As mentioned in the last entry, I had been to Carlsbad Caverns in 1988. Was driving cross country with my friend who got relocated to the LA area for work. He was in a hurry and we only spent about 2 hours at the cavern. The ranger told me I had missed the best part (what I saw was AMAZING), by not walking down from the surface (my friend made us take the elevators to save time). Swore I'd be back and it took 33 years, but finally we were going!
I have had this trip mapped out for some time, since I figured out it was a day's drive from the In-Laws. I opted to not take the Interstate, as our travels in the GMC have taught us, more to see and more relaxed pace. As you can see, it only added 4 minutes onto 7.5 hours. Check against the return trip map for the different route we took a few days later.
We got a good start and were on the road by 9AM. We did pick up an hour at the NM border, putting us in the mountain time zone. The car ran great and the only tools I had were a slotted screwdriver, vice grips, and adjustable wrench and a roll of duct tape.
The tape turned out to be a smart move as the windshield is cracked from hail and the refraction in the crack was blinding me. I tore a thin strip of tape and put it over the crack in front of me and it took care of the problem.
We stopped in San Angelino, TX for lunch and then continued on. I should have topped off on the fuel, but it was showing 3/4 tank. As is typical, the lower the tank got, the faster the needle moved and I found us out in the middle of nowhere and starting to worry about gas (just west of Big Spring, TX). I really hadn't figured out what kind of MPG the car was getting as this was the first road trip. The trip odometer started getting to around 275 and usually when I stop for gas in my other cars at 300. Lucy found a gas station and it was about 50 miles away. It was on our route and we headed there.
We got to the station and the pumps were there, but the building was 2x4 wood framing, the walls weren't even up yet, and the pump I pulled up to said, 'See attendant Inside'. WTH? I just drove out and kept going. Next gas 43 miles! I was starting to stress a bit as my Mom's car ran out of gas once showing 1/4 tank. I was now getting below that. Ironically, we were driving through the oil fields this whole time.
We made it to Andrews, TX and the car took 17.2 gallons. I looked it up and it's a 19 gallon tank. Too close comfort for me! The car did pretty amazing and got about 25mpg! The speed limit was pretty much 75 everywhere in west Texas, so we were zipping along.
I had been driving for over 5 hours now, and let Lucy take a turn behind the wheel and we headed west into New Mexico. Right when we got there it started to POUR rain. The sign announcing we were in NM was tiny as well, so we didn't stop. We drove through the town of Eunice, NM and I noticed the streets are gullied in the middle to drain all the water out of town. Several streets were a couple of inches deep already, so I was keeping an eye out for flash flooding. We got out of town the road was under construction and parts were gravel. We drove down this road for a good 8-10 miles until the construction stopped.
The rain continued and it was raining when the state road we were on met US 62. Lucy got on the gas hard, making a left and lost the back end of the car. Luckily, the car has traction control and she got it straightened out quickly. If it didn't I think we would have wound up in a ditch as she is not experienced with drifting cars (determined during post incident de-briefing with both girls about proper recovery actions when this happens).
After that little bit of excitement, the weather cleared and we made it to Carlsbad. We checked into the hotel and went to Wal-Mart for some supplies. As we flew JetBlue and only had a carry on, we all needed some things. We wound up buying frozen dinners as there was a Microwave in the room and we headed back a relaxed for the evening.
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