Carlsbad Caverns: Sunday, Sunday

Waving goodbye to peaceful Marfa, we drove north through some absolutely beautiful country. The sun rising over mountains, absolutely no other cars on the road, the trip was great. Our goal is Carlsbad Caverns and the King Room pictured to the right. We have been to Kartchener Caverns in Arizona, but nothing prepared us for the vastness of this site. Ernie encouraged us to stop here (kudos, Ernie, for this suggestion AND barbeque at Lockhart, TX!) and Don was anxious to see, in person, the Caverns which delighted him as a child, thanks to Viewmaster. We spent the morning at the Caverns but one could spend a week viewing the various "rooms" and hiking the National Park.

We had planned to stay in the town of Carlsbad north of the Caverns, but with our goal of making it to Tucson by Monday to spend some time with friends from Penn State, we decided to continue the trip west and spent the night in Las Cruces, NM. I have to go on record to say that we had eaten NO breakfast or lunch (I don't count noshing on ginger snaps or Twizzlers in the car) so we are not ALWAYS eating. However, going without real food for 12 hours, I was ravenous. We decided on Mexican food (what else in New Mexico) and chose La Posta de Mesilla. The restaurant is among a compound which is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. It was constructed in the early 1800s. Mesilla was once important politically. A claim to fame is that Billy the Kid was tried within the compound and sentence to death. http://www.oldmesilla.org/index.html

I am watching the "Today Show" as I write this. The local weather man has just mentioned to use caution crossing the Guadalupe Pass today due to high winds. We just went through there yesterday.

Al Roker just chose Tucson as the "Pick City" of the day. So I guess it is time to move on.