Carlsbad Caverns had been really cool, but we had misdirected and shouldn't have gone to it before going to another National Park in New Mexico, called White Sands. It was basically a lot of white sand. Well, we had thought of Carlsbad Caverns as just a cave and had loved it beyond belief, so we thought we would be happily surprised this time also. But why had we misdirected? White Sands is in a town called Alamogordo, a very hard name to pronounce. But we couldn't go there by way of Carlsbad, so we had to go back up 295 to Roswell, away from the Southeast, in the Mideast, and then go to the left 380, and then turning down to Alamogo...hard name down 54. We wouldn't have to have all these numbers if Eisenhower had just stayed being a general, not a president, but I guess I'm glad we have interstates. After going on the tire swing once more, that really cool thing that Rebecca and I played on a lot, telling the people we were leaving that day in the office, taking the dogs to that dog park for the last time, and pulling and putting all our utilities in, we pulled out. I'll probably never go to back to Carlsbad, but maybe I will in my forties, like how Mom came when she was 13 and came back when she's 48. She was glad to go to Carlsbad, even though the town was a little deprived.(as many New Mexico towns are). I was too. As Jim White said, it's one of the greatest subterranean wonders of the world.
We went back to Roswell on a regular interstate road, trash,desert, and grey asphalt. I had thought I wouldn't see the town again but now I got new closure in the town, by the McDonald's and even our campground, then to the left. We stopped at gas stations and truck stops, and the scenery was more than we expected. First, desert and shrub and dirt, and then black mountains surrounding, the highest of which had snow capped peaks. The others were brown and black charred, with fat long bumps or ripples, with big gulleys in between. We passed rivers, and there were sickly oaks on either side, and then desert, ravines and other things along the way. I did a small bit of blogging, but had a headache and so sat up with Dad, as he shared anecdotes, stories, and talked about how the atmosphere we were in looked a lot like the Lone Ranger first episode, which we had both seen together before the trip. It was a fun good time, going through the smallest towns you ever seen, a few old torn down trailers, some other houses, and a post office that made a town. It was really fun. But we went through a few tight fixes, like under tunnels, by oil rigs, and in between a mountain that took Dad extreme concentration. Dad language has gotten better with our constant reforms, and now he says things like "Jimmy Crickets" and "sheesh maneese" and a lot of other colorful but not profane phrases.
We finally got to Alamogordo after about a two to three hour drive there. It was a good drive. The town was better than Carlsbad, and had some commercial restaurants other than all the boarded up consequences of the Recession. It wasn't the best one though. We hadn't gone to the other National Parks, even though I kinda wanted to, because Dad said they weren't worth it and the Mountain Chain one looked like the hills that we passed by on the way to Carlsbad. That's what we talked about when we came in. Desert Paradise was on the edge of town, with no grass in sight, really, just dirt and gravel and some sites, beneath one of those brown or black mountains. There was a long grey trailer with wooden walkway in which, from coming to the left of Desert "Paradise", Dad got out and went in with Mom. The kids stayed inside; I was feeling really bad about being so behind in the blog and not giving people updates that were like recent, and at that time I was even writing about Driving to New Orleans! I couldn't believe myself. I finished that one with some graphic images of Bourbon Street and other things, addressing foreshadowing of the next few days in the Big Easy. Once again I must say I am sorry for being so behind.
We left the jeep parking as we then parked the R.V., it facing not the town but the brown mountain. There was an Airstream right by us. After a brutal argument with Rebecca, we took the dogs out together, trying to ease the weird awkwardness by speaking of trivial matters. We faced a field of shrub and cracked dirt from the Najovee Desert, beneath the mountain. The sun was about to go down. We walked up to a beige little building, and peaked in, not allowed to go in because we had the dogs. We heard to the right, in a small laundry room, two ladies talking as they did all the steps. One was short and Asian and the other one was older and had blonde/grey hair, and some glasses with old hair, medium length on both sides. Rebecca took the dogs as I went in alone, seeing on my left and right book exchanges in the small room, and then up against a pillar a little shelf, with Redwall books. Then there was a T.V. in the right hand corner, some sofas, and a computer table. I could come in here and type out my blogs when the T.V. was on in the R.V., Rebecca was singing songs that made no sense,(for instance "BOOBADIRARRA I LOVE MY SANDALS, WAWWAAWAS!") and Mom had the washing machine going. Paradise. Desert Paradise.
In another room we're two little bathrooms, one with a shower. This whole building was the clubhouse of the R.V. park. Well, Rebecca looked as I held the dogs, and then we walked back to the R.V. together. Dad told us to go to the jeep and take all the trash out. Well, it was neither by, behind, or in front of the R.V. We walked back down to the clubhouse, it on our left as the T.V. boomed in the R.V., Mom on her computer. That blonde/grey haired lady came over on the Golf Cart, stopping to say that we couldn't go into the clubhouse without an adult, or go around without an adult. She also asked if we needed wifi, stating that her name was Linda. I said to her," Hello Linda."
"Call me Mrs. Linda. It's polite when you're talking to an adult to say Mrs. or Mr." I thought it odd that she say one second to call her Linda and then to say Mrs. Linda, but I guess she forgot or maybe wanted to test me to see if I would be respectful.
"Oh sorry Mrs, I did not know."
"So do you need wifi? I left it at my place and you could hop on with me, and I own the place, it's just over there. It's in a plastic bag. It costs money though." We had some difficulties with our Verizon, but I did not want to go to her camper, because our parents had strictly forbidden that, because adults do weird things to kids nowadays. We told her that we were okay, and then she pushed it a little more. At this time Dad came out, wondering why we were taking so long. The lady named Linda said we could stop by any time to get the wifi, and then left, after getting some things out of a mailbox and drinking her coffee. Dad told us we did the right thing. It was a weird experience.
At dinner in T..G.I.F. our waiter told us about a town up in the mountains, with forests and a whole lot of snow, called Cloudcroft, that it wasss djjir reaslly cool and how to get there. Thanking himm, we finished a really good meal. It wasn't a super fun day, but those days are the backbone of life, going places where fun stuff are, just havingggg one daay whereee it wasn't too exciting. Goodbye for now.
You know how in Wizard of Oz how the good witch is named Linda, and how in Hansel in Grethel the witch beckons them in, and she looks good? A piece of advice: the witch in Oz was named Linda and was pretty and nice, and in H&G was nice. The one in H&G wasn't good. Neither Linda in Oz who was bad in Wicked. Not everything good-looking is good,
-The Blogger.
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