Carlsbad New Mexico

Roughly 2100 miles down and several more to go! This vacation stuff could get addictive. *smile* We are enjoying the trip quite a bit. The boys are getting along well and I've almost stopped twitching (which I hear is a good sign that you are on your way to recovery from lack of email access). The picture is the view from our campsite in Panama City Beach. Not too bad of a way to start off the trip huh?

I'll try to catch you up in this post (ie - long post).

Last update had us looking for stuff to do in New Orleans. Seems like a week ago we were there. We visited the French Quarter and Buorbon Street mid morning and through lunch. Of course we stopped at one of the local spots and had some excellent Jambalaya and Crawfish Etoufee. How can a person skip such a crucial element of a visit to Louisiana?


I will say that much of the Eastern side of New Orleans looks abandoned compared to what I'm used to in Atlanta, or pretty much any other major US city. You get a couple miles out of the French Quarter and it is pretty rough looking. However, there are signs that things are picking up. We found an AMC movie theater just over the river from our campsite and that area looks like anywhere else. Lowes, Office Depot, Longhorn's, etc. on every corner.

The ride over to New Orleans from Panama City was an eye opener though... We drove through Biloxi and all I can say is "where did everything go?". About the only things around are new casino's and a couple of new shopping centers. Miles and Miles of beach front property is gone. And much of it for sale.

I will say this though, while other corporations have not rebuilt, you can find a Waffle House about every 2 miles. But of course you can!

Once we packed up from New Orleans we drove over to a state park just outside of Houston, Brazos Bend State Park. We checked in and reserved a spot to look at the stars at the George Observatory. Wow, what a view of the sky! while time on the big telescope was limited, we did get probably 45 minutes of uninterrupted time with one of the Astronomers on one of the smaller scopes (the one on the right).
I left wanting a telescope. I do see a problem though... I would always want to see more and better, which would of course require bigger and better equipment. And though getting started isn't that expensive, I can quickly see it getting to be a big big money pit.

From Brazos Bend we went to Balmorhea State Park in West Texas. One the way over we stopped at the Alamo in San Antonio. The boys were ready to leave shortly after arrival since there was no pool or rides.
It is hard to imagine what those that were there went through.

Once we got the park they were better. The campsite was a bit rustic but the reason I picked it as a destination was the pool. Based on what I had read, it was pretty cool. It lived up to expectations.



Imagine a 20-25 feet deep crytal clear lake fed by an underground stream flowing over 1 million gallons of water an hour. Now put a swimming pool around it. It was simply incredible. The pool was built in the mid to late 1930's and is quite the setup. I think Zachary and Ethan would have stayed for a couple more days just to swim in the pool.

It was complete with wildlife too. Nothing like sharing your shower with a 4 inch Tarantula, or waking up with an even larger one 8 inches from your head on the side of the mesh pavillion we are using when it is too hot for the small tents.

I did feel a bit of guilt when I flipped the Tarantula off the tent and he literally was skewered on the scrub brush next to the tent. A thorn pierced him dead center his abdomen. I was able to remove him from his predicament but i think the damage was done. He was still lying in the same spot when we left. Ooops.

Today we are in Carlsbad as the post indicates. The drive over was only a couple of hours and through some of the wide open Texas high desert. I even let Ethan have some time at the wheel (shhhh. Don't tell his Mother!). His first time at the wheel on a public highway. Think he was a bit excited? *grin*


We've taken the afternoon to wash cloths and just hang out. Tomorrow we will go to the caverns and maybe to see "El Capitan" which is just down the road a bit.

Here are a few pictures from Ethan's camera and more from Zachary's camera.
Until next time!