On our way to Carlsbad, we passed through Roswell NM and stopped at the UFO museum and an art gallery. The museum was fairly cheesy and one could come away “convinced” either way depending on the bias you brought into it. The art gallery showed promise, but nothing we were willing to buy. We did buy some Mexican pastries at a bakery next to the UFO museum to share with the Kuklentz. I was hoping for something UFO themed but these were truly Latino and looked delicious. On the way we passed though miles of pistachio trees and at a few places where one side of the road would be green with summer wheat and the other side of the road would be brown scrub with no water. The difference was stark.
This stop was all about connecting with our friends Mary Lou and Dick Kuklentz and seeing Carlsbad Caverns. Both were highly successful. Monday afternoon after getting into camp, David finally got his campfire and we grilled smoky hamburgers and caught up with the Kuklentz. We shared pictures and road tales and by that time it was too late to play bridge… but there was always tomorrow! We converged on the Caverns about 10 am the next morning and found out that the ranger tour was full, but there was room in the 1 pm. We took the self guided tour while we waited. The caverns were amazing and David had a photographer’s field day with the new camera he bought in Amarillo. Some of his shots are amazing and quizzically more colorful than we experienced, even though he used no filters. The caverns had been lit by theatrical lighting designers and this made them even more dramatic than I remember the ones at Mammoth Cave (and probably influenced Dave’s camera). During the ranger-led walk, we got to experience a complete black out, though David and I both swore we could still see “our hands in front of our face”. Had we known we were both wiggling our fingers like clowns in front of our faces, we would have tested each other LOL. Deb was amazed at how much she craved the sun after just a few hours underground. One of the most amazing things about the caverns was the story of their “discovery” by a 16 year old cowboy near the turn of the century. He had noticed the millions of bats coming out at night and figured the cave had to be bigger than most folks thought, and began exploring them. Seeing them for the first time with a poor lantern or torch had to be thrilling. As an uneducated cowboy, he had a hard time describing them and called the stalactites and stalagmites “hangie down and builted uppie things”. He couldn’t convince anyone else into going down into the caves with him. Finally after about 5 years, he convinced a photographer to go into the caves with him, and as the photographs came out, the rest, as they say, is history. He spent his life working in and around the caves, first as a guano miner and later as a ranger once it became a National Monument (and later a National Park and World Heritage Site). I bought a short book of his stories, but the forward acknowledged that many of them had been embellished either by him or the editor. “Never let history and facts get in the way of a good tale” it said. LOL… it reminded me of my dad, Clay Roberts who I’m sure holds the same philosophy and who, according to my children have passed it on to me (so be aware readers!!). It was disappointing that no real biography of Jim White was available. I doubt that it would need embellishing. As we left the area, you couldn’t help but wonder, what other caverns and marvels are hidden in this vast country.
On to Arizona! But first Deb has to skype on her phone with the grandchildren!
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