Today we drove to Carlsbad Caverns in Carlsbad New Mexico. It was a boring drive! We got to Carlsbad in the mid afternoon. The only entertaining thing that happened was Rob and I got so confused on the time. We'd been changing the clock in the van to match the time zone we were currently in. When we passed the state line from Texas into New Mexico we were back on Mountain Time. We stopped for gas right over the state line. While Rob was pumping the gas, I changed the time on the clock back an hour. A little while later while Rob was driving and I was asleep he remembered that we'd just crossed back into Mountain time and he set the clock back an hour (putting it on Pacific time). Anyways, we couldn't figure out why the time on our cell phones was an hour ahead of 'mountain time.' It wasn't until the next day we figured out what had happened. And it didn't help matters that the hotel we stayed in that night didn't have an alarm clock in it so we spent our time in Carlsbad in a different time zone.
After getting settled into our hotel and then eating dinner we headed about 25 miles out of town to the caverns. You have to be there by 5pm to go down to the caverns. Because of our time confusion, we didn't get to the caverns until 5:30 local time (we thought it was 4:30). So we couldn't go into the caverns that night. We did hang around for 90 minutes waiting for the bat flight. I went to Carlsbad Caverns when I was about Avery's age. I had such great memories of the bat flight that I really wanted my kids to see it. At dusk every night, thousands of bats exit the caverns to go on a food hunt. The kids killed the time by playing games, running around, and being silly. A little before 7 we made our way down to the outdoor amphitheater and found decent seats. Cole wasn't about to cooperate so after about 5 minutes I went to the top of the amphitheater and let him run around. A park ranger started the program at 7:30 and educated the audience on bats. I didn't hear any of this because I was chasing Cole and letting him play in the drinking fountain (gross, I know). One of the points that was pressed over and over was the need for complete silence when the bats took flight. When the bats started coming out at about 8:20, I walked back over to the top of the amphitheater and stood there and watched with him. Only, Cole got way too excited about seeing the bats. He started shrieking and yelling, 'bye-bye' and 'all-gone'. Again, I had to walk away with him. He was mad and wanted to see the bats so he started screaming and thrashing trying to break my grip. About 20 minutes later, we packed up and left the caverns.
Killing time at Carlsbad Caverns
Monday July 13
Since we couldn't go into the caverns the day before we planned on getting up and being up there by 8:30 when they open. Cole was a rooster, as always so we all had an early start. We got to the park a little after 8 and bought our tickets. At 8:30 when the caverns opened we were in the first group down the elevator. We rode 750 feet underground into the cavern. The main cavern is the size of 6 football fields. It took us over an hour to walk the path around it. We were all impressed and had a great time. After the tour we got in the van and headed to our final hotel of the trip in Farmington, NM. We drove from the SE corner of New Mexico to the NW corner. The most excitement was passing through Roswell and seeing all the Alien references. When we got to our hotel we were all tired from our early start so the kids and Rob had an early bedtime. I stayed up and finished my 5th book of the trip.
Tuesday July 14
Today was the last day of our trip, our home was only a 6 hour drive away. We went out for breakfast for the first and only time of the trip. Every other morning, we had stopped at a grocery store for bagels, fruit, donuts, juice, etc. We were really close to four-corners and planned to stop there on the way home. It was only about 30 minutes from our hotel. We got there at about 8:30. The kids had fun posing for pictures and took turns sitting in four states at once. At 8:45 we were ready to get in the van and be home by mid-afternoon. Unfortunately things don't always go as planned.
Avery ran down the steps and ran face first into a bronze plaque. She hit it with such a force that it knocked her backwards onto the cement, her head taking the full impact. She was conscious but very out of it. We tried to help her up but her legs were like spaghetti and she couldn't stand very well. We started asking her questions and she couldn't answer any of them. She didn't know her name, who Shalyn was, or how old she was. We weren't sure what to do. We got the kids in the van and thought about driving to a hospital in blanding, UT. Rob administered to her and she seemed to be getting worse. I told Rob that I was calling 911. I called and was told it would be about 30 minutes before an ambulance could get there. If you've never been to four corners, it's in the middle of no where on the Navajo Indian Reservation. We drove up to the front gate and told them what had happened. Rob filled out an incident report while I tried to keep Avery awake. She kept trying to fall asleep and I knew that I shouldn't let her. Nearly 30 minutes later, the ambulance arrived. They strapped Avery onto a back board and put a C-Collar around her neck. They loaded her into the ambulance and headed to the hospital (with lights going) in Shiprock, NM. I rode in the ambulance with Avery and Rob and the kids followed behind in the van. I was so relieved when we got to the hospital. The doctor saw her immediately and ordered a CT scan. The gave her some versed to make her even more out of it. They started an IV and then took her to radiology. Rob came in and out a few times to check on her, but he spent most of the time in the van with the kids watching movies. The CT scan came back looking okay. They observed her for several hours before sending her home with the diagnosis of a pretty good concussion. The only things that Avery remembers of that part of the day was being in the hotel in the morning and then eating a popsicle right before leaving the hospital. She has no memory of the 6 hours in between.
Avery, shortly before being released from the hospital
We finally got back on the road in the early afternoon and arrived home just before 8pm. When we were about 40 minutes from the house and in the canyon, Avery started throwing up. We were warned that there was a good chance that would happen. If you've been in the Spanish Fork Canyon, then you know there's no place to stop, and we didn't have anything to clean her up with anyways, so we continued home and put her straight in the bath. We were all glad to be home! The van looked like a bomb had gone off in it and still hasn't completely recovered.
We had a great time spending time together and visiting lots of sights on our two week long trip. It seems surreal that it's over. We had been planning and talking about the trip since the fall of last year. We had so much fun that we're already talking about our next road trip adventure.
ps we saw lots of ummmm....interesting billboards on this trip. In South Carolina, we saw one that said, "heterosexual? It's okay." And also in SC one that said, "Jesus or Hell, you choose." In Alabama we saw a billboard for a whore house that said, "Have your next affair here.... My daddy did." And probably the funniest was in New Mexico there was an adult bookstore. Right next to the the store was a billboard with a picture of the Savior on it saying, "Jesus is watching you."
Billboards in Roswell, NM
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