Mixed feelings about New Mexico

I had a love hate relationship with New Mexico. My opinion only covers the southern parts of New Mexico because we didn't go any further north than Hobbs, NM. I want to go to Albuquerque and Santa Fe someday, but during the winter is not the best time to see those places due to the cold weather. Well, actually New Mexico in general is cold during the winter, that is part of the hate I had towards it. It was sunny for the most part, but that doesn't always mean it's warm. The first city we stopped in was Lordsburg, NM. It's basically a pass through town, meaning there is really no reason to spend the day there and especially not a night there. It's just filled with more abandoned buildings, which seems to be the norm for the southwest. The reason why I wanted to stop there was because there is a ghost town near there where Billy the Kid used to wash dishes as a kid. I've never been to a real ghost town before, so I thought it would be neat to check it out. The road to get to the Ghost Town was a 3 mile horribly rock/cement paved road, which I'm surprised that we didn't get a popped tire. When we got to the entrance to the town it was all gated off and a sign was posted saying that you could only see the town by appointment. Are you serious? Appointment only? Is a ghost going to give us a tour or something? We were not about to make an appointment, and as far as I could tell it wasn't much of a ghost town. There were a few old buildings that resembled much of what Alex and I have already seen driving through the desert. I was a little upset, but mainly because we had to drive down a ridiculous road to find out that we actually couldn't see the town. That was our first New Mexico disappointment.

Next was Las Cruces, NM. I really liked Las Cruces. It's a larger town and it's home to New Mexico State University; another college town. So far only good experiences have come from college towns for me. Alex and I road our bikes to the college campus and then walked around for a bit. We saw a flyer posted on an info board for Improv(Improvisational comedy) going on that night. Alex and I love to watch improv and we had nothing better to do. Before Improv Alex and I ate at a ridiculously good pizza place. Probably the best pizza I've ever had, and it was cheap! They served us sourdough bread and seasoned olive oil before we got our pizza. My sister, Elizabeth, is a huge fan of bread and olive oil, and as I was eating it all I could think of was how much she would truly enjoy this experience.We went back to the Campus for improv and found out that it was more of a participational improv class. I wasn't really feeling up to participating; I'm not a big fan of embarrassing myself, but Alex joined in and it was very entertaining. That was one of the positive experiences in New Mexico.

The next day we went to Carlsbad. To get to Carlsbad you have to go through El Paso, TX first. It was over a four hour drive; our longest drive yet. We stopped in El Paso for lunch at the Delicious Mexican Eatery, and it was DELICIOUS, as well as, cheap! It's a little hole in the wall place and was a little hard to find, hence the "hole in the wall." It is also the restaurant where Julia Child learned how to cook Mexican food, so you know it has to be good.

We continued on to Carlsbad after filling our belly's. The hwy from El Paso to Carlsbad is pretty desolate; there is absolutely nothing for 160miles. No food, no gas, no services, nothing. There were some abandoned cafes, shops and gas stations, but that was it! By the time we got to Carlsbad it was getting dark, we were tired, and it was really cold. Oh yeah, and Carlsbad is a crap town. Their main street needs a serious makeover. We opted for staying at a hotel since it was pretty cold and we just needed a place to relax and be comfortable. I was dying to soak in a nice hot bathtub. So, as soon as we got in the hotel room that is what I did! Everything was really nice, except for at 2am I got woken up by screaming and yelling in the parking lot right outside our room and really loud music bumping from someone's car. That just gave me another reason why not to like Carlsbad. It got down to 28 degrees that night and in the morning our van would not start.....I thought maybe it was because it was too cold. Alex and I pushed the van about 20 feet so that the van would be sitting in the sun. After about 20 minutes of sitting in the sun it finally started. I was so happy because I didn't want to have to stay another night in this town.

Entrance to the Cave

We made our way to the Famous Carlsbad Caverns. 750,000 people come here every year from all over the world. It's considered to be one of the most beautiful caverns in the world. Well, so is Kartchner Caverns, which is a cavern that Alex and I visited when we were in Arizona. I really liked Carlsbad Caverns. The tours that we went on were self-guided, had three miles of cave trails, and descended 79 stories into the ground. The pictures I took do not look as amazing as they did in person. All I can say is, Carlsbad Caverns should be on your list of things to see before you die. It is absolutely breathtaking. I liked Carlsbad Caverns way more than Kartchner. Alex thought Kartchner was better. I'm not sure why, but he said that Carlsbad seemed too American and Kartchner had a more European feel to it, which he liked. In other words, Carlsbad was like a popular food chain restaurant and Kartchner was like a unique gourmet restaurant, but that is just Alex's opinion. If you only had one chance to visit one cavern in your lifetime please choose Carlsbad. I promise you won't be disappointed.

A big boob

As soon as we were done with Carlsbad Caverns, I got a call from my mom and she told me that my older brother was in the hospital for a possible heart attack! At the time they weren't exactly sure what was going on, but he had been having chest pain and pain in his shoulder off and on for the past few weeks. He passed out in the middle of a friend's funeral after having a bout of chest pain and was taken to the hospital via ambulance. I seriously started freaking out!I burst into tears as soon as I got off the phone with my mom and told Alex what was going on. My brother is not that old, he is in his mid 30s, so this was not normal at all. I seriously couldn't imagine losing him. Alex and I immediately began to pray that God would heal whatever was going on in my brother's body and that he would be okay. My brother is okay thanks to Jesus. I'm not exactly sure what was happening to him, but God got him through it and that's all that matters. All I have to say is Praise Jesus! It was an emotional roller coaster that ended on a high point:)

The last city we stayed at in New Mexico was Hobbs. It's basically another pass through town. There wasn't really anything to do there. We stayed in our bus most of the time and walked around WalMart for a bit. It was crazy windy that night and again we woke up to people yelling and screaming in the parking lot at 2am. I started feeling really uneasy and kind of scared. It sound like a pretty intense fight. In the morning I was happy to leave and eager to get out of New Mexico. I hope Texas brings fonder experiences.

A View of Texas