July 19: Weights, Caves, and Flies

Mike, Alejandra, and Kevin went to the gym early in the morning (a throwback to the Before Times) and got in a quick workout. Then, Mike dropped off Alejandra at school (cute) and they wished each other well until their paths cross again, hopefully soon. Kevin treated Mike and Juan to a nice cooked breakfast of eggs and ham before Mike played handyman again to attempt to fix that pesky vent. Off they went southeast towards Carlsbad. 

We like to think there is a mini lesson in most of these posts so it isn’t just rambling of two RV adventurers. Today, we got to see that sometimes the day has enough small inconveniences that the only thing you can do is go out to grab some grub. 

The road was kind to us as we made it down to Carlsbad in good time. By the time we got down, we were looking forward to visiting Carlsbad Caverns before hunkering down for a grind of work in the evening. And then we found out they close at 2:15 these days.

Oops. 

So we moved on to another option as the campground had a host of things to do in the area. 

Sitting Bull Falls, a “oasis in the desert,” seemed appealing until we saw it was closed for flooding. 

We drove through Roswell and didn’t want to drive back up.

White Sands National monument was 2.5 hours away. 

Guadalupe National Park and El Capitan (not the California one) were an hour away, but it was leg day for Mike, so hiking wasn’t really in the cards. 

Living Desert State Park stopped letting people in at 3:30. It was 3:35. 

Big. Wins. Everywhere. 

Meanwhile, Juan was valiantly fighting flies that snuck into the RV. 

We decided we’d head over to Carlsbad to get some food, with a quick detour by Living Desert State Park juuuuuuuuust in case they were still open for a few stragglers. They weren’t. 

At this point, we just wanted to go get some food and Carlsbad seems like a solid small city. We checked Yelp and Google Maps for some recs to grab a bite. 

Our top three options were all closed, either because of hours or because it was Monday. Oof. 

Still hungry, we settled on a BBQ place that was ok, but not as good as KC BBQ (shoutout to Cynthia Sharpe ‘94). We’ll see if Texas can hold up. 

What’s the lesson in all this? Sometimes life gets bumpy and inconvenient, but you’ve gotta keep going because you have a deadline to return the RV you rented. But seriously, sometimes there are bumps in the road and all you can do is push through. It won’t always be easy or fun or play out the way you want it to. All you can do is make the best of it, vent if needed, and look forward to the next thing you get to do. 

We wrapped up dinner, returned to our campground and did some work to round out the evening. Checking things off a to-do list is a satisfying thing and we were really leaning into that today. Good luck on all the things you have going on! You can get through it. 

Tomorrow is probably the longest drive so far: all the way to just outside of Fort Worth, TX. Godspeed.

M-n(elly)-J

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