The Pitts Stop

New Mexico - Carlsbad

March 8:  Ocono, TX to Carlsbad, NM

Continued west on route 10 and went by miles and miles of windmill farms and the maximum speed limit is 65 in New Mexico.  Drove through a ghost town just as we were crossing the Texas border into New Mexico with about a ¼ mile of abandoned buildings.  The landscape quickly changed from slightly rolling hills to flat to dry western mesa and back to flat with sagebrush and acres of small yellow wildflowers among the sagebrush.  Even on Interstate 10, there was little traffic.  Just before getting on route 285 north, we began to see some oil wells and even saw a couple of rigs for drilling new wells.  We could see the Guadalupe Mountains far on the horizon.

Arrived in Carlsbad about 1pm (Mountain Time) got the RV and us settled in the campground and decided to play the municipal executive par 3 golf course.  It was a little rough and very long for an executive course, but right on the Pecos River.  Across the river was a beautiful park with a walking trail along the river.  Carlsbad is a nice little town. 

March 9:  Carlsbad, NM

Woke up early this morning as we haven’t adjusted to the new time zone.  We planned our next few days, did some work around the RV and checked email.  We made reservations for a guided tour of the closed off caverns for later in the afternoon.  Went to Wal-Mart for groceries and some odds and ends.  A quick lunch back at the RV and on to the caverns.  We toured the visitor center and went on the guided tour of King’s Palace that descends 830 feet below ground.  After the guided tour, we took the self-guided tour of the public area called the Big Room.  Carlsbad Caverns are monstrous and we probably walked over 4 miles underground in the two caves, The caves are unlike some of the caverns we’ve seen such as Luray in Virginia – not only are they much, much bigger, but there is very little variation in colors – everything is grayish white. 

I really wanted to see the bat flight where thousands of bats leave the cave roosts, but the bats don’t arrive till May.  We then drove a 9½ mile auto tour of the surrounding desert countryside and home to dinner.

March 10:  Carlsbad, NM

Golf Day!  Woke up early as we’re still not time zone-adjusted, and relaxed this morning.  We played the full length municipal golf course.  The weather is finally gorgeous – clear blue skies and cool in the morning, but warmed up to the high 70s.  The course was in rough shape with the greens recently aerated and the fairways very dry and mostly weeds.  But the price was right and it was a glorious day to be outside. 

After golf, we spent the afternoon looking for a new bed pillow for Jack, stopping at the post office to load up on postcard stamps and taking naps.  We went to pick up a pizza for dinner, but the menu looked so good, we ordered full dinners – chicken parmesan for Jack and eggplant rolotini for me.  The food was good, but it wasn’t Chimney Rock!  There was supposed to be a Survivor Party (TV show) at the campground clubhouse, but Survivor was preempted for March Madness basketball. 

March 11:  Carlsbad, NM

Cooler today (in the low 70s), but clear.  We drove the car 55 miles south to Guadalupe National Park in western Texas with views of El Capitan at 8,085 feet.  It was very cool up in the mountains – lucky if it hit 60.We stopped first at the visitor center that had a wonderful exhibit of animals and birds in the area.  We toured the Frijole Ranch that was a working farm next to a spring, but the house was closed.  Also stopped at the Pinery where the Butterfield Stage Coach stopped on its run for St. Louis to California.    We hiked over 4.5 miles to the McKittrick cabin through desert up to the canyon with a pretty creek.      The scenery changed from warm desert with cacti to higher elevations with trees.  We were resting on the porch of the cabin in the canyon when two mule deer walked right in front of us. 

These mountains are famous as the hideouts of the Apache Indians. 

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