Carlsbad Caverns (Mon. July 26)

Last night we had seen the old 66 Diner in Albuquerque in the dark but Colin really wanted to go see it once more in the dark. Also there is a New Mexico Rt 66 museum in there that we were interested in visiting. So after some free pancakes at the campground we headed back into the city. To our disappointment the Diner did not open until 11:00 and it was only a little after 10:00. So we could not visit. Good thing we didn't skip the pancakes and wait for the diner for breakfast (which is what I had thought about). We would have been starving. We didn’t want to waste almost an hour waiting for it to open so we looked in the windows to see as much as we could and then headed south for Carlsbad.

One thing that has kept us all really entertained along the road is Burma Shave signs. Burma Shave was a shaving cream which was known for interesting signs along the side of the road to advertise. We have seen several of these Burma Shave lingoes along the way. There were many of them on the road heading east towards Seligman a few days ago. We are seeing them in many places. The signs are really funny and help make the time pass when we are lucky enough to see them. The diner had their own version of a Burma Shave sign.

The ride to Carlsbad was way tooooo long and boring. We had bought a couple of CDs with music about Route 66 a few days ago so we just cranked the music and made the best of it. The one interesting thing was that when you hit a town (and it could be up to 90 minutes between some towns) was that it felt like we were still on 66. It was amazing how much this road looked like all the ones on 66. Closed stores, gas stations and restaurants and abandoned houses. It may not have been Route 66 but it sure must have a similar story.

We arrive in Carlsbad in time to tour the Great Room in the caves. It is hard to believe what nature can form. I had seen the caverns before and was still amazed by what we saw. The boys really enjoyed it and decided it was worth the long drive down (and the one back which is yet to come.)

After our tour of the cave we grabbed dinner at the Caverns and then headed to the amphitheatre to see the Bat Flight program. Each night nearly 400,000 Brazilian (aka Mexican) free-tail bats exit Carlsbad Cavern. It is really cool to watch them all fly out. We were hoping to return in the morning and watch them return to the cave which is a really neat thing to see but unfortunately due to construction (more wonderful construction with those lovely orange cones and the adventure of detours!!!) the roads to the park are closed until 6 a.m. and by then the bats are already back. So no bats in the a.m. (maybe something we will all appreciate when we don’t have to get up at 4!!!) (You are no longer allowed to take pictures of the bats at the Caverns so we cheated and pulled one of the internet.)