Our Trip to Carlsbad

It's been such a busy week! Larkin and Ory were married in Wellington on Saturday. We spent the night in Altus at the wonderful (well, adequate) Days Inn, and came back to Tulia on Sunday. 

Then, on Monday, it was time for Michele, Abigail, and I to begin our next adventure, one that turned out a little longer than we had planned. It was a nice drive from Tulia down to Carlsbad, New Mexico. We got up Tuesday morning ready for our day at Carlsbad Caverns.

By late afternoon, we were tired and had seen just about all we could. Walking out of the visitor center, we discovered that everything was coated in a sheet of ice. After we scraped off our cars, we drove slowly down the mountain out to the highway. Michele was planning to drive south and spend a day or two with her sister and her family in El Paso. Abigail and I turned north, planning to make it back to Tulia that night.

Before we reached Carlsbad, just a few miles north of the Caverns, Michele called and said, "Get a room in Carlsbad." We knew the weather wasn't nice, but didn't understand. On her way south, she had seen more than one overturned car. She had even stopped to help a couple who had rolled over in their pickup. They stayed warm and waited for the emergency vehicles in her car.

Naturally, Michele was afraid and had no intention of going to El Paso, Tulia, or anywhere far. She was convinced that neither car should go beyond Carlsbad that night. The roads were just too treacherous. So Abigail and I stopped and got a room in Carlsbad, and Michele eventually met us there.

After a good meal at the motel restaurant, we spent our second night in Carlsbad. This morning, Wednesday, December 31st, we woke up to a couple inches of snow. But there was daylight, and crews had made some progress in clearing the roads. It was a long, slow trip home. But we made it safely. Best of all, we had our unforgettable day at the Caverns.