A skritching sound woke me up today and while my brain was
quickly trying to figure out how a mouse got in the trailer, I rolled over so I
could see the ceiling vent…to see if it was daylight yet. Heard more skritching noises, then saw the shadow
of a bird up by the vent, which was open.
It seemed like it was looking down into the trailer through the screen. Mystery solved…no mice, just a curious bird.
**I told Kim about the bird and he suggested it may have been checking it out
to see if it was a good place to build a nest.** J
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Conversation overheard between a mother and young son coming
out of the bathroom…
Mom: Come on…Dad’s waiting…we have to get going.
Son: Where we going today?
Mom: White Sands Park
Son: What’re we going to see?
Mom: Sand...
Now, if I was a kid, I’m not sure how excited I’d be about that answer. J
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It’s been cooler in the mornings in the sense that 60o
is cooler than 90o, but 60o is still warm. Nightfall has been about the same…still warm
but cooler than the day so I put my sweatshirt on when I’m out of the
trailer. Breeze has been warm also…no
cold winds coming through.
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Last night, when the sky was dark and the stars were out, I
went outside to tell Kim I was going up to do the wash. I could tell there was a crowd around the
telescope but it was dark so I didn’t know how many or who. When someone realized I was calling for Kim,
a voice in the dark yelled, “Hi, Karen, I’m Gina. I love your tattoo!” In a flash these questions went through my
mind: How did she know about my tattoos? and What the hell is Kim telling these people about me? Turns out she was talking about the tattoo on
Kim’s arm…the one with my name, our wedding date and the picture Kathy had
drawn of an angel in a coffee cup. This
morning when I told Kim my reaction, he said “She saw that tattoo and said
‘Wow, Karen must really be a coffee drinker’ and I said, ‘No, she doesn’t even
like coffee.’” Then he told her the
story of the tattoo.
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Found out the names of the brothers across the road: Brother
A is John and Brother B is Rick. Yesterday,
up by the dumpster, Rick found a half gallon of Jack Daniels with about ½
left. He claimed that people leave that
kind of stuff there so 1. They don’t have an open container in their vehicle
and 2. So other people in the park can pick it up. He considered himself to be quite lucky to
have found it…but wanted Kim to smell it to make sure it was good. Also yesterday, as we were sitting out by the
trailer watching the bug, the smell of pot came rolling toward us on the
wind. Don’t know who or from what
campsite, just that it was coming from across the road. Last night after the wash was done, I was in
the trailer doing my Faithwalking reading and could still hear people out by
Kim. He stuck his head in at one point
and I asked him how it was going, meaning the imaging aspect of it. He said “Well, it’s going fine considering
I’m surrounded by drunks.” Then this
morning he said that after they left him and went back across the road, someone
lit up a joint and the Brothers, Gina and her husband were passing it
around. Drunk and high…that was one
party I’m glad I missed. Rick eventually
came back over and hung out with Kim until about 2 a.m. J
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From one extreme one day to another extreme the
next…yesterday it was wandering outside through the Living Desert Zoo in bright
sunny 90o+ heat and today it was wandering through the Carlsbad
Caverns, where it’s mostly dark and the temperature underground is always a
damp 56o. I say mostly dark
because there is some strategically placed lighting to highlight interesting formations
within the cave. The cave is actually
750 feet below the surface and we opted for the elevator ride instead of
walking the 1.25 mile trail that leads down to the Big Room. Figured we’d be walking enough on our self-guided
tour through the Big Room which is the largest natural known limestone chamber in the Western
Hemisphere. Floor space in the Big Room is estimated at more than 600,000 square
feet, an area comparable to 14 football fields. In the Big Room you can view
dramatic stalactites, stalagmites, columns and other speleothems from a variety
of angles. (Info taken from a
sign). I think we took longer than the estimated 1
hour to walk around the 1 ¼ mile cement pathway, because we both took lots of
pictures. (Tried different settings
because of the poor lighting…don’t know how many of the 100 or so pictures that
I took will actually turn out.) It’s
a fascinating peek at some of what’s below the surface of this planet we call
home. I’m grateful that there are those
bold and courageous enough to explore an opening in the Earth’s surface to see
what lies below so the rest of us can enjoy it, too. Cavers are a special type of adventurer,
that’s for sure. There’s no way I’d be
brave enough to go shimmying down a hole with only the light 
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On the northern side of Carlsbad, there is a road designated
as a ‘Relief Route’. I thought maybe
that meant the same as an evacuation route…but evacuation from what? So I had to satisfy my curiosity. On the site steve-riner.com/nmhighways/roadinfo
I found this: Relief Routes. New Mexico has several roads with this unique
designation--unique because I haven’t seen it used elsewhere in the
country. As fancy as it sounds, a Relief
Route is simply an urban bypass. They
exist (at least that I’ve seen) at Santa Fe, Alamogordo, Carlsbad and Roswell. It also gives the specific road description in
each city but I left that out because it was too tedious to read. J
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Rode 92 miles today
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