After a long day riding...

This entry is for Tuesday, 17 May 2011:

After completing today's adventure and ride and 385 mile ride from El Paso, TX to Snyder, TX, Gerry and I decided to have dinner and a little refreshment, Texas style. We had a steak dinner at Skeet's (which no doubt stands for Skeeter) and stopped into the local Texas drive-thru packy (see photos). What hoot to drive in and out with Bud Lights for the night. This was a first for me but probably not the last while in Texas.

The adventure of day was a visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico. This was a fun experience doing some modern spelunking into the caverns via a steep paved footpath to a depth of 750 feet below ground surface. This walk was tough on the knees but well worth the effort and recommended for those fit enough to make the journey. We spent over 2 hours underground. I have posted a few shots of the caverns and the entrance road area which was beautiful as well.

The rest of the ride was, let's say, not great as we went through long desolate sections of eastern New Mexico and western Texas. The terrain was very flat and dry, conditions were sporadically windy and sporadically dusty. The road was mostly straight. However, on the bright side, we did not encounter any cattle guards the entire day. We probably went over a 100 of those things oer the previous few days.

The exception to this was going through the Guadalupe Mountains where the terrain was great, the road had some curves, but it came along with some strong cross winds (see photo).

Tomorrow, we are heading further east along Rt. 180 to a point east of Dallas/Fort Worth. The plan says we will stop at Mineola, TX but since we went about 60 miles further east today, I expect we will go beyond Mineola to close to the Louisiana border.