After a fortifying breakfast courtesy of the hotel we were on our way. It is so hard to believe we are heading into our final days of our 40 days and 40 nights. It feels like a flash! We could just extend it another 40 days?!?!
We had planned on driving, driving, and more driving today. BUT we got sidetracked, and that is okay as that is what vacations are for!
We got a notch in our belt of states we haven’t been in yet by driving into New Mexico. It is truly enchanting! It is, but that is also what the state sign says when you enter: Welcome to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. The sign also features hot peppers. :)
There is so much open space. You can drive forever in one direction and you can’t even see where it ends. There are intersections that used to be towns, with abandoned buildings, where people attempted to etch a life in all of this barrenness. There are pastures upon pastures of cows and horses. There must be ranch houses somewhere but the space is so expansive you just can’t see any signs of life beyond the animals. We did encounter a new sign to watch for bears crossing the road. Most signs regarding bears was to just watch for them; this one was more specific, to watch for them crossing the road. :)
Our first distraction was a volcano, and its surrounding “field” of volcanoes. We debated about stopping because we knew it would be a delay, but it was a VOLCANO!! And volcanoes are just intriguing in general. We followed the signs and paid our entrance fee to the Capulin Volcano National Monument. When we saw it from the main road we wondered if we could actually drive up on it as it “looked” like a road was spirally around it. Well, you can drive up and park, and then walk INTO a crater! And also AROUND the crater! We actually walked down into the “vent” which had been plugged up for a long time by solid lava and looked UP. It is hard to capture in pictures and words; the crater is about 100’ DOWN from where we parked our truck, about a quarter of a mile walk (fairly steep coming back up!). The “rim” itself is about 1450’ wide, with the “tall” end about 415’ above the bottom of the crater. The trail around the rim is about 1 mile around, with some of it pretty steep, but the VIEWS!! WOW! You could see forever, in that you couldn’t even see where it ended. It just blurred into the horizon and sky. You could see mounds of former volcanoes, and smaller craters, everything went on and on! A delay well worth it! Plus we did get some hiking in. :)
We commented that we should have bought a national park pass. We visited a few while on our journey. This year is the 100th anniversary of the national park system, and all 4th graders, and whoever are with them, get in free to ALL national parks. The family we camped next to outside of Yosemite knew they were going to be camping all summer and decided to tour as many national parks as they could. They “borrowed” their 10 year old nephew so they literally got in free to all of the parks. He was taking part in the Junior Ranger program and earning badges along the way. They said he was having the best time and loved learning so much about each of the parks.
We are truly in the land of cowboys, as evidenced by everyone driving trucks, wearing cowboy hats and boots, ranch upon ranch of livestock, and silos that were ginormous! Extremely ginormous, and not just one or two, but every so many miles! The crop circles created by the irrigation systems became more frequent once we entered Oklahoma, another notch for our belt.
Andrew actually studied the map and found if we took a side road, we could stand where Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma meet up. So we did and we stood on the exact spot, surround by fields in all three states. Andrew actually lay down so he could be touching each part! Several trucks drove by, smiling and probably wondering why there were strangers standing near the intersection in the road, as not that many people would think that was even worth stopping for (but we did!), but just waving and driving on. We drove along the panhandle of Oklahoma a bit before heading back into Texas. That was our second so-worth-it delay. A notch and another LIFE® card. We sure have accumulated tons of those this trip!
We were in Masterton when the truck's outside temperature indicator registered 102. We’d been really spoiled with our journey with the highest temperature actually being 75 when we camped on the Arctic Circle, and then the mid-80s in Yosemite. We miss those 50s and 60s from the California coast! We witnessed the most exquisite rainbow that was so vibrant-each color so strong and individual(usually the colors sort of blend upon each other!) and then it doubled, and then, as one went away, the remaining one became a full ½ circle! We drove through a rain, then hail, ending in rain storm all the while aiming for the blue sky on the horizon.
Landing in Lubbock right about 8, we searched and found the final resting place of Buddy Holly. It was a simple memorial, placed flat in the ground, with flowers, pennies, and guitar picks from those pausing to pay their respects. We drove into town and stopped at the Buddy Holly Plaza; there is a life-size statue of Buddy there as part of a music venue and museum of sorts. We were too late to enter the buildings, but shared a few peaceful moments there.
A local microbrewery offered a bowl of soup (green chili/cheddar) before we headed to a KOA for the night. We set up our tent, the easiest set up thus far. We didn’t have to set out a tarp under the tent, or put on a rain fly, or use a heavy blanket or insulator mats as it was dry and warm when we finally crawled in. Ninety degrees to be exact, at 11 PM. :)
Tomorrow is a drive day, all the way to Houston! Begles, here we come!
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