New Mexico...

Today we visited the Carlsbad Caverns in SE NM. There are many caves which I have visited, including a few in the US as well as abroad and underwater, but the variety and the size of this place is incredible. An amazing site, and, as we found out, pictures can do it no justice. Digital cameras should specialize in a setting explicitly for underground caves. Kara maintains that her camera does have this setting... Although the names of the natural structures may appear as "Top of the Cross", "Bashful Elephant", "Fairyland", etc. we have decided they would all be better named after the human anatomy.

After three miles of tours, we headed back to the campground for almost as much fun as the caves itself. Turns out that there are multiple uses for our headlamps - spelunking, diverting bugs, grilling, locating beers, morse code, gangsta necklaces, mating rituals, and so forth. (Bugs are attracted to light, what about humans?) Back at the campground, it is not the magnitude of the caves that we notice, but instead the size of people's RVs. Some couples just feel the need to have a semi pulling a large RV pulling a new SUV. Did we tell you that their license plate said Texas? Once again, everything is bigger in Texas - from the tires to the donuts, the trucks to the speed limits.

As we leave our kabin of komfort into a world of real camping in a Texas-sized canyon, bear in mind that you may not be hearing back from us until Las Vegas, yet another time zone away. As is ritual during any crossing of time zones or any form of time traveling, it is necessary to "blame the time change" for any of our faults.