California Roadtrip Day 3 & 4: Thursday & Friday

I'm combining these two days because even though they were full and happy days for myself for a reader they do not seem too interesting on the page. These days are basically the base of the mountain... after them there is nothing but new adventures for me.

I guess you can say these two days were the point of the trip where if we wanted to turn back it would be the last chance to do so.

We drove to Arlington to see my beautiful family on day 3... spending the night and having great filipino food in our tummies (thanx Mommy). Note: A funny little thing that happened there was the next morning we had to unpack half of the U-haul because I accidentally packed ALL of Darryl's clothing in the middle and he had nothing for the road trip. Sorry Darryl :p (He had been using a lucky pair of drawers that had been mistakenly packed in my luggage and a couple of Pete & Andy's shirts.)

On day 4 we set out to the west. As a great friend in a little movie once said, "If I take one more step, it will be the farthest away from home I've ever been." Yeah... that was my situation. Darryl and I had been almost bored for the trip so far and now that we were heading west we started to perk up a little.

A week before the roadtrip started the four of us sat down and mapped out where we wanted to go. We finally decided that after Texas we would head up to New Mexico, through Carlsbad Caverns & Roswell, then to Colorado, the Grand Canyon, Hoover Damn (is that spelled right?), Las Vegas, and finally LA. Day 4 was through New Mexico to Carlsbad Caverns, where we would camp for the night and explore the next day.

Misc sights seen on the way to Carlsbad:
-Lots of pouring rain
-A chorus of silver energy-saving windmills waving from the top of a mountain range like angels in heaven. (sorry... cheesey :)
-LOTS of small poe-dunk towns.
-LOTS of Dairy Queens in the small poe-dunk towns.

Carlsbad was cold. It was smack dab in the middle of nothingness... we had to drive through far-reaching horizons and black night skies to get there. We pitched tent at a campground about a foot away from the main road. Peter showed me how to make a tent (my first time!!) while Andy started a fire. We stayed up to cook some bar-b-que my mother had prepared for the trip and- at around 1am- went to bed nice and full.

(To be continued... On to the Caverns and a town full of Aliens!!!)