After relaxing in Northern New Mexico it was time to start our long drive from the top to the bottom of the state. The drive from Eagle Nest to Roswell was uneventful. Rocks, dirt, old style wind mills and farms of their more sleek and modern replacements.
Our plan for the day was to stop in Roswell for lunch with Greg’s Grandparents before heading to Carlsbad Caverns to watch the bat flight. Roswell was an interesting city.
They have taken the Alien theme and run with it. A McDonald’s space ship play area, an Arby’s sign that says, “Aliens Welcome” (Illegal or Extraterrestrial? I want to know.), and many shops dealing with outer space.
I couldn’t resist taking this picture. The bumper sticker just cracked me up.
We didn’t really do anything touristy while we were there because the whole point of this stop was to visit Greg’s Grandparents. It was really nice to spend time with them. The kids and I got to hear new to us family stories.
Our last real stop of vacation was Carlsbad Caverns. It was the season for bat flights. Sure, sure we toured the cavern and it really was impressive.
Allison was the best at seeing different shapes in the stalactites and stalagmites. Young minds full of imagination.
At dusk we all started walking towards the bat cave. No cameras were allowed so after a few quick shots of the crowd, the camera was put away. First they told us that if we were quiet, the bats might fly right over us. Then we were told that we were one of the larger crowds they had seen in a while.
The two don’t usually go hand in hand. They didn’t on that night either. Once some people got bored and left though, the theater got quieter and the bats started flying closer and closer. They started flying over and through the remaining audience. If you can go during the summer, you should.
After the bats it was time to kiss a sweet baby good bye and start our drive home, across the whole state of Texas.
Chris said the same thing about Roswell. He got 5 credit hours for hunting UFOs in undergrad, so of course Roswell was on the list of places his group visited. He said that it seemed like people were always just going somewhere, but never really getting to their destination. Just going.
The bats are the coolest.
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Your trip is almost exactly like ours was 2 years ago.
the Provident Woman´s last blog ..Socks, Flip-Flops, and Mushy Cake
Sounds like a great vacation! How funny that they’ve embraced the alien theme like that, lol.
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