Aliens, Big Caverns and Long Drives

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. This section follows me and my son's trip from California to Washington DC for a temporary assignment. 

Day 3:

Woke up this morning in Roswell, New Mexico. Roswell looks like just about every other small to medium town in the mid-West. In fact, we noticed that most of the towns we drove thru are laid out the same. Main Street, city hall in the center with a park in front and business’ all around. The big difference in Roswell is the businesses around city hall all have an Alien theme. Also, as Kenny pointed out, the whole town smelled slightly of Methane. We shot a few pictures and went in search of breakfast.

We finally found a restaurant (not fast food) the next town south. Not bad, a little family run place. As we started to drive again, we discovered the source of the gas smell. There are hundreds of cattle ranches and dairies just South of Roswell. That solved one mystery, but still unresolved was how the can of gravy got into our luggage; I suspect extraterrestrial pranksters provided us with that sample of the finest of liquid refreshments.

We drove for several hours on a two-lane highway nothing but cows and oil wells on either side of the road. Finally we came to Carlsbad. We decided to take a side tour to the Carlsbad Caverns. Turned out to be a good idea, the caverns were really interesting.

The thing that impressed me the most about Carlsbad Caverns was the US Forest Service employees. Every one of them said hi to us and asked if we needed anything, or if we had any questions. The real star was the woman who helped us at the ticket window. She asked if we had any kind of discount cards, we didn’t. I mentioned to her that I should have one, because of my VA disability. She asked why I didn’t have the card, and when I explained that I haven’t been able to find out how to get one she gave me the paper work and we filled it out on the spot (Every time I asked the Forest Service they said I had to go to the VA, the VA said the Forest Service had to help me). I now have a lifetime pass to all of our National Parks, Yea!

From Carlsbad, we drove to San Antonio, Texas. We knew this would be the longest leg of the trip, but I thought it would never end. We finally arrived at the hotel at 11:30 PM. Now to get some sleep and tomorrow head over to the Alamo.