We visited Carlsbad Caverns today. Upon entering the caverns, there were hundreds of birds flying around inside the entrance. We learned that these are cavern swallows and this is where they live. They fly in circles around the entrance. As you walk down into the cavern, you begin to smell a foul stench. Upon investigation of the surroundings, there was swallow poop EVERYWHERE!!! We decided not to linger in any one spot and went for cover fast! If you haven't been there, let me explain. You are in the open when you are traveling across the cavern. You are covered when you are at the edge of the cavern. The trail does a criss-cross from one side to the other as you descend. Sort of like a snake. Michael came within centimeters of getting hit. I came within centimeters of getting hit. We almost made it to clear cover when a swallow pooped on Tabitha's head. Poor thing! Of course this had to be when we entered the darkest part of the cavern so far and none of us could see it. But she could feel it so we used the light of her cell phone screen to make sure she got it all out. Isn't that disgusting? They should warn you about that and give you little rain bonnets to wear when going down there. Don't you think?
The trail down the caverns is a constant descent. I wore flip flops. Bad choice. Your foot is forced into a constant flex of your calf muscle. Now, I work out, but come on... who flexes their calf muscle for that long? Anybody? Tabitha and her little cheerleading legs wore flip flops too. Of course, she had NO problems with her legs! So, Shirley's legs started shaking first. Okay, so maybe I didn't notice my legs were shaking until after she said her legs were shaking. Who knows?
It is really beautiful in the caverns. It is 50 degrees down there and I received a heads up about the temperature from Jodi (thank you very much) and brought a little jacket. We also brought some sweat pants for Michael in case he got cold. Tabitha didn't bring a jacket. She wore mine. That was okay though, because I was a little warm from the small workout of walking down constantly and trying not to slip on the wet path in my flip flops.
By the time we reached what we thought was the bottom, mine and Shirley's legs were shaking, we all had to find a bathroom and we were all hungry. Let me just tell you, when you get to the elevators, there is another hour and a half of walking to be done in order to see all the caverns. Once us girls got a load of the incredibly disgusting bathrooms, and the guys realized there is no restaurant down here, we decided we were finished with this little hike and headed for the elevators. After all, we could eat in the restaurant upstairs and then take the elevator back down to finish the caverns, right? That didn't happen. We all knew it wouldn't. We ate in their little restaurant that took me back to when I was a kid and Asa would take us on the road to visit his customers. The restaurants we would go to back then. The restaurant at Carlsbad Caverns is dated to probably before I was a kid. And how do they find the employees to look as if they should have been working in the restaurant all those years ago? Do they not age when they work here? The food sucked big time, but we didn't care. We just wanted food.
After we ate we spent a little time in the gift shop. This would turn out to be Tabitha's favorite part of each location we visited. Not that she wanted us to buy her things. She just likes to look at the stuff in gift shops. Like her mom and her grandma.
We decided to head back to the RV to get some rest and come back that night to see the bats come out of the caverns to go in search of dinner. There is a little motel and gift shop at the end of the road when you leave the caverns, so we decided to stop and look around here too. There is also a little house built into the hill across the street. Can you see it in the picture? Shirley bought some fudge from the little store and I couldn't resist. Yep, I had a huge zit beside my mouth the next day. I hate white flour.
When we got back to the RV park, we noticed they were going to have a little "gathering around the fire" after dinner. Another reason the GPS came in handy! It knows where all the Walmarts are! We headed over there to pick up some marshmallows for the fire and I picked up the first 3 books in the Stephanie Plum series that Shannon had loaned to me, but I left tucked away safely in my car.
We went back at dusk to see the bats leave at sunset. There is an outdoor amphitheater at the entrance to the caverns. The swallows were still flying all over the place as usual. The ranger explained to us that the bats would come out and the swallows would just have to get out of their way. The bats come out in a counter-clockwise rotation from the caverns. There are over 300, 000 bats living there. They aren't able to get an accurate count because the bats will just not stand and be counted. I was getting a little nervous with all these bats and swallows flying over our heads and you guessed it... one of them pooped on my head. What an adventure!
By the time we got back to the RV park, the "gathering around the fire" had turned into a bunch of teenagers from England on a summer trip. We decided not to roast our marshmallows. Looked like a private gathering at this point. Besides, this RV park had cable and Michael wanted to watch TV. Of course, he didn't know what that little thingy was on the ceiling by the TV and promptly (accidentally) broke the antennae for the TV. We got our showers and headed to bed. We're heading to alien country tomorrow...
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