Day 32: Carsbad, NM

Tuesday 10/3
We get up early and continue I-10 to Fort Stockton, where we take hwy 285 to Carlsbad. While on the road we tried several hotels but Carlsbad seamed to be completely sold out. Our only chance was to get to the Caverns in the afternoon and stay may be in Artesia or so. Luckily we won 1 hour as we got to Mountain time and arrived at the Caverns around 2PM. When drove to the visitor center and entrance of the caverns we were surprised by the breathtaking view from that plateau to the south where it looked like we can view Texas from here. As a lazy elderly couple we didn’t want to walk down to the caverns, so we took the elevator. Wow – 380 ft. down into mother earth in 60 seconds. We exited the elevator and walked a few yards on a self guided tour. After a minute or so we entered the inner part of the caverns. It is hard to explain what we felt. It most be like Armstrong when he left the sphere and stood on the moon. Every explanation is worthless – this experience you have to do for yourself. The picture shows one of the areas with some people in the background (white circle) that kind of shows the enormous size. We walk the path through the caverns for about one hour – taking many pictures and went from one “wow – look at this” to the next. When we return, it took a few seconds to have the eye adjust to the light. We drive back to Carlsbad and luckily there was a Days Inn with vacancy. We took the room and where very surprised. A great and super clean room with all the amenities a traveler needs. We have dinner downtown at Red Chimney, where I had the best ribs since many years.