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Janice's Travel Blog for the
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| San Antonio, TX to New Orleans, LA |
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El Paso, TX to Pecos, TX |
Pecos, TX to San Antonio, TX |
Photos/Videos |
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Friday, February 9, 2007: Leaving El
Paso was easy – in so many ways. Not a
place I plan to return to. Also, we
were on the road leading directly to the Carlsbad Caverns, out next
destination. On the way we passed
through the Guadeloupe Mountains National Park. At one place we stopped for a few photos
and at another a short walk through desert vegetation ( with labels ) to the
ruins of an old stage coach stop on a transcontinental run. We arrived at the caverns shortly after
noon and were down in the caverns, about 700 feet below the surface soon
afterwards. The first thing we did was
a self-guided tour of the “Big Room” area.
It took us about an hour of walking at a good pace. The caverns were simply amazing – all
kinds of formations of stalactites, stalagmites and pillars, curtains,
drinking straws and large accretions of materials in crazy shapes. There are huge galleries of open space,
both up and down from the pathways.[ the space is large enough to contain 3
football fields ] The second part was
a guided tour of “Kings & Queens” chambers. Our guide/ranger was really good and
explained many of the curious formations as well as the general creation of
the cavers. At one point, all light
was extinguished for a few minutes and we experienced total darkness. Very eerie.
Then we were all as still as possible for total silence. We could hear dripping and later located
the source right in front of us. The
lowest point of the tour was 830 feet below the surface. All told, we were underground for 3
hours. The only thing we missed was
walking down from the surface, because we were short of time. [ because of
the guided tour start time ]. When we
left there, we set out cross-country.
In 30 miles across desert we saw no houses, only one car, perhaps 6
cattle, one roadrunner ( meep – meep!
) and many non-operating oil well pumps.
As we got closer to Pecos we saw more working pumps, a few cars, but
many abandoned houses and other buildings.
Once we got to the edge of Pecos we saw the Wal-Mart and wondered if
that had anything to do with it.
Checked into a motel and will go looking for food soon. Later: we found an interesting little cantina with
no other patrons and enjoyed an unusual dining experience: Mexican for Lar and a hamburger for Jan. [ I was afraid to do Mexican
in Juarez but this was good ] |
Saturday, February 10, 2007: We made a
beeline for the Sonora Caverns – well, as “bee” as possible, across more of
the rural Texas wasteland. [ the most prominent feature was fog which was an
improvement on what it usually hid ] .
The cave is privately owned and run, so rather different from Carlsbad
NP. The cave is much more intimate
with formations well within reach – it was hard to avoid them sometimes. We walked about 1.8 miles [ underground 155
feet ] and saw amazing formations in several colours ranging from white
through rust to purple. Most of the
same formations as yesterday and many funny effects. Our guide was an enthusiastic young local
woman who’s been there only a few months.
At one point she couldn’t make the lighting work so we had to navigate
with only her flashlight for the 5 of us.
That was fun. This cave was a
great complement to the Carlsbad visit.
From there we continued on to San Antonio where we drove into the
middle of the city and visited the Alamo [ where the Texans made a last stand
against the Mexican General Santa Anna -
ie “ remember the Alamo”, a battle phrase
for every Texan ] and River Walk [ where an outstanding job was done in
implement a restaurant/café outdoor boardwalk setting on each side of a river
running through downtown ]. Looking
for the hotel we got caught in heavy traffic – it’s Rodeo Week here! What fun – cowboys everywhere. |
A beeline is easier at these The Sonora Caverns
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Pic20 San Antonio, The San Antonio, River Walk El Capitaine,
with the mountain hidden behind, the highest in Texas
Pic In the Carlsbad Caverns ( very tricky photography!!
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Lake Charles, LA to New Orleans, LA |
Photos/Videos |
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Hotel Room
Pic Night scene on Bourbon Street
Pic Beers are big
Pic Hard to take pictures of buildings, but I thought
these “space-age” streetcars were appropriate for the city of astronauts ( or
of, as Jan said, “astronauties” )
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Tuesday, Feb 13: 2007 : Happy Birthday, Lorrie! During the night there was a thunderstorm and actual
tornadoes in the area, but by morning it was bright, clear and warm
again. After breakfast at the hotel we
had to hustle to the 1850 House to join a walking tour of the French
Quarter. It was an interesting review
of the history, geography and architecture of the Vieux
Carré and environs.
The guide, whose house was destroyed in Katrina, has spent his entire
life here and now lives in the Quarter.
He told us a lot about the destruction and recovery efforts. It’s clear that it’ll be a long time before
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Catholic Church dominating Jackson Sq
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Inside
Pic Joan of Arc Inside Pic Outside
Pic Interesting house
Pic Janice with busker
Pic Janice on hotel balcony
Pic Janice ready for Mardi Gras |
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