Monday, Oct 31

Monday, October 31

Happy Halloween!

This morning it is clear and 57 degrees.  We decide to visit Carlsbad Caverns since we are less than 20 miles away.  We have been there twice before but it is an amazing place, plus with our Senior Pass it will be free.

On our way out we see several rabbits and a big bobcat that dashes across the road.  We saw several cottontails as well as a large jackrabbit.  I think they use jackrabbits as models for chocolate Easter bunnies because they have such large ears (more chocolate!).

We cross 408 again, thinking we will get gas at Whites City(which is close to Carlsbad Caverns), but then the BRAKE and ABS warning lights both go on.  We pull out the vehicle manual and decide maybe we should head into the city of Carlsbad, even though we are having no problems with braking.  There is no other nearby city of any size. When we get signal, I find Carlsbad Chevrolet and give them a call.  They promise to fit us in, so we turn north for the short 8 mile jog.

Nice folks and we only have to wait about half an hour.  The diagnosis is a faulty ABS module, which, fortunately, does not influence the operation of the hydraulic brakes.  We can safely wait till we return home to have it repaired instead of waiting for the part to be ordered, etc.

We continue on to Carlsbad Caverns and after a quick lunch we head into the caverns via the natural entrance.

 It is about a mile down into the Caverns via a steep switchback-laden trail.  Various features are illuminated as we descend to a cool (56 degree) Great Room.

The huge Great Room will hold 14 football fields and the trail through it is more than a mile.  It is an amazing other world!

Some of the formations are named things like lion's tale, whale's mouth, fairyland, etc. We wind up the tour of the Great Room and take the elevator back to the surface shortly after 2:00.

And then head back into Texas and the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  We stop at a roadside display of the remains of an old Butterfield Stage Coach station abandoned in 1859.

There are many campsites available and we snag a nice one not far from Friday's site. After we take "bird baths",  Greg cooks chicken on the grill which we enjoy with a sweet potato and salad.  We chat with nearby neighbors, Dwayne from Corpus Christi and Leon and his wife, from Maryland.  Dwayne talks about star photography and before long there are three tripods and three cameras aimed at the sky.  As night falls, the stars pop! And the milky way is quite visible over Guadalupe Peak!

 I experiment a bit and get a few shots before some clouds move in and the Milky Way is lost.  Hopefully we can do this again in the next few days since we have an almost invisible New Moon.

We talk briefly with another couple who are from Queensland, Australia.  They have shipped their rv here and are traveling the US for several months.  This isn't the first time we have met folks from overseas (Germany, Holland, etc.) touring in their own rigs.