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Published: March 8th 2017
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It's Tuesday, and that means we are on the road 3 weeks today. Another week or so, and we'll have to think about heading back to the barn, but not yet....
We had never unhooked at Guadalupe Mountain NP, so it was just a matter of cranking up the jacks and rolling off our "giant lego" leveling blocks (thanks Scott & Becky!) and we were on our way north. It's was less than 40 miles to Carlsbad Caverns, so we were there in no time. We wanted a place nearby to drop the trailer off, so we pulled in at the "White's City RV Park" right outside the entrance. I was a bit concerned by the name, but we saw no sign of any recent cross burnings or such. To be kind, the place was a bit of a dump. To be honest, it was a complete dump -- literally, as the garbage tips had not been emptied in who knows how long, and trash was blowing all around. At our site, the electric worked, but we had no water at our tap. Next to us, the desert ground had the appearance of an artesian well, I would guess from
the broken pipe leading to our faucet. This was all something less than PBF standards.
No matter to us though, it was a place to land, it had GREAT SIGNAL (we were actually right under a cell tower) and we had only a short hop to the big hole in the ground we had come to see. And speaking of seeing, as we had driven north, the air quality (usually crystal clear here) got worse and worse. At first, we thought it was some kind of fog, but then we began to smell smoke. We asked at the desk when we reached the Park (in for free again!) and were told that it was smoke -- coming from prairie fires burning out of control in the Texas panhandle. When I thought about that, I realized that those fires were also likely responsible for that amazing orange sunup of a couple days ago. I checked online, and it seems they are very bad, 4 people lost there lives there yesterday. Fires are also raging in Kansas and Oklahoma, due to the unusually dry conditions, and the crazy warm temps for this time of year. Of course, phony 'climate change baloney"
could have nothing to do with this. Nothing to see here folks -- lets talk about something important, like the Kardashians.
I had no idea what to expect at this park, as I had not done my usual research. I knew there was an elevator to take you down the 800' to where the big rooms are, and that was about it. We were pleased to find though, that you can still walk down through the natural opening. We chose to do that, and then to take the elevator back up -- as my legs had not quite recovered yet from yesterdays exertions. The entrance was an incredible series of zig-zags, leading down, down, out of the natural light, and into a world where the only illumination came from electric lights. Likely due to my Catholic upbringing, I expected at every turn to see a gatekeeper awaiting us, a fellow with a crimson complexion, a long tail, and perhaps some horns, never happened though. Perhaps he has Tuesdays off.
Most of the way it was wide open, vaulted ceilings with lots of stalactites hanging, but I was surprised when in a few places, it squeezed down to very
tight and low passageways, even at my average height, one had to watch your head. (Watch your head? What a silly expression, how one earth do you do that?) There are hardwire phone sets at intervals all the way, for emergency use. At one point we saw some folks using the phone, it was just before a really narrow constriction, and I wondered if one of them was freaking about the tightness of it. In due time we arrived at the elevator landing. From there we followed the same kind of path (what a huge job to build the miles of this path!) in a circular route around and through the big "rooms". All kinds of amazing shapes and forms to see here, one striking view after another. There were also several places where you could look down into deep holes, leading to more spaces even farther down. One, known as the "black hole" is 140' deep -- I felt a little uncomfortable there -- time to move along. Eventually, we had worked our way all around, the loop was over a mile long. We went to the elevator base, and stopped at the restrooms. Even they were cool, like
walking into the potty in Bruce Wayne's Batcave. Of course, the plumber in me was fascinated by the challenge of pumping all of that "material" 800 feet back up to the treatment plant. Sanitary engineers from the world over must come to marvel at this wonder!
Then we stood in line for our spot in the cars headed up. When our turn came (8 adults per car) up we went. After that it, it was to back to Camp Sloppy, a dinner of tacos, some streamed Spotify music, and then bed -- another fine/full day. Next we'll be headed a bit farther north, and up, and maybe some skiing?
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