DATELINE: las cruces, nm                                                    

Author: Karl

The carlsbad caves were immaculate, actually difficult to describe in words. 14 football fields of wide open cave space with all varieties of stalagtites, stalagmites, bizzare rippling rock formations, etc... 750 feet into the center of a guadalupe mountain. Deafening silence and cold air surround you inside. Some of the sights included a bottomless pit, massive 60 foot stone spires created from thousands of years of calcium fortefied water droplets, glistening white cave crystals and bat shit. After an hour and a half of wandering this wierd alien world we took off.

On the way out I thought it might be a good idea to pump in some extra gallons of gas since we only had a little over a quarter left. However, the gas price was pretty high at $3.37 so we thought, hey there has to be another gas station between Carlsbad and El Paso, that's about 140 miles. The joke was on us! By far the most scenic leg of the trip, stunning jutting mountains, white sandy deserts and a gorgeous texas sundown. I saw the most hazard signs too, which made driving really fun: high wind hazard, falling rocks, dust storms and deer crossings. But what really made things exciting was the fact that we were completey running out of gas! There were absolutely no hints of civilization in sight for the whole stretch. One of those desolate postcard roads of Texan wilderness. Luckily we hit a bunch of downhill closing in on El Paso and we were able coast with the extreme weight of the cannonball for several miles and hit a gas station within 10 miles of El Paso with the needle firmly on E. I even hit a red light and coasted right through since I didn't want to loose our precious momentum. To our surprise we got a free icecream cone upon filling up more than 10 gallons ... Thanks for opting to save those $3 on gas Andy, it was worth it buddy!