Days 4 and 5...they're starting to run together!

So, it's Day 4, and we've just woken up after driving half the night.  Apparently at some point we entered Texas Hill Country and we're no longer in the Boring Desert of Doom.  This is a good thing. Also, it's Springtime.

At long last, something green that won't stab you if you touch it.

This is much better.  Hills, trees, tiny microscopic deer!  Huzzah!

We ate breakfast.  Beer and enchiladas.  It totally doesn't get any better than that.

We arrived at the outskirts of San Antonio and saw this place, so we made our way off the interstate to it.  It's like Heaven for the Outdoorsman.  There were people fishing in the parking lot, with real fish and everything. Crazypants.

You would not believe the scale of this place.  Some lady was giving a fishing demonstration inside.  She used a bunch of different lures and you could watch the fish's reaction to them.  It was fascinating in a way that fishing has never been fascinating before.  I felt myself being lured to the Dark Side.  A couple of hours in this place and I would be drinking beer from a can and spending my life's savings on a party barge.  

There were taxidermied animals everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  They had one of  everything. Baboons, skunks, wolves, turkeys, ducks, squirrels, fish, snakes, cows, zebras, lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!

It was like a zoo, only everything was dead.  It certainly makes taking photos easier.  

Eventually, we wore out on all those dead animals, so we went and found a motel.  I guess they had recently done a remodel, so we were all fancypants.  Not too bad for $42 a night and 5 minutes from Six Flags.  

After some wifi drama that required a room change, we took a nap.  

We're still running on Colorado/pre-time change time, so we wound up eating around 10pm.

The next morning, we went here.  

This is really the only photo of a roller coaster I took.  I didn't take my camera into the park, because our focus is on riding the roller coasters, and ride them we did.  We rode all the big rides, most of them twice.  We rode our favorite one four times, which was awesome.  It was the perfect day.  Not too hot, not many people, no waiting for the rides.  We had so, so much fun.  

On the slate for today:  Sea World.

Road Trip, Day 3

Technically, I'm writing this on the morning of Day 4, but I'm hoping you'll cut me some slack. 

We always stay in the finest hotels.  

Saturday morning we slept late, leisurely drank coffee, showered, and were out of the room with four minutes to spare from the check-out time.  How's that for getting your money's worth?  (To be fair, the room was nice.  I didn't blacklight it or anything, but I'm afraid to do the blacklight thing because I want to be able to actually stay in motels in the future.  Nothing like sabotaging your own travel, no? So, screw you germs!  I don't wanna know!)

We drove to the Carlsbad Caverns.  We passed a lot of kitschy Americana, which I love.

It was windy.  Stupendously, ridiculously goddamned windy.  It's been windy this whole trip. Yay.  Notice the ocotillo cactus.  My favorite.  The final 6 miles of the drive to the cavern really reminded me of Tucson and the drive to the Desert Museum.

This is the trail head to the natural entrance of the cavern.  You have the option of not going this way and taking the elevator 750 feet straight down into ground.  We chose to take the long way, which I totally recommend if you can do it.  (Walk downhill for a mile and a half or so, that is.)

Cave entrance.  Absolutely beautiful here.  I guess they did the rock work post Depression with CCC workers.  It's a good thing they did it then, because considering the scale of all the work done here, there's probably no way the National Parks Service could afford to do something so extensive and amazing now.  

Springtime in the desert.  Beautiful.

Beginning the descent into the cavern.  More amazing rock/trail work.  This kind of thing continues for miles underground.  So. Much. Work. And we got to enjoy it all for $12.  What a bargain.

This was the only slightly unpleasant part of the trail.  It smelled of bat and bird poo, and there were a gazillion swallows overhead, so people were kind of hurrying through here in order to try not to get shat upon.  I didn't hurry because I am not a weenie.  Also, I just don't hurry.  Not in my nature.

Goodbye, daylight.  Hello 56 degrees and 90% humidity.  After that wretched wind, this was a fantastic change.  

The cave was utterly amazing.  

Words do not do it justice.

It was like being on another planet.  Planet Awesome!

My poor little camera gave it hell trying to capture all the beauty.  Fortunately, there was beauty to spare and I managed to capture some.

Also, we ate lunch 750 feet below ground.  Very cool!  Taylor is certain that we are the biggest dorks ever.  I swear all we do is run around embarassing her.

In 1924, some poor bastards from National Geographic descended into the "Bottomless Pit" area of the cave on this wire and stick ladder.  They managed to make it out alive, but damn.  Just damn.  I felt vomity just looking at that puny ladder.

Incredible.

Eventually, we had to leave, which was a bummer.  Soon, though, we were in Texas, aka East Jesus Nowhere.  Seriously, I drove 80 miles an hour for 45 minutes and didn't pass a soul.  

No wonder.  There was no one to pass.  This is Orla, Texas.  Home of tumbleweeds, abandoned houses and dirt.  That's about it.

And so we drove.  Eventually, we arrived in Kerrville, TX, which is not too far from San Antonio. The dude that runs the place is super nice, and gave us a discount on the room because we didn't arrive until almost midnight.  Thank you, dude!

And now I need to shower, because we are quickly approaching checkout time.

Road Trip, Day 2

I'm pooped, so this is going to be brief.  We're currently in Carlsbad, and we're going to go to the Caverns in the morning.  Roswell and all the UFO/aliens stuff sucked up all our time today.  (Or were we abducted...where did the time go?)  

Tay would like to kindly take this time invite us to go to hell.  This was first thing this morning. Girlfriend does not do mornings.

We took her to the mall, and then to Hobby Lobby.   She forgave us.

We went downtown to the UFO Museum.  

Aliens!

Government cover-up!

Decoupaged horse!

Close Encounters!

We bought Taylor a brain.  It was time.

We drove to Carlsbad, and we got happy.

Happy = fried jalepenos.  They were listed on the menu as "bottlecaps".  Oh, dear lord.  So, so, so good.  

And then we went to the drive-in.  There were three screens!  I got a brief contact high from someone smoking weed two cars over.  Discovered that people in Carlsbad simply open their windows and dump their trash out when the movie is over.  Sweet!  Why didn't I think of that?  

Now:  we're back in the room.  We had salad for dinner, as you can really only eat only so much fried food and then you start backing up.  Of course, I have eaten so many jalepenos today that my bum may resemble a Japanese flag in the morning.  Ya never know.

Road Trip, Day One.

Dayum, y'all.  That wind was a bummer to fight against all day.  We made it from Oxford to Roswell today.  Not too bad for goofing around quite a bit. 

Old school telephone poles.  Still in use, I assume.  These were on the way from Pagosa Springs to Santa Fe.  Those glass insulators are so charming.

Adam's Tomtom.  This particular gadget rocks.  No more getting lost on road trips, unless we want to.

It's a lovely drive between Pagosa and Santa Fe.

We made it to the Promised Land in Santa Fe!  If I had a left nut, I would totally give it to live near a Trader Joe's.

I ate a bacon bleu cheese burger here.  Pure love.

No spell check on highway signs.

We were delayed.  Really delayed.

We did manage to reach Roswell.  And then we were tired.

We found a hotel.  There is (was) alien beer (not bad at all).  

Tomorrow, we hope to visit the UFO Museum, then head to Carlsbad to the caverns.  That's the plan, anyway.  Oh, also, there are more photos at my flickr photostream.

I have a To Do List the length of my arm...

...and instead of getting tending to my list, I'm goofing off on the internet.  That's how I roll, baby.

Two more days until vacation.  Two. More. Days.  I must admit, it's been lovely to have something positive to look forward to.  I was completely not on board with this vacation for a while there, as it seems like there's always, always something else to put the money toward.  I want to start a business.  I want to move back home.  I want to buy a gazillion pounds of wool to dye.  Blah, blah, blah.  Yeah, I guess there's always something.  There will always be something that requires precious money, but there won't always be the three of us.  Things change, kids grow up and out.   Time Flies isn't just a cliche, it's the god-awful truth.  And so... away we go. Making memories that we can all enjoy later; something that will be completely ours as a family.  

Taylor, age 12, at our second home, Durango Joe's.

Don't ask me where the last 12 years went.  They  just flew by.