Lazy Blogger

[BD}


OK, I confess.  We were only on the road 3 days, and I got lazy.  But then the 1st post warned that the whole point of retirement is "supposed" to be not having to stick to a regimen, which I definitely have not.  So, for catch-up...... 


Friday 27 April  -  Let's see.  when last posted, we were scoping out the arachnid population in Oklahoma at a campground just west of Tulsa.  The next morning we were off to Lubbock TX.  I believe I'd made some remark about a song to a girl from Oklahoma being a compliment.  Turns out it only applies if she is from east OK.


To ease the monotony of this leg, we took a side road through the Wichita (Oklahoma) Mountains.  More like large hills, but beautiful from the perspective of huge expanses of slick-rock hills surrounding prairie valleys of waving seas of green grasslands.  As an added attraction, there were periodic herd of buffalo and the occasional Texas Longhorn, (fled across the border from Texas to OK during the Bush years no doubt).

GPS stated "very slight bend to the
right in 28.5 miles." Note bugparts
on windshield.

And Jessica complains she has problems
 getting her garden to grow!!

Then out of the mountains through some of the flattest West Texas scrub land you'd ever want to see.  Roads straight as and arrow for 20-30 miles passing through small dusty towns that probably haven't changed much in the last 50 years, except maybe half of the population is gone.






Finally reached Lubbock around 10 pm for a planned hotel stay.  No campgrounds within a hundred miles and needed Wi-Fi to run some reports for work.  Pleasant staff advised that regardless of our confirmed reservation, they (and the rest of Lubbock) were completely sold out due to a volleyball tournament.  Happy to say that our recommendations for some serious attitude adjustment resulted in them coughing up a room.  Sad to say, some other late arrival was probably VERY unhappy.

Blogging is Hard Work

Saturday 28 April  -  Headed to Carlsbad NM.  More miles of desert scrub-land.  This time Texas scrub.  Oddly enough we (I anyway) loved this part of the country.  There are a shrinking number of places where you can see horizon to horizon with almost no sign of human habitation, (except the oil wells of course).  Staying a couple of nights at a CG north of town.  CG sits on a ridge where at night, the only thing thing to see is the distant twinkle of lights in some small town, and a massive number of stars in a 360 degree natural planetarium.  (And the long-eared prairie jackrabbit sitting not 15 feet away as I write this.)


Sunday 29 April  -  First actual destination point of the trip, Carlsbad Caverns. As avid spelunkers in our younger years, this area was a mecca fo us to find large and beautiful wild caves.  And Carlsbad is the grand-dad of them all.  (We didn't find that one.) You can take an elevator 750 down to the most decorated part of the cave, be we chose to walk in from the main entrance.  On the walk-in there was no one there!  We were seldom withing ear-shot of others on the trail.  Spent most of they day in the cave and going back tomorrow for a look at another section.


So now we've caught up.  The rest of the evening" we've got to re-route the trip as the temperatures are forecasted to be too high (upper 90's) to do the originally planned El Capitan trail into the Guadalupe Mountains.  Will probably strike north for higher elevations and cooler temps.


Monday 30 April  -  Actually, got delayed another day.  Partly due to technical difficulties, (really challenging connectivity issues), but more realistically just laziness.  Anyway, today was another trip through Carlsbad.  Even more beautiful than yesterday.  First a 2 hr trip guided by a ranger who plied us with stories of his youth.  Son and grandson of Kentucky coal miners.  Escaped the poverty to join the Park service as a wilderness ranger counting bears, eventually to end up at underground Carlsbad.  (You can't escape your ancestral heritage I guess.)


So long for now.  On our way to Cloudcroft NM for 70's instead of 90's.


Brad & Val