Friday, June 7th 2002

Dallas, TX to Carlsbad, NM 

Weather:  first half of the day in Texas, overcast, hot and humid with a high of 90

2nd half of the Day including New Mexico, clear sunny, not as humid and a high of 90

Total Miles To Date 2,803 miles 

Money spent today:

$110 for hotel

$20 for parking

$46 for gas

$9 for Carlsbad cavern tour w/ audio tour

$9 for dinner at diner at the top of the mountain

$35 for advance payment on motel

Total Spent Today

$229

Total Spent To Date

$1123.05

Good Morning Mr. Phelps your mission today is to drive to Roswell, New Mexico and look for signs of alien life.

Woke up around 8am, showered, fed ex package to Bret, checked out and got my car.  By the way, it's so nice to stay at a nice hotel, especially when you come back to a little chocolate on your pillow.  Where did this tradition come from?  A little sugar fix before you go to bed, yeah, that's a good idea.

9:30 central time on the road and took 35 South

9:35 I make the first course change on my trip.  I decide NOT to go to Roswell until later.  Today, I'm going to Carlsbad, NM which is only 80 miles south of Roswell.

9:40 Now I'm on 20 West...this will take up majority of my day

Ok, once you leave the Dallas/Ft. Worth Area, there is nothing, I repeat, nothing to look at.  It's just straight highway.  But several hundred miles later I finally see something cool.  A whole bunch of Windmills.  There are close to a couple dozen of them on this ridge in the distance.  They're easily the size 2 to three story houses.  They are basically these big poles with propellers on them.  You would never imagine seeing something environmentally sound like this in the state that pumps oil all day long.  

1pm Central Time and nothing...nothing....nothing....nothing....

I think I'm now starting to hallucinate.  This highway is starting to seem like it goes right into the horizon and touch the sky.

  2pm central I just drove by Midland TX...does anyone know the significance of this.  Don't all put your hands up at once. I didn't know either.  There's a big sign soon as you enter this town saying "Welcome to the hometown of Laura and George Bush"

Ok, now I'm pissed.  There was cool place I wanted to stop by called Meteor Crater, which is what you would think it to be.  I pulled off and construction crews closed the road off...oh well, get back on the highway.

Since the land is barren it really gets windy.  It gets so windy that on occasion you'll see some little sand tornados appear and disappear on the side of the road.  If you drive by them, you can actually feel your car get pulled in slightly.  

Now you know it's really barren when the speed limit is up to 75 which of course means you can go up to 85 without worrying about the police.

3:25 central time and now I switch from 20 West to 285 North....85 miles till Carlsbad.

285 North started off really strange.  It's a side road that starts off in a local town.  the speed limit was 30.  This sucks after going 85 for many hours.... But all of a sudden this road's speed limit became 75 and it became a two lane highway.  This highway was AWESOME.  For 85 miles I drove on a two lane highway that I could see down several miles at a time.  If you're trying to imagine what this looks like, if you've seen the movie Dumb and Dumber, there's a scene where they give up the Shaggin Wagon and there in the middle of nowhere.  THERE WAS NOTING ON THE ROAD.  I mean literally.  For 85 miles, there were no gas stations (thank god I had gas in my car or I would have been screwed), no rest stops, no stores, no houses, nothing but land as far as you could see.  For 85 miles I was driving anywhere from 85 to 100 mph.  It was just a straight away.  Once again awesome.  I think there were maybe 10 cars on this road the entire time.  I wish I had the Lexus.  The speeds I could have done!!  I don't think anyone has any idea of what alone is until you drive down this road.  This is a Ferrari drivers wet dream

4pm central time zone and I enter New Mexico...and welcome to the Mountain Time Zone...So...

3pm Mountain Time Zone and I enter New Mexico about 35 miles south of Carlsbad.......that means I drove about 50 miles in 35 minutes...you do the math.

4pm mountain time and I'm at the entrance to Carlsbad Cavern which is on top of a mountain.  

This place is great.  I can't believe how unique this place is.  You take an elevator down 754 feet (or 75 stories) into the mountain.  Words can not explain how cool this place is.  The cavernous area covers about 10 football fields.  It was 90 degrees outside and it was in the low 60's in the caverns.  If it wasn't for the light bulbs it would be pitch black.  How anyone ever found this in the first place and how they even navigated around .  I wish I could have taken pictures but it was so dark, so nothing really came out.   But Wow...this place is just awesome.  I was 10 again.  When I read Tom Sawyer when I was a kid, these are places I imagined him going to...I wandered around for two hours and I didn't get to see all that I wanted to.  I got there so late that the regular walk down was closed, so I took the elevator down.  Tomorrow I get to do the walk.

Anyway, I got something to eat at the diner also at the top of the mountain and went to look for lodging for the night.  I went to the one campsite that had tent sites.   It was so ghetto.  The two tents that were there were right on what would be the sidewalk of the street....If I'm going to camp, I'm going to do it where I should, not on the street.  Fortunately, I found a motel right in town for $35.  

This turned out to a be a really good day.  I'm going to watch the Lakers/Nets game and get ready to wake up early tomorrow for the caverns then my drive to Roswell and Santa Fe..

C YA

notes:

Ron thanks for the e-mail and thanks SO MUCH for recommending the Carlsbad Caverns

A sign I saw on the drive today  - p.s .this is real

Welcome to Stanton...Home of 3000 Friendly People and other soreheads!!

Mom, thanks for getting my mail

Have you ever noticed when you go to most states, about a mile in there's always welcome station with maps and guides to the state you're about to visit.  Why is there not one in NY...think about it..

 This is strange..You know when you go to a military surplus store, you usually find clothes, canteens and stuff like that...Well, this one sells jeeps and helicopters on the side of the highway...Great, who needs this stuff?

I think there are more Subways than McDonalds in the south. that's just by observation

No one is going to understand this but, the phone scam on this radio station was hysterical.   calling 411 using audio bits from Dumb and Dumber (this is basically something I wrote so I'll remember it) 

Nicole, yes, I'm in New Mexico

Hey Bret, Hey Elizabeth...Elizabeth, sorry you didn't get to meet Tom Cruise.

There was a billboard that said, "Explore and discover the Petroleum Museum"...Ooh can we all go together...

It's scary when you see a cop and slow down from 85 to 70 and now you feel like you're going slow

Who thought of the circus peanut and what the hell were they thinking?

The bugs they have here are huge...they're so big that when I hit them they actually "thud" against the windshield.  As a matter of fact, every time I stop for gas, I have to scrub my window hard to get all the dead bugs off.  It really does get hard to see after a while.

I can't believe I'm missing the Yankees play the Giants for the first time ever at Yankee Stadium...Go Yanks!!

Previous Miles not accounted for from Austin, TX to Dallas, TX

211

Total Miles Traveled Today 

570