Rest in Santa Rosa

Getting up early and an hour time change had us arriving at Carlsbad Caverns at 9:30 am, before most other tourists.  We were one of the few going into the walking entrance instead of the elevator down.  Cool and amazing!  The great room could fit 14 football fields inside.  What a national treasure the caves are!

 

We had checked into White’s City RV park at the entrance to the park earlier, so we returned for an afternoon at the “water park” which is a great exaggeration for the 2 water slides, pool, and little pirate ship water structure.  But the kids had fun with only one casualty:  Jazy scraped her back on the slide resulting in what is probably 3^rd degree burns in a few places (white skin), 2^nd is a larger area, and scabbing in a couple more.

  We’ve been dressing them with sterile bandages and triple antibiotic ointment, as our book instructs, but we’re prepared to find a doctor if infection arrives.  She’s been far braver and non-complaining than I would be.

 

Then in the evening, we drove Ciao Baby back to the overlook at the top of the Caverns to work on school, the computers, fix dinner, and enjoy the view of the entire world- or so it looked to us.  Having our home with us when we roam is most convenient!  Then we hurried to the 7:30 pm bat program at the caves, enjoyed the anticipation of the thousands of bats alighting from the cave, and learned about bats from the Ranger’s entertaining talk.  The stone amphitheatre at the opening to the cave was filled with viewers.  Finally, we heard some pecking on the Ranger’s sound meter and around 8:20 pm, the bats emerged with about 50 bats at a time circling up counterclockwise as they gained altitude.  We’d expected thousands of bats at once, but it was more of a gradual progression over about 20 minutes, with probably up to 100 bats in the air at a time.

  While it was fun, the anticipation and ranger program was probably our favorite part- the beautiful sunset, a gorgeous evening.  We enjoyed it and then headed down the dark, curvy road in the RV to our full hookups at the bottom, heading to bed later than usual.

 

Then we were up at 5 am and heading out toward Alamagordo to White Sands National Monument.  But we didn’t make it.  In Artesia our cab A/C suddenly became hot.  We saw warning signs for steep mountain passes to over 8,000 feet with many size restrictions.  I knew on a Saturday that to get the A/C fixed would require some extra days and with 100 degree weather, it would be nice to have.  So we turned on the generator with the coach AC, blew a fan into the cab, and strapped some wet bandanas around our foreheads.

  Turned around and headed for Santa Rosa! 

 

Kate and Terry, Lazy Daze friends, are camp hosting at Santa Rosa NM State Park and we’d rather hang with them while the AC is fixed.  Ned researched and called an auto repair place in Santa Rosa and Mike was kind enough to provide his cell phone number and meet us on a Saturday afternoon at his Historic Route 66 Auto Repair place.  He quickly determined a blown compressor and found several alternatives, although the necessary AC Drier has to be found on Monday (with several options available).  So we’re here until we take it in 8am Monday for about a 5 hour repair.  I hope he can start on the compressor while the drier is delivered on Monday, as he indicated.  Regardless, we’re having a blast with Kate and Terry and a few days of rest are just what we need!

 

Today has been one week on the road.

  The kids have been terrific- very helpful and flexible, getting along with others 95% of the time.  This makes all the difference in how much fun any activity really is.  You can have a great time watching a sunset or a miserable time in Disney World based on attitudes.

 

The homeschooling has been a consistent effort.  We’re not finding much value right now in the online portion of the K12, but Jazy and Charles are quite motivated and self-sufficient in planning their reading of textbooks and learning.  We have little tech time and lots of reading time.

 

Kate’s walking over, so I’ll try to upload this real fast.  She is so creative and I hope she’ll help me attach snaps to a failed Velcro cover up between cab and coach.