Day 10, July 9, 2011

This was a busy day!  First we had a two and a half hour tour of the caverns at Carlsbad.  We took the elevator down, rather than the natural entrance, because of our limited time.  It was enough for us to be mightily impressed!  We were able to rent a little device that served as an audio tour guide on-demand.  The kids’ version was what we used and it was extremely informative and helpful.

These photos cannot do Carlsbad Caverns justice. 

If you've never been, you should consider planning a trip.

Next we drove north.  We had a wonderful in-depth conversation with the kids about how big chain stores are leading to the closing of smaller mom & pop stores, so they insisted we eat lunch at a local place once we got to Roswell.  While our food was being prepared, we dashed across the street to the Roswell UFO museum.  We didn’t pay for the museum tour, so we just looked around the gift store for a few minutes.  The kids were incredulous that a whole town would dedicate itself to such fame.

We hurriedly finished the rest of our trip to Las Vegas.  It was interesting to watch the vegetation change as we got closer to Vegas, and especially as the rain came in.  Apparantly, we were able to bring some rain from Honduras to the thirsty northern New Mexico lands.  The rain hadn’t hit Vegas by the time we left, but it was looking hopeful and there were a few good storms over in the Santa Fe area, which needed rain also, especially to help put out the wildfires.

We amazed ourselves by finding the house without one wrong turn, despite our uncertainty about which way to go.  It seemed to be pure instinct.  Dianne and Cordia, our hostesses in Las Vegas, live right across the street from our old house from the days we lived there.  They had kindly organized an Open House to permit us to see several people all at once.  Our next door neighbors and another couple from the neighborhood, plus David’s former boss and colleague were able to come.  Also, Nathan, Andrea, and Liz came all the way from Alamogordo.  It was a lovely evening catching up with friends.  Nathan gave us the good news that he will work toward moving back to Honduras in the near future, as he wants to help David with his greenhouse projects.  What a great day!