Road Trip

Carlsbad Caverns

Today was Cavern Day. The VRBO is a mere 35 miles from the caverns, and we had a 9:30 timed entry pass, so naturally we left ‘home’ at like 8:00 AM. We thought the road might still be icy, but it wasn’t, and our 8:30 arrival at the Visitor Center meant we were in for a 30-minute wait before we could get in the building. I parked facing the south at Sally’s suggestion because it allowed a nice view out over the valley from our elevation in the Guadalupe Mountains. By the time they opened the doors, there were a half-dozen folks waiting with us to get in. We had to check in and show our National Park pass and the reservation ticket.

After wandering the 2 gift shops and a restroom visit, we were ready to ride the elevator down the 750 feet to the Big Room. Our original intention was to walk down the natural entrance, but we couldn’t because it was closed due to the ice remaining at least halfway down. Turns out the ride was kind of worth it, because after finishing walking the mile and a half loop around the inside, we were ready to get back up to the top.

I put the visit on par with the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere; it was worth the money for the experience, but I don’t need to see it again.

On The Santa Fe Trail, Day Two

When we got off I-10 to head north towards Carlsbad, it was in the town of Fort Stockton, TX. That name was somehow familiar, and I thought I might have been there before. Sally had picked out my photo of the day while she was looking around for gas. The town’s claim to fame was a very large roadrunner statue called Paisano Pete. When I saw it, I was pretty sure it wasn’t for the first time. When I got back in the car, I checked my external memory bank, this here blog, and sure enough, Donna and I spent a night here in 2013 on our way to meet her brothers in Big Bend National Park.

I, of course, can’t be certain that I have seen the statue before, but when I get back home to Fairview, I’ll have a look in a photo album…kids, a photo album is where you store the glossy 3×5 pieces of paper that have an image on them from the developed film…kids, film is not a movie, but a roll of photosensitive…oh, forget it. I’ll check to see if I do have a photo of the roadrunner statue from back then.

On The Santa Fe Trail, Day One and a Half

The half day is because we spent yesterday getting a head start. This is the first time we won’t spend two nights in the state of Texas on a New Mexico-Louisiana trip. It’ll possibly be the last one too all because of our Carlsbad Caverns side trip.

As you can guess, we stopped at a Buc-ee’s. Actually we stopped at two of them, Baytown and Luling, thereby making up for zero stops at one on the Nov-Dec trip. There were 3 along our I-10 route, but we skipped the Katy one because it was only 50 miles from the first one. There were nature breaks at both, and there was some shopping done, but the only purchases made were drinks for me at each and gas at one for the Tucson.

On The Road To Loiusiana, Day Three

Today’s drive consisted of 160 miles in Texas and 200 miles in Louisiana. Except for the city of Baton Rouge and the next 20 or so miles, it was pretty easy driving. Dinner was at the home of Sally’s mom, AKA The Birthday Girl, and now we are settled into our VRBO. Tonight’s entertainment is watching the college football championship game with the sound muted and Radio Paradise playing on a portable speaker. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have something more exciting to write about.

P.S. My GTI is internet famous; the folks that wrapped it featured it in their Instagram post for today.

On The Road To Loiusiana, Day Two

Now out of the panhandle of Texas, there were no Quanah Parker Arrows to stumble on. And actually we spent a whole lot of time on 2-lane Texas state routes. When we blew through San Angelo, 90 miles and an hour and a half from the start, we didn’t expect to have to wait another 2 3/4 hours before we got to the next spot for a snack and nature break. There was no emergency, but both of us were happy to find a place to relieve ourselves indoors.

Also, Sally has this internal worry that some car-related failure would leave us stranded in literally the middle of nowhere and would prefer to be on mostly major roads. I, of course, never worry about it, and maybe I should, if at least for her sake. The result of this is instead of my ideal 3-day, no-interstate drive, I think next time I’m going to bite the bullet and do this Santa Fe-Hammond-Santa Fe adventure in two days of mostly Interstate travel.

Tonight’s stop is the town of Crockett, TX, which is named for Davy Crockett because he camped here on his way to the massacre at the Alamo, where he perished. This is totally different from the town of Bowie, home of the world’s largest Bowie knife, which is named for another Alamo casualty, in that Jim Bowie never got anywhere near that town.

On The Road To Loiusiana, Day One

In my never-ending quest to find a different path between Santa Fe, NM, and Hammond, LA, that includes minimal Interstate travel, this one is number five. It is actually the route that was our return on the Thanksgiving trip but was abandoned for weather reasons and includes Big Spring and Crockett in Texas.

While driving thru the town of Plains, I spotted a Quanah Parker
Arrow, so I pulled into the Yokum County Building’s parking lot and took a picture. Longtime readers might remember that I have taken photos of these before. I went back through my photos and found 6 more, five of which came from Donna and my Oregon to Mississippi and back trip in 2023. The last one came from our 2018 South Carolina to Tahoe and back, but I didn’t note that one’s town. There are approximately 80 of the arrows, all in Texas, but as far as I can tell there is no list of the cities they are in. There is a list of all 51 counties that have one or more on the website, Quanah Parker Trail, but it hasn’t been updated since 2011 so your mileage may vary.

Fairview, OR

I’m back home after five weeks away, but I can’t get too comfortable, as I’ll be here for five weeks before flying off for four weeks. This leg of the drive home was probably the worst driving of the whole trip. It was 370-ish miles of I-84, and the last half of that was in a steady, heavy rain. Think more 18-wheelers than you can shake a stick at, and all of them creating additional spray behind and on all sides, which enhances the lack of visibility. Heaven forbid you come up behind one passing the other…

On the first third of the journey, I was hopping off and on the interstate, grabbing the half dozen post offices that were left that are right off I-84. Weirdly, the number in the file name of the post offices has reached 312, but Google Maps thinks I have 313 in the List labeled “Found Post Offices.” I thought I had synced those numbers a while back. Maybe it’s a good time to audit it again.