March 7 & 8 2006
We are heading for Carlsbad, NM today. As soon as we left Ft. Stockton heading north there is not a tree in sight, only brush. In the distance to the west we can see mountains which were not visible from Walmart’s parking lot. It is only 130 miles to Carlsbad. Our plan is to stay there for 2 days. We just passed a dairy farm, a big one, with many, many acres of irrigated crop land for feed for the cows. Looked unusual out here in the desert. We arrived at our campground about mid-day and soon went to “check out” the town, find a Walmart and stock up on groceries. Today is our anniversary, 41 years, so we went to out to eat at a Mexican place. It was just so so food. We have had better and worse. On Wednesday we went Carlsbad Cavern. We have been to many caves over the years and this one has some big rooms and interesting formations. We did get some good pictures. Today the wind began to blow in the morning and by evening it was 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40. The weatherman says it is supposed to die down tonight and begin to blow again tomorrow afternoon. So we plan to get an early start tomorrow and be at our next destination before it starts up again. The temperatures here have been quite warm and a cold front moving through to the north is causing the high winds.