Of Caverns and Cars

(*This was written on Aug 30, but due to having no internet access at the Dodd Cottage yet, and having no time to go to the church office for an extended period of time I am just now posting it*)

My time in Texas was very good. I saw my aunt, uncle, and four cousins. The time was well spent, I set up the stereo system for my aunt which she was very thankful for. It was nice to see my cousins and enjoyed the time with them, they are significantly older than I am, but it's always fun we're together.

Then, we hit the road again. Off into the TX plains, it felt like I could reach up and touch the clouds at times. Though I must admit that I did not feel very good. But I am better now, so you needn't worry. We drove a long time and found ourselves in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Arriving around 2:30 pm mountain time, we put some stuff in our motel (Inn), grabbed some sweat shirts and walking shoes and then headed, about 20 miles away and then proceeded to go 750 feet underground. I know you're all wondering why in the world I went 750 feet underground, so I will tell you: Carlsbad Caverns.
The Caverns were really cool, literally and figuratively. It was a nice break from the heat outside. Anyway, we had the cats with us... the park had a kennel were we kept the cats while we went into the Caverns. The thing is, we were going to go see the bats come out that night. The thing is, is that the kennel closed before the bat show, so we took Fiesty and Braveheart with us to the bat show. I'm not sure if they saw them, because they never seemed to react to them, but we were the novelty of the night. How often do you see two cats at a bat show? Everyone kept looking at us, so Mom and I kept moving about to try and minimize our distraction factor for the other people.
One reason we were more of distraction is because Fiesty kept meowing. But not just any meowing, if one has a trained ear to understand him you could distinctly here him say: "Anrew" which is "An(d)rew". He wanted Andrew but Andrew was not with Mom and I, so he kept calling his boy. Braveheart only meowed when he thought I had had him sitting in one place to long, so occasionally I had to get up and walk around with him.

We arrived back at the motel, called up Chili's on my laptop and then ordered to go. After eating we all slept... a long time. We were later getting out than we would have liked, but I drove most of the day that day. Going through (around really) El Paso and off through the desert where we seemed to be surrounded by thunderstorms. The lighting striking around us off in the distance the sun making clouds a variety of colors made for an interesting drive. The wind was blowing making it difficult to drive at times, and other than a torrential down pour at one point the drive was fine. We arrived in Tucson, Arizona with the lighting striking in the distance. We stayed at Holiday Inn Express that night. ;-)

The next day, we headed out our purpose clear: arrive in LA. As it was we had a few stops. We stopped at an old mission, Mission San Xavier Del Bac, it was nice, they're in the process of restoring it, so it was interesting to look at. We then went to Casa Grande an ancient american indian ruin. It was baking hot and we had to have the cats with us or they would have cooked in the car. It was still very very hot. So I came up with the idea of putting ice in zip lock bag and putting it in the cats' carriers. They were leery of them at first but quickly realized the benefits to the cold bag. Fiesty realized that it was great source of cold water and Braveheart took to sitting on it. While we were sitting in the visitor center after exploring the ruins Mom said: "The ice bags was a really good idea, Elizabeth." I replied: "Thank you, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." My mother laughed uproariously at this and so did the others when they heard. What can I say? How often do I get the chance to actually say that and mean it? ;-)

Anyway we drove to Phoenix, AZ where we saw an old friend of the family how hadn't seen me since I was 3 or 4 or maybe younger I'm not sure. After visiting with him we drove on to LA were we found that I10 had been closed... all for lanes of it. Let's just say that it wasn't a very easy to change lanes on to a freeway that would have taken us to San Diego if we had let it. As it turns out we ended up in Ontario.
Yes, Ontario.... California. We then were able to get on to the 60 without much fuss and arrived at our new home around 1 am locally. We then proceeded to unpack the car cook some food and then collapse into bed were we slept till about 8 something locally... or at least I did.

So there we are. We are in Los Angeles now, and enjoying it. Now we just have to unpack those trucks... Where's the Man from Kalamazoo when you need him? ;-)