Carlsbad Caverns National Park - New Mexico

We arrived in New Mexico on Tuesday after 2 long days of driving through Texas.  The drive was very long and windy and we were happy to finally be here...We all were very excited to get up early on Wednesday morning and see the caverns, we had no idea what to expect.  Wow, were we surprised!

We decided to walk down into the caverns through the Natural Entrance, a paved walkway that leads you 800 ft below the surface.  They say that it should take 1.5 hours to walk it but it took us 3 hours..I had to stop and take a million pictures!  Once we were down to the bottom we took the elevator back up for some lunch and to see the sunshine.  Michael and I took the elevator back down and did another 2 hour walk through the Big Room while Terry went birdwatching uptop.  We went back for a 2nd day and did the Big Room again with Terry and then Mike and I went on a guided tour through the Kings Palace. Unbelievable.  One of the best things I have seen in my life.  I highly recommend visiting here if you are ever in this area, out of this world..I am still speechless...the best part it was only $24 total for 2 days for the 3 of us...

Here are SOME of my million pictures, I will also put some up on Flickr and Facebook...don't know how else to describe this place other than breathtaking.

The drive up the mountain.  The caverns are in the Guadalupe mountain range in the Chihuahuan desert.

our 1st look at the Natural Entrance. The walkway snakes it's way down 800 ft to the bottom. The hole is where thousands of bats fly into to roost from spring to fall.  We didn't see any bats when we went in!

looking back up towards the opening that we came in through.  We are only 100 ft deep so far..

The Big Room at 800 ft deep

Stalactites, Stalagmites and a totem pole.

The Giant, a stalagmite in the Big Room.

Stalactites in the Big Room.  Stala(c)tites hanh from the (c)eiling.  Stala(g)mites are on the (g)round.

Remember the C and the G!

I made Terry and Mike hold still for 10 seconds for this long exposure...Terry was falling asleep?

Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort

Our stay here at the Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort has been a good one.

The park has over 250 sites and is beautifully landscaped and arranged.  We have needed to visit the pool almost daily to escape the heat and humidity here. The people here are very nice, both of our neighbours are great, helping us get to the grocery stores and lending a helping hand with ladders etc.
Michael loves taking Sampson to the dog park for the daily "doggy social hour" from 4-5 pm..all the dog owners sit under the palapa while the dogs run free in the fenced in dog park.  I have enjoyed the woodshop here, I have created my 1st wooden bowl from a piece of walnut.  I am now hooked on woodturning and will be looking into getting set up once we return home!

We have gone to Margarita socials where the drinks are $1 per glass...uh oh...and ice cream socials..$1 for cake, ice cream and root beer floats...Mike was very happy about this!

We have gone to card bingo twice now..

Terry has also managed to find 40 new birds for his life list and I have found another 30 geocaches! 

We are leaving this park on Monday morning...road trip time again!

Ice cream social

the club house...we were the 1st people at our table...

my 1st bowl made from walnut

the supermoon seen on March 19th from Texas..very cool!

The Rio Grande Valley

The Valley is hot, very hot...hotter than I expected..and I don't particularly like the heat, well not the humidity part of heat!

The thermometer  read 97 F the other day.  Being a Canadian that went through school in the 70's and 80's I don't know the Fahrenheit system.  I had to ask Terry what 97 was and he quickly calculated that it was 36C ...I quickly jumped in the pool after that...

Thank goodness for air-conditioning too,  I have had it on almost every day.  I stand right in front of it and revel in the cool blast of air I am getting, as soon as it is turned off I start to perspire..I can't wait to get into milder climes again!  (don't quote this to me when I am shivering next winter)

Michael is having a blast at this park, as usual.  The other RV'ers just love him and have welcomed  him into their park nicely.  He was invited to play card bingo last night, so we all went.  A $2.20 investment in nickles,dimes, quarters and one $1, per person wasn't too hard to come up with from our laundry money.  Michael won a game with quarters and ended up with $18 in coins!  I exchanged it for him once we got back for my laundry stash, he was very happy, so was I!

Most of the other RV'ers are leaving within the next week, a mass exodus of 125 units all leaving to head back to their regular lives.

We are departing on March 29th for Big Bend National Park where we have a reservation for 4 nights. After Big Bend we are heading to Carlsbad, New Mexico for a few days then Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley etc for 3 more weeks.  Our last week in the USA will be in Las Vegas where we have a reservation for the KOA at Circus Circus on the strip!  Hard to believe that neither Terry nor I have been to Vegas before!  Once we leave Vegas we are heading home via the California coastline into the Vancouver area of BC...

A year ago I couldn't wait to get out of BC, now I can't wait to get back to BC!!  Funny how that happens!

Pontoon trip down the Rio Grande River

USA is on the left, Mexico is on the left

a park on the Mexican side

quiet time in the RV park

night time with lights from the next city

Bensten Palm RV Resort, Mission Texas

The palapa on the RV's Resorts property

rented a UTV for the day to explore

looking across the Rio Grande River to Mexico

Mike's turn to drive!

a new birdwatcher in the family

the dog park

the dog agility park

Mike loves his pool time!

"cardboard" wine!

acres of huge cacti!

hot tub time

Mike heading out for a nature walk with our neighbours

Port Aransas to Mission TX

We departed Port A on Feb 28, drove through Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande Valley to Mission, a border town.  Our RV park is approx only 1 km from the Mexican border, near the Bentsen Palm state park and the World Birding Center.  Terry is in heaven, he has spotted 14 new birds on his life list in just the 2 days that we have been here.



The RV park is one of the nicest that we have stayed in, concrete drives and patios,  surrounded by grassy areas and tons of landscaping.  Mike loves the heated pool and hot tub, nice shaded areas for me to sit read while he swims.   Sampson loves the dog park, it has a palapa in the center for all the humans to sit at while all the dogs play together,  also a dog agility course we have been trying to get Sampson to go through!  Everyone at the dog park was thrilled to see Mike, a child, that could throw balls for their dogs :)

We have met quite a few of the other Winter Texans, most are from Canada!  Ontario has the largest number of RV's here,  Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Alberta and even other BC'ers!

I heard a few of the RV park residents saying that there were 15 "illegals" found in the RV park last night hiding under some of the RV's..Yikes!   The swim across the Rio Grande River right beside us and then try to sneak into the USA but the border patrol is watching carefully for them!


The weather here has been great,  today was 86 F which converts to 30 C!  I see that our family and friends are having a very long winter back home so I guess that we picked a good year to leave!

leaving the Gulf of Mexico, 

our last glimpse of ocean until we hit the west coast in a few months

welcome to Mission Texas!

our campsite at Bentsen Palm RV Resort, 

we are up against a fence where the RV sites organic gardens are

Sampson is all tuckered out after a long day at the dog park!