Epic Road Trip 2016, 4th stop: Carlsbad New Mexico

We arrived at our excellent hotel in Carlsbad, New Mexico late in the afternoon.  We only had enough energy to cross the street for dinner, which turned out to be a fabulous local diner called "Danny's Place". We were the only tourists in the place - the wait staff seemed to know everyone else's name.

We got up bright and early the next day and drove to Carlsbad Cavern National Park, drove the seven or so miles from the highway to the visitors center, and paid our admission. We walked down the "Natural Entrance", about 1.25 miles in length and perhaps 750 feet of elevation drop. It took us about 90 minutes, and then we walked the perimeter of the Big Cavern, only a mile loop but it still took almost and hour.  We took the elevator back to the surface (60 seconds!), had some lunch in the car and then cruised the gift shop. 

December is the time to visit - it's practically deserted! We saw about 10 people on the way down to the bottom, including 3 rangers the were walking up the path. One of the guides said they get about 200 people a day in the winter, unlike the throngs who show up in the summer.  The only down side was that the bats were absent - either hibernating or off somewhere warm for the winter.

Since the day was young we decided to visit Roswell too. We arrived in time to tour the World Famous UFO museum in town - spent about an hour or so there. We drove around a bit, and had another fabulous dinner, this time at Martin's Capital Cafe. Again, filled with locals. 

The next morning we toured a little bit of Carlsbad, visiting a couple of shops downtown, Heritage Park and the Pecos River Flume. 

Epic Road Trip 2016, 3rd stop: Tucson

After our Sedona day trip we stayed another night in Phoenix, the set out for Tucson Arizona. As soon as we arrived in Tucson we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. About 90% of the "Museum" is outdoors, and we we saw about 20-25% of it in the 5 or so hours we were there. It's the only museum I have ever visited that had a sunscreen dispenser in the bathroom.

We stayed overnight in Tucson, then went to Church Sunday morning, visiting the church of one of our former pastors. We set out after church for Carlsbad New Mexico, via El Paso.

A few photos from the Museum:

And one of Pastor Jim Cords, preaching:

Epic Road Trip 2016, Phoenix and Sedona

We spent a day exploring Phoenix, and found a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings.  We also visited the TechShop location in Chandler, right by Arizona State University.

We met my cousin Luann and her husband Terry for dinner. We were almost late, as Phoenix is a vast sprawl, and TechShop is on the opposite end from where we met for dinner, easily 75 miles away.

First Christian Church, built from a design by FLW:

The next day we drove up to Sedona and toured the area on our own. The Red Rock is just fantastic, and the colors are even more vibrant in person.  We also found some public art, musical instruments made out of various tuned materials. 

One of the last places we stopped on our tour was the airport, which is atop a mesa, 4800 feet above sea level, with a great view of the whole area.

Epic Road Trip 2016, Second leg. San Diego to Phoenix

After a few days in the San Diego area with relatives, we headed to Phoenix.  We took the back road from northern San Diego past the Salton Sea, and then picked up Interstate 10 into Phoenix.

At one time the Salton Sea was a booming resort area, but no longer. Lots of cool abandoned buildings are still there, as well as a fair number of residents.  More info on the Sea and it's accidental creation in the early 1900s can be found in its wikipedia entry. 

After lunching by the Sea we drove to Phoenix, and checked in to our hotel. 

Epic Road Trip 2016: First stops, Turlock and San Diego California

First stop was a visit in Turlock with Brad's parents.  Forgot to take photos of them...

Next up was a few days in San Diego, to see Janice's brother Frank and his brood, including wife Sue, Sue's mother, our nephew Robert, and niece Jaime and her husband Tim and their two adorable children.  We visited several places, including the pier at Oceanside (pelicans) and Discovery Lake, where we fed the ducks.

We also met up with friends Ed and Karen, who used to live near us in Northern California. Yes, we forgot to take pictures of them, too.

Epic Road Trip 2016, Prologue

We have just returned from a month-long road trip thru the Southwest US.

Before I start with the details of the trip and post a big pile of photos, let's talk about "why".

We (Janice and I) have been talking about a Road Trip for several years, once we noticed that we knew people in many of the states around the perimeter of the US, including Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, and more. But that trip will have to wait.

This is the first time in many years, and perhaps ever, that both of us have had the flexibility to take off for an entire month.  In past years, at least one of us has had a full time, "regular" job, where you get a max of 2 or even 3 weeks off, and other entanglements (like dogs, church choir, and other "Obligations") prevented us from just taking off.

Not this year.  Janice negotiated all of December "off" and Brad is on month-to-month contracts, so the time was right.  Since it is an even year, that typically meant Christmas in Louisiana, so we combined the long-desired Road Trip with Christmas with family in Louisiana.

The rough outline was intended to be a week in southern California, another week in Arizona and New Mexico, a week in Texas, a week in Louisiana with Family and then Banzai home to get back to work on January 3rd, 2017.  The astute reader will notice that there are 4 weeks accounted for before the drive home, so we fudged the timing a little. Also, the Original Plan was to leave the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which would have made 5 weeks and a day.  As it happened, we left on December 2nd, and returned home on Jan 1, making 4 weeks and 2 days, and traveled 6400 miles.

Cruise to Baja Mexico

We took a 10 day cruise on the Star Princess in mid-November 2016. We visited 5 ports; San Diego in the USA, and 4 more in Mexico (Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Loreto and Puerto Vallarta). All 5 ports were excellent, and we even managed to be in San Diego on Veterans Day. Some photos attached...
San Diego:

 


Cabo San Lucas, Mexico


La Paz, Mexico:



Loreto, Mexico:


Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with a snorkeling outing to Yelapa :