12 March 2019 Cavern Disappointment

While driving to Alpine, we were listening to “Dear Bob and Sue Part 2” during which they talked about their trip to Carlsbad Caverns. They took the Lower Cave tour which they had been trying to get reservations for quite a while. This made Leslie want to do the Lower Cave Tour. As we pulled into Carlsbad, we realized that we had forgotten to make any advanced reservations for tours and it was spring break for several of the west Texas universities. When we checked on line, advanced tickets for the lower cave tours for the days we are in the area were already sold out ( as were almost all the others) but there was two walk up tickets for today. The Vistor center opened at 8am and the tour was at 8:30am. So to have a chance at the walk up tickets we had to be there early and in line. As we got up this morning, David informed Leslie that if we got there and did not get the tickets, she had to buy him breakfast! The weather was cold, foggy, with a misty rain. We had a 67 mile drive to the park in the dark, foggy, rainy roads. We got there at 7:45 and were second in line! After they opened the doors and we got to the cashier, we found out they had sold those two tickets the day before! ARGGGG! (We have tickets for the KingPalace Tour on Saturday) So we took the time to go through the gift shop, the exhibits, see the park movie, collect our 22nd park passport stamp and walk through the book store before driving back to Carlsbad. As we left the visitor center, the fog was heavier and the mist harder, so it was more of a crawl than a drive. We went for breakfast at the Blue House Bakery and Café. It was delicious!! If any of you are in Carlsbad, we highly recommend it! Later that evening a line of heavy thunderstorms blew through. It rained, hailed but what really got our attention was the wind. We had been through storms in the Wanderer before and you really did not notice the wind (the rain pounding on the roof can be quite loud). Tonight we are noticing the wind more than ever before. The Wanderer is rocking and rolling in the wind. Hard to believe at 26,000lbs (David left the black and grey tanks full to provide extra weight) but the wind gusts are coming in on the driverside rear corner and are swirling around and really rocking things. We feel sorry for the smaller lighter trailers around us. They have to be feeling it even worse than us, not to mention those who are camping in tents.

Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center sign