December 6, 2007

Hi everyone!

Here I am still trying to catch up to
Thanksgiving, and its already Dec 5th...where
does the time go? We are camped tonite in Calico,
CA...a Ghost Town...more about that later!

We left Montgomery, TX, and Uncle Hank and Aunt
Barbara on Monday, Nov 19. We were headed west
on Rt 105 going towards Austin then Interstate 10
to Fredericksburg, TX and beyond. Our plan was to
be in Tempe, Arizona by Thanksgiving, after
changing our plan to be in Oregon for
Thanksgiving!

Well, I have to say that Texas is a very LARGE
state. I mean, I look at a map and say, Texas is
big, but I had no idea....and some of it was
extremely boring, but as we headed for the
western side it was quite lovely. I wished we had
time to go to Big Bend..We drove all day to get
from Montgomery to Fort Stockton, where we spent
the night at a KOA campground. We didnt get there
until after 9 pm. The campground was eerie..dark,
quiet, gusty, tumbleweeds blowing around. And
Fort Stockton seemed to be in the middle of
absolutely nowhere.

when we left the next morning (Tues Nov 20) we
decided to veer off the main highway, Rt 10, and
continue our journey to Tempe by going on Rt 285
north, which goes through Carlsbad Caverns
National Park, in New Mexico. We got to the
caverns at about 1:45 pm...good thing because you
cant get in after 2 pm! We parked the RV, and
there were signs everywhere that said,"do not
leave dogs in RV's, they must go in our kennels"

So Allie had to go into a kennel in an air
conditioned room while we toured the caverns.
She didnt like it very much because she was all
alone in the kennel. She started barking
furiously as soon as I left the room. I dont know
if any of you remember our one Allie/kennel
experience, but it was right after we got her as
a one yr old dog, we went to look at puppies and
ended up with the mother dog. People suggested
kenneling her, because she hadnt spent much time
in the house, so we borrowed a kennel. The kids
and I left for school and work with her safely in
the kennel, and 7 hours later when we got home we
found a dog with shreds for paws, a bloody nose (
which still carries the scar) and a kennel that
had been escaped from, but not through the door.
We never used it again. So I was a little
worried...There were some little dogs who were in
the kennels in the next building, but Allie was
the only big dog there that day.

So, here are a couple pictures from inside the
caverns, it was a little dark to get really good
photos. Its an amazing place - very beautiful. I
will say that I was more awed by the Snow Jade
Caverns in China, which were much bigger and
consisted of climbing up inside the mountain
several stories....

There is also a picture of Allie when we picked
her up at the kennel....she got a doggie
t-shirt that says, "I did my time at the Carlsbad
Kennels, # 37489", and the back of the shirt
has jail bars on it! She was very happy to climb
back in the RV into her little cubby!

We drove to Roswell, New Mexico to spend the
night, about an hour and a half away. There is
a very strange museum in Roswell. It is called
the UFO Museum and Research Center. The museum
consists of one room of memorabilia ( often
duplicated wall to wall) from people in town who
believe that there was a spaceship that crashed
in Roswell in 1947, and that there were aliens on
it, which the government did something with. It
was interesting for about an hour.... and it was
great fun to walk around town, the whole Main
Street is decorated with pictures of
aliens, blow up aliens, alien costumes and
t-shirts and a wide assortment of alien toys and
gifts .....some of the pictures here are from
Roswell and the museum!

I will send a picture soon of Allie in her
alien outfit....

After the museum we drove as far as Show Low,
Arizona for the night.

More soon!

Love from Mindy, Ken and Allie!