The trip from the Mojave to Ft. Worth passed through Carlsbad, NM. (And El Paso, TX.)
History:
- Weeks 1-4 Cross Country Week 1-4
- Week 5 Cross Country Week 5
- Week 7 Cross Country Week 7
- Week 8 Cross-Country Tour, Week 8, Zion
- Week 9 Vegas, Baby. And Paso Robles, CA.
- Week 10 Cross-Country Tour, Week 10, Mojave
- Week 11-12 Fort Worth, hanging out at CA's sister's house.
- Week 13 Back to North Carolina.
The Cavern
A mysterious cavern is known to the locals in the part of the desert. They would point and shrug indifferently. A few seemed doubtful about revealing the hill that hunched over the grotto. Others seemed oddly excited by the prospect of sending strangers to the hole.
An unearthly cold effluvium from the depths of the earth greeted us. The tunnels folded themselves into planes or levels, some lower, some higher.
We passed the bottomless pit below the cave. We didn't know it at the time. It was a hole, like many others, nearly filled with boulders. Dark passages down among the boulders suggested depths.
Throwing down torches revealed nothing. Some bounce off rocks and continued to fall. When the light went out, we assumed it had lodged on a shelf or in a crevasse. The climb down exhausted our limited supply of line and anchoring gear.
Then we passed this.
Words failed us. We came upon a creature like no other. No ancestor of this beast was ever seen in the fossil record anywhere on earth. No spawn had lived or died to pass on it's genetic inheritance to the modern world. There was no wading shore-bird that could trace its lineage back to this horror trapped beneath the earth.
Driving back to NC is -- well -- it's the east and since we grew up there and lived most of our lives there, I fail to find it photogenic. It's a weakness.
Next?
A little break from travel while we figure out what the state of Red Ranger's dodger is. We think the repairs are under way, but, we haven't heard much. repairs are under way, but, we haven't heard much.