Today has been the first day of our road trip, and probably the longest.   Twelve hours of driving.  We are in Carlsbad, New Mexico tonight.  We are enjoying he hospitality of America’s Best Value Inn.  In the morning, we’ll be headed for Carlsbad Caverns N.P.  I am turning off my notification e-mails for a while, but I intend to post to the ‘blog every evening, so please check back every day! 

Today, we didn’t really stop to see much, since this was such a long driving day.  Rich drove the whole distance.  We did stop at one little bird-watching pond just outside Capitan, NM (Helen Hinch Memorial Park and Bird Sanctuary – no website), and the light was terrible for photos.  However, across the street, there was a big pasture with longhorns, and the guy below was a beauty.  He wouldn’t look at me, but Rich got him to look for a photo.  Here’s my best picture of him.  He had a beautiful set of horns!

There were some other fun things on the drive, but nothing seriously noteworthy.  Here are a few things.  The cowboy sign is above the door of a gas station in San Antonio, New Mexico (a tiny little town).  The deep-fried ball of weird fish mush with the claw sticking out was at the Chinese Buffet were we had dinner here in Carlsbad, and I just liked the ‘Rio Puerco’ sign.

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