Touring the Southwest

It has been more than 7 days and 1000 miles since our last post. We have explored the some of the sights of Corpus Christi Texas, Carlsbad Caverns New Mexico, White Sands Missile Range New Mexico and Tucson Arizona. We have had some wonderful tours, some self guided, others graciously lead by hosts.

RV Park on the bay--USS Lexington

We last posted in Corpus Christi. We had a wonderful visit with Sally’s nephew Brian, his wife Donice and their spunky daughter Evie. While in town, we visited the USS Lexington, a decommissioned World War II aircraft carrier. It is a floating museum dedicated to the effort in the Pacific and the aircraft used on carriers before and since WW II. We had a truly enjoyable time (and ate very well, again.) We thank our hosts, Brian and Donice.

We next toured the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. There is a cave with many interesting formations. We visited Mammoth Cave 2 years ago and it is the longest cave, but Carlsbad has many interesting rooms with views, (of course) of different rock formations.

Carlsbad Caverns - the sign - the entrance - the Big Room

One thing to note before you get the impression it is all fun and adventure, we still have to maintain our motor-home and ourselves. We traveled over 750 miles in two days between Corpus Christi and Carlsbad. That takes a lot out of travelers.

Golf in White Sands

Our next stop was a day trip to White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument near Las Cruces New Mexico. WSMR is where the first atomic bomb exploded and where the US started it’s space program with the V-2 rockets brought back from Germany at the end of World War II. There is a museum(fascinating, but small). It includes one of the original V-2s and many other missiles tested there. Then there is white sand. It’s a very white desert of gypsum sand dunes in the middle of a “normal” desert. It was an interesting side trip, and afterwards we did some food shopping in Las Cruces, then moved on to a campground where we holed up for two nights just to recharge before moving to Tucson.

We needed a day of rest before meeting up with our friends Glenn and Karin and our favorite 60pound lapdog, Cooper. They are the buddies we traveled to and from Alaska with last year. They’ve led us on a whirlwind tour of beautiful desert scenery and exceptional weather (for those of us from Alabama). It’s nice and warm during the day, cool at night and very, very, very dry!

Hiking in the desert ---Hummingbirds Close up---Desert in Bloom

We’ve been hiking in Sabino State Park and driving through the Saguaro National Park. Tucson had a very rainy winter which led to the best spring blooming season in 10 years. The desert is full of beautiful blooms – wildflowers and cactus! We have lots of pictures. We also visited the Sonora Desert Museum which is more like a cross between a zoo and a botanical garden. We got very friendly with hummingbirds and a couple of Harris’s Hawks and saw lost more beautiful desert blooms. Finally we toured Kartchner Caverns – a pristine cave that is still growing. You have to go through two airlocks entering and leaving and walk through a mister to keep the lint down. They are very careful to affect the cave environment as little as possible. Unfortunately that means no pictures. And finally we went to Tombstone so Tom could have his picture made in front of the OK Corral.

Lunch in the Crystal Palace in Tombstone near the OK Corral --- Sonora Desert Museum

We’ve also had lots of really good food – rouladen, steaks at a western themed steak house, Chinese, pancakes, pork chops on the grill, curry, Mexican and more. We also enjoyed the pool and hot tub at the park they live in. It was a great stay and we hated to leave.

Now we are on our way to Northern Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon. Then it’s on to Utah.