Is New Mexico Desolate?

That was the question we received from Kai's mom as he sat in the Truckster awaiting his turn to tour the caverns. We were stoked to find out that the National Park service provided air conditioned kennels for dogs while you were under ground in the creepy cave, but when I took KK in, there was no room left. The kennel had no more "large breed" kennels available as the last one was broken. We stood there in a 8x8 room while dogs stacked 2-3 high in crates barked ferociously at us while the clerk tried to jerry rig the broken cage. After about 5 minutes I told her to give up as Kaylee was shaking and I was developing an intense headache from this hostile dog experience. We decided to take turns going down the 750 foot elevator shaft to tour the Big Room on a self guided 45 minute walk. I went first with cameras in hand, bottle of water and extra clothing as were recommended by the rangers. I found the 56 degree weather to be absolutely refreshing and delightful after Austin's 103 degrees and the intense desert sun. I never put on the long sleeve and finally could catch my breath after all the elevation of the Guadalupe Mountains. I speed walked through the tour, stopping for photos and placards to educate myself. It was eery down there in the dark caverns alone with water dripping from the immense ceiling that looked like stone icicles that could impale your skull at any given moment. I really picked up the pace though after reading about the bat shit and the cave spiders and cave crickets that evidently inhabit this oddly large dark hole. The Big Room was over 600,000 square feet, I cant remember how many football fields that is, and don't care because I don't watch sports, but it was HUGE. Super impressive still was the fact that this was so accessible, with paved paths and guard rails, strategically placed lighting, and an elevator that goes down 750 feet in 58 seconds. After I made it to the top, Kai went in for his tour while I baked in the sun working on my tan. We both agreed it had been worth the stop and were thankful to be cool if only for an hour. 

We headed up to Roswell where I proceeded to pull a Sherene and screw up the names of the agents on the old show The X-Files. Roswell, NM is the site of the 1947 alleged alien space craft crash which was allegedly covered up by the alleged American military (that might be one too many allegeds but the story seemed a little fishy to me). It's now basically a town filled with chain restaurants and Comfort Inn's and a bunch of nerds. There is an alien painted on the side of every building in town and several mock UFO's either in parking lots or sticking out the side of a business. We ate quickly at a rib joint before continuing on to Albuquerque. God I'd hate to live in Albuquerque, it is such a difficult city to spell. 

Um, excuse me, I'd prefer a booth

Alien Bandito

Unfortunately for us, the Albuquerque Balloon Festival was coming up in just a few days so every campground was already filled with geeks who are into watching hot air balloons. So we had to push on into the darkness. With spotty cell reception, I found a website dedicated to free RV camping and we soon learned and experienced a new kind of road living. It's called Boondocking and it's essentially camping out in parking lots of casinos, hotels, public lands and Walmarts (something we were already quite aware of). We pulled in next to the other boondockers and longhaul truckers at the Route 66 Indian Casino and Hotel off I-40 and quickly freshened up and fed the dog. We went inside for a cocktail and a little Lady Luck. She was not with us this night however, but $7.00 gin and tonics were. We had just a drink each and attempted to pull an Atlantic City on this bitch, but to no avail. After losing 3 dollars I called it quits and decided to head to bed. Two disgusting truck stop hotdogs later, we were in the Truckster sleeping for the night in a parking lot next to the interstate. We showered the next morning back at the truckstop and grabbed some burritos for the road. We continued on toward Arizona in  search of some giant hole in the ground.