Going Down Slow

Hey Folks! I'm writing this from Santa Fe, NM tonight. Wasn't sure for a while if Blogger was going to let me but it finally went through and let me load these photos. After we left Big Bend we headed up towards Carlsbad Caverns. Kinda just a giant hole in the ground that you can't see the bottom of. It was quite a hike, took a little over an hour but was way cool. . Then, once you reach the bottom you hike for another hour or so to see the rest of the caves. There were not too many people there, which was nice.

This is another place that these photos just don't do justice. We also had a nice chat with a couple of the Rangers here. This photo was taken down in the cave a bit but where you can still see out. This is also the entrance where the bats fly out in the evenings. And you can tell by the smell.

This is way down in the caverns. We spent most of the day here just tooling around and then had lunch above ground and browsed through the bookstore and photography exhibit of Ansel Adams' work.

The rain we picked up in the Chisos followed us up to Carslbad and when we came out of the cave it was raining again.We made it out of the park okay but really got into some rough stuff in Carlsbad proper. Apparently, they don't build storm drainage systems into the city streets like we do back home and it makes for some interesting driving. There was a couple of times that so much water washed over the windshield that we were completely blind. Fortunately, everybody was going pretty slow and no one stopped, which could have caused us all to stall in the water.

We eventually made it out of town and out of the storm. One of my first good sights in New Mexico was this full, double rainbow. You could see the entire thing stretched across the valley. It was quite a sight. There was a smaller, double part on this end but it may not show up on the photo and I could never get the whole rainbow in one shot.

We stopped overnight in Roswell, NM and puttered around there a little this morning taking in some alien sights. It was fun. Roswell is a much larger city than what most people imagine.

So, we are going to spend a couple of days in the Santa Fe area and then head for Flagstaff, I think. I'm kinda confused about itinerary at this point and what day it is. The 7,000 feet elevation is also interesting. It is making us a little tired but the extremely low humidity here feels wonderful. We are still having a blast and enjoying each others company. Oh, and I saw a bunch of antelope by the highway on the way here. We also saw several of those God-forsaken cattle feed lots too. I am going to try very hard to change my beef consumption after seeing that. I knew what they were like but it's disgusting to see in real life.

*Eric Clapton