Sunday morning I met my parents and nephews in Carlsbad to start off our week long vacation together. I picked Phyllis up at 3:30 a.m. to start the drive which would take about 5 hours. I was very surprised to find out that nothing is open at 3:30 in the morning; not even convenience stores. And, there is quite a bit of traffic at that time of the morning.
Since I had done this drive more times than I could count I felt very comfortable heading out of town and to the south. It was nice having someone along for the ride besides the dogs; who stayed at home this time. We finally found an open convenience store in Vaughn, New Mexico about 90 minutes into the drive, so I was blessed by getting my morning Diet Pepsi and Phyllis got her coffee.
We got to Carlsbad about 8:00 and discovered my parents were not at their hotel, they had decided to go into town and get breakfast. This is very common for my family to just alter plans and not tell anyone. But, I tried not to get annoyed and we went back into town to find them at Denny's where they had already finished breakfast and Phyllis and I had not even come close to starting. So like most trips with my family we rearranged the plans and they went back to the hotel to let the kids swim while Phyllis and I got breakfast. After breakfast I needed calm drops something awful but there was no organic store in town so I settled for chocolate.
We all met up at the hotel and headed out to Carlsbad Caverns (http://www.nps.gov/cave) to explore. I was shocked at how bloody hot it was outside. Well into the 100's and something I am no longer use to. We got to the caverns and were happy to discover that it was free admission to all state parks, so our admission was free. We went straight into what is called "The Big Room" by elevator since daddy was in a wheelchair and it was too long of a walk for the kids to make using the natural entrance. It was very interesting and very difficult to push a wheelchair around. You are going up inclines and down inclines and the walkway is very small. Eventually you get to a point where you can not take a wheelchair so you have to turn back and go against the traffic on this little sidewalk to get to the entrance again. Once this was done we left and headed over the mountain range to White Sands National Monument. (http://www.nps.gov/whsa)
We decided the best route to White Sands was to go through Artesia and over the mountains through Cloudcroft and down into Alamogordo and into White Sands. The one thing we did not consider in this plan was the drastic changes in altitude we were making. We started out in Abq at roughly 5600 feet, down to Carlsbad, roughly 3300 feet, up to Cloudcroft at 8600 and down to White Sands National Monument at 4300 feet. This almost did poor Phyllis in she was hit with the worst case of altitude sickness I have ever seen. But once we got to White Sands she was better but still feeling sick.
For those of you who have no idea what White Sands is, it is the coolest thing ever. It is a huge range of sand dunes outside of Alamogordo, NM. #3 took Josh and I there back in 2000 but we really did not do anything but wander around. The best thing to do there is take sleds and sled down the dunes. Unlike the dunes at the beach these are not fragile and are made of gypsum so it does not get hot. Even when it is hitting 100 degrees outside the sands is cool to the touch. I bought 4 sleds for the kids to use while they were here. The only thing we did not think about was how high the dunes are and how hard they are to climb. But the kids and my mom loved every minute of it. As for me and Phyl we were dead tired. It was 8pm and we had be driving since 3:30 so we decided it was time to head home. My parents were staying in Las Cruces for the night. We finally arrived back home a bit after midnight and I was exhausted. But, it was a good day and we all had a nice time. It was also the first Father's Day I had with my daddy since I left Houston in 2000. So that was extra nice.
Up next: Day 2
Since I had done this drive more times than I could count I felt very comfortable heading out of town and to the south. It was nice having someone along for the ride besides the dogs; who stayed at home this time. We finally found an open convenience store in Vaughn, New Mexico about 90 minutes into the drive, so I was blessed by getting my morning Diet Pepsi and Phyllis got her coffee.
We got to Carlsbad about 8:00 and discovered my parents were not at their hotel, they had decided to go into town and get breakfast. This is very common for my family to just alter plans and not tell anyone. But, I tried not to get annoyed and we went back into town to find them at Denny's where they had already finished breakfast and Phyllis and I had not even come close to starting. So like most trips with my family we rearranged the plans and they went back to the hotel to let the kids swim while Phyllis and I got breakfast. After breakfast I needed calm drops something awful but there was no organic store in town so I settled for chocolate.
We all met up at the hotel and headed out to Carlsbad Caverns (http://www.nps.gov/cave) to explore. I was shocked at how bloody hot it was outside. Well into the 100's and something I am no longer use to. We got to the caverns and were happy to discover that it was free admission to all state parks, so our admission was free. We went straight into what is called "The Big Room" by elevator since daddy was in a wheelchair and it was too long of a walk for the kids to make using the natural entrance. It was very interesting and very difficult to push a wheelchair around. You are going up inclines and down inclines and the walkway is very small. Eventually you get to a point where you can not take a wheelchair so you have to turn back and go against the traffic on this little sidewalk to get to the entrance again. Once this was done we left and headed over the mountain range to White Sands National Monument. (http://www.nps.gov/whsa)
We decided the best route to White Sands was to go through Artesia and over the mountains through Cloudcroft and down into Alamogordo and into White Sands. The one thing we did not consider in this plan was the drastic changes in altitude we were making. We started out in Abq at roughly 5600 feet, down to Carlsbad, roughly 3300 feet, up to Cloudcroft at 8600 and down to White Sands National Monument at 4300 feet. This almost did poor Phyllis in she was hit with the worst case of altitude sickness I have ever seen. But once we got to White Sands she was better but still feeling sick.
For those of you who have no idea what White Sands is, it is the coolest thing ever. It is a huge range of sand dunes outside of Alamogordo, NM. #3 took Josh and I there back in 2000 but we really did not do anything but wander around. The best thing to do there is take sleds and sled down the dunes. Unlike the dunes at the beach these are not fragile and are made of gypsum so it does not get hot. Even when it is hitting 100 degrees outside the sands is cool to the touch. I bought 4 sleds for the kids to use while they were here. The only thing we did not think about was how high the dunes are and how hard they are to climb. But the kids and my mom loved every minute of it. As for me and Phyl we were dead tired. It was 8pm and we had be driving since 3:30 so we decided it was time to head home. My parents were staying in Las Cruces for the night. We finally arrived back home a bit after midnight and I was exhausted. But, it was a good day and we all had a nice time. It was also the first Father's Day I had with my daddy since I left Houston in 2000. So that was extra nice.
Up next: Day 2