Sept 27th to 29th - Hobbs to Carlsbad NM

Sept 27th - Sun - Hobbs
Our neighbor was cooking chili this morning so I went over to see how she did it. Texas Bull Red chili has no beans - “If you know beans about chili, you know it has no beans” - and this is what everyone was making. A bit later we talked to another couple who both cooked for the competition. She got first yesterday and he got second - and they use the same recipe. When they cook chili, they do not taste it - she said she would not know which spice to adjust - and they rarely eat chili. They freeze the amount not needed for judging and give it away. Very interesting group of people.
They all pulled out of the RV parking so there was only the caretaker, us and one other rig left. We had taken a drive into town and found nearly the entire town shut down as it is Sunday. We checked out the golf course but decided that since it was 92 degrees at 11 am that it might be pretty warm for golf. So we ended up back at the casino again and did not do very well.

Sept 28th - Mon - to Carlsbad NM
Woke up at 6 to a howling wind that got us out of bed to close vents & windows. Needed 3 or 4 hands to open a storage door and get something inside.
Another short drive - just over an hour - to Carlsbad and the Carlsbad RV Park which is a PA park. Lots of room but it started filling up shortly after we set up. We went for a drive to get lunch and some groceries. Relaxed for a while and then went to Carlsbad Caverns to watch the evening bat flight program at 6. It was amazing. A ranger was giving a talk when a buzzing noise signaled the start of the bat flight. He stopped immediately as the bats started pouring out of the cave. They made one loop - gain altitude? get into formation? - and headed out in great clouds. It took about 20 minutes for the flow to slow to a trickle.
A few tidbits about the bats. Each evening, they fly to as high as 10,000 feet (starting at 4,000 at the cave) to eat cotton ball worm moths, fly to the Pecos River for a drink and return to the cave. Nursing mothers do this up to 3 times a night! The estimate is between 200,000 and 400,000 bats making the trip. Mind boggling!
Got back in time for a late dinner and DWTS.

Sept 29th - Tues - Carlsbad
Headed back to the caverns this morning. From where we are staying, it is 20 miles on the highway and then 6 ½ miles on a windy road in the park. We got tickets for the King’s Palace guided tour which gave us ½ hour to hang around before meeting at 9:45 for the 10 o’clock tour. There are 4 stops on this 1 mile tour and the guide used each one to tell us information about the caves - geology, biology, formations, discovery, etc. A fairly long blackout period was included - not just turn the lights off for a minute.
The tour finished at 11:45 so we took the elevator back up and had some lunch. Then we walked down the Natural Entrance which we had not done a couple of years ago when we were here. If anyone is going to visit the caverns for the first time, be sure to walk down instead of taking the elevator as I could pull out all the superlatives - amazing, wonderful, awesome, incredible - for this part of the experience. The start of the entrance is the cave where the bats emerge and the trail starts winding from there. The trail is 1.25 miles and is almost all steep, switchback trails as you drop 800 feet in 1 mile. In some places you can look down and see many loops of the trail but it is too dark to get a picture. Only if the elevators quit working would I walk back up that trail!
We decided to check out “The Big Room” again so added another 1.25 miles to our walks for the day. On our prior trip, flash photography was not allowed but was this time so I took quite a few pictures, probably duplicating some dark ones I already have.
Had plenty of time to sit out and watch TV when we got back. As we were barbequing dinner, we started talking to a couple who were walking by. They have been full timing for just over a year so we had lots to talk about. After dinner we went for a walk in the park and saw water shooting up about 4 feet above a big motor home that had just pulled in. They had somehow broken a water pipe so Terry found someone who knew where the owner lived and went to get help. The owner was pretty laid back, announced the eruption of “Old Faithful” and said his brother would be right there to find the shutoff.