The air was still chilly which made for a perfect quiet morning. I noticed on my phone there was strong wifi available very close to our campsite so I headed back to grab my computer to upload the first days of the blog. It roughly takes 45 minutes to an hour to edit pictures, write about, and upload each day so I try to break it up and upload a few days all at one time. I also try to wait until I have left a camping spot to upload to keep us safe. This is a private blog but you never know.
Once I was finished I saw the kids with me were awake so we started breaking down our tent and packing the car. We only had a three hour drive this morning so we weren't in a rush but I'd much rather pack up when it's cool. We drove over to Grammie's spot when we were finished to enjoy some freshly baked muffins. Baked goods are something we rarely eat on the trip since it's impossible on a camp stove. I guess we need to camp with Grammie more often - we're spoiled! The girls wanted to climb the trail behind her campsite with Lola. I'm not sure she was too impressed but they had fun at least! Brayden is hit or miss these days with kid adventure so I'm glad the girls have each other.
We got on the road shortly after breakfast and were able to enjoy the beautiful drive back out from the mountain. I have no problem with long drives especially when there is something beautiful to see along the way. The girls were busy playing games in the back seat and would look up for a brief moment when I would tell them to look out their window. Maybe one day they will appreciate the scenery. I know I didn't at their age very much.
Our drive after that was kind of a mess. We were behind truck after truck on 2-lane roads under construction and the view was mostly barren or industrial oil production. I kept seeing RV park after RV park with about 50 RVs crammed in the space of drug store parking lot. I could only guess it is temporary or seasonal housing for those working in the area. The temperatures were climbing quickly to triple digits and I couldn't imagine living there! Of course many people wouldn't choose living in a tent for 2 months either.
We decided to stop at Carlsbad Caverns National Park to enjoy the cavern and exhibits before setting up today. Lola had her first visit to a kennel as animals left in vehicles was prohibited. She wasn't thrilled with the idea for sure. I bought my annual National Park pass since we would be visiting several National Parks on this trip and we decided to visit the exhibits to learn about the area.
The girls jumped into this picture first. I'm not sure they will ever outgrow these! We learned about all the bats and other wildlife in the area. I decided I would like a ringtail for my birthday this year. I am always able to find at least 3-5 animals I would like to add to my list. We learned about caving next and the kids tried it themselves. Ryan definitely would actually go caving but I believe Laney and Brayden would need a little incentive.
We watched the park movie next to learn about the history of the park then headed to the elevators down to the cavern. We'd debated walking in via the natural entrance we just weren't really sure about having enough time. The elevator spit us out steps away from the Big Room and I was speechless. It was so enormous I just couldn't get over it. No picture I took even began to show just how big this area was. We later read it is the 5th biggest in North America being the size of 14 football fields.
We have been to many caves during our travels but have never formations like those in Carlsbad. We saw lion's tails, draperies, popcorn, cave pearls, and much more. The more we walked the more in awe we were of how this place came to be. Ryan wanted to go visit the "Bottomless Pit" which we learned wasn't really bottomless but a very dark 140 feet deep. People originally thought it was bottomless because they would throw a stone into it and never hear it hit the bottom. They later found it it has a sandy bottom which softened the sound.
We visited a few other spots then decided to head back upstairs. In a very Disney-like fashion we were dumped into a gift shop. It was time to by our first set of post cards though so the kids looked around and found the perfect ones and helped me pick out a sticker for our roof cargo carrier. I'm not sure I've seen Lola happier than I did when they emerged from the kennel. I'm wondering if she had decided we weren't coming back!
We pulled into our campsite with time to quickly set up, let the kids swim for 15 minutes, eat dinner and leave again. I plan our trips loosely so we can pick and choose what we want to do along the way but there was no way I was going to miss this event. We drove the 50-minutes back to the park for the bat flight program. I was a little worried we were going to miss it with the sun dipping lower by the minute but as we walked up to the amphitheater and sat down we were treated to a talk by the park ranger including what to expect, what they repectfully requested we do, and many random bat facts.
Mid-sentence the ranger was signaled that the flight had begun. We looked around and noticed about 50 bats circling the cave entrance then the real show began. The crowd of 500 people were completely silent as this tornado of bats streamed out of the cave to find dinner. The constant sound was like a fan turned on high. And we sat there as they just poured out of the cave twisting and swirling for more than 15 minutes. I wanted to see what it looked like as they left the area so we walked to the top of the amphitheater to see what could easily be mistaken for smoke leaving the cave. Hundreds of thousands of bats searching for their food. We stood there for at least another 5 minutes watching until it was almost too dark to see them anymore. If it weren't such a long drive I would have come back to see them return before sunrise.
There was one bad part of the flight program. In order for us to not confuse and intimidate the bats any electronic devices were not allowed to be used or even on. Knowing this we'd left all of ours in the car so I will just have to rely on my old memory to treasure these moments. Or I guess I'll just have to come back. A lot.
We said our goodnight and I tucked the girls for the night and headed to the laundry room. We didn't necessarily need to do laundry yet but having it very close to our campsite with free wifi was a luxury I would trade a little sleep for tonight. I watched our clothes spin, edited pictures, wrote about our day, and planned for the next day until after midnight.
