saw many things. We did a lot of exploring, a lot of discovery. We've created a lot of memories. But we are running out of United States road.

Tomorrow we should reach the border. We can't communicate in Spanish. We've never crossed the Mexico border before. We've never driven in Mexico. North Mexico is considered dangerous. We have nearly of our possessions in our small car. We will be crossing the border alone.

Tomorrow we drive to the border.