Holbrooks on the Hike: San Antonio/ New Mexico...June 2010

Lake C.C State Park, San Antonio &New Mexico

SAN ANTONIO RIVERWALK

RIVERWALK @ NIGHT

Before we were due to be in New Mexico for our job, we had some time off in between so we decided to take some time in Nature with our camper. We went to a State Park in Texas, we grilled out, had campfires, and just enjoyed the outdoors for a few days. Our next destination was San Antonio,Tx. for a few days. There was lots to do there, we went to the Alamo, walked the Riverwalk, went to Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, had dinner on the riverwalk one night, ordered and ate a 3 pound cinnamon roll.

3 LB. CINNAMON ROLL FROM LULU'S
SAN ANTONIO,TX.

We were due to leave for our new job the same morning that we got the phone call that Jim’s mom had passed away. It was only a short time from when she was diagnosed with the tumors in her brain, that the cancer spread throughout her body. She passed away at a young age of 65. After taking a while to pull it somewhat together, we started the drive to New Mexico.

As soon as we arrived there, we sat down with the owners to inform them of Jim’s mom passing away. With great understanding they moved our start date and we left to Minnesota for the funeral. It was such a difficult trip and we were still trying to accept things as they were, but grateful that we were staying and getting to see Jim’s Dad and his new Wife, Elaine. Who by the way is the most wonderful woman…we thank God everyday for bringing “Our New Mommy” into our life.She has never tried to take the place of Jim’s Mom, but has embraced all of us like her own and has been there from day one!!

Anyway after the funeral was over, we still had a few days to spend there, so we spent those days visiting with old friends.When we left Minnesota to start back to New Mexico we ran into a horrible storm, down pouring rain and hail….this was the most scary experience we had ever had with weather up to that point. It was hailing so hard that it sounded like someone was beating on our truck with a bat.

It was super dark and super windy, the hail continued to pound on our windshield, as Jim was trying to pull off to the side of the road…all of a sudden ***CRACK****, as the hail busted the windshield in front of me, there was glass everywhere and all over me, my legs were bleeding from the glass crashing in , there was rain and wind coming into the truck from the hole in the windshield, I was crying, the kids were crying and we all were scared. I put a pillow up in front of me in case anymore of the windshield broke because it was still hailing hard.

Finally we come into a town and we find a closed down Hotel with a carport area, so we pull under there to get out of the rain and hail, as we are sitting there waiting for it to calm down some to where we can see the damage on the outside of the truck, we are listening to the radio, they are talking about a Tornado about 1 mile from Clovis, as I turn around I see the marquee sign that says “Welcome to Clovis”, as I begin to cry harder and am in a major panic knowing we are where this is actually happening at.

God was watching over us….the storm got really bad for a few minutes and the streets were flooding and the wind was horrible and cars were pulling over whenever they could stop, and then it lightened up some, the rain and wind slowed, the hail stopped and we were able to continue driving until we found a gas station. We examined the truck, got myself cleaned up, and a big portion of the glass out of the truck. There were a few dents, but not really noticeable. The windshield was the worst of it.

Finally we get back to the campground in New Mexico, called the insurance people the next day to get the windshield repaired.

We enjoyed our time in New Mexico, we finished our commitment there, and got to do some awesome sightseeing at the same time. We visited White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, and Sitting Bull Falls, we had excellent Mexican Food at a place called “Lucy’s” in Carlsbad.

INSIDE
CARLSBAD CAVERNS

ENTRANCE SIGN

INSIDE
CARLSBAD CAVERNS

At Carlsbad Caverns during July and August the bats fly out of the Natural Cave entrance by the thousands upon thousands, it is amazing. These months are when the program is at its best. Although The Bat flight program itself starts from Memorial Day through Mid-October. We were lucky enough while we were working there to witness this event.

WAITING FOR BATS

TO FLY OUT

BATS FLYING OUT OF THE NATURAL ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE

AS THE SUN SETS THE BATS
ARE STILL HEADING OUT STRONG

It started out just as it was dusk with just a couple here and there, and slowly increased until the whole sky was filled with them flying out to go get their nightly meal of bugs, some going hundreds of miles to do this. They continued to keep flying out of the cave until it was so dark you could barely tell what direction they were going, or even see them come from the cave.

The kids joined the Adopt-A-Bat program while there. They have a certificate with the info on the bat they adopted. If you have never seen this before and you are going to be in Carlsbad during this time period, we strongly recommend going to see this, the memories we have from this are awesome.

Also another awesome place is White Sands National Monument, the sand is snow white for as far as you can see once you are inside the park. You can rent sleds at the Visitors Center and actually sled down the sand dunes, it totally looks like you are crazy and doing this in shorts and t-shirts in the winter…would make great Christmas cards!!!
~Gourmet Gypsy A.K.A. Tanya