New Mexico - Carlsbad Canyons

The most exciting thing about traveling on the road is all the things you can see. I am posting pics I shot from the window along the way to Carlsbad Caverns. This is New Mexico and a bit of El Paso tx. We drove up and through the Guadalupe mountains and that was such an amazing experience. There is definitely a Thelma and Louise opportunity but Jim was in the car so we passed on that. The caverns were so deep and spectacular. Something to experience in ones lifetime for sure. Very hard to capture the depth of it in photos. Jim is an awesome host (travel dad). As I write this blog he is making pancakes and cutting up fruit for us. We all get along great - feels like home again really. This is by far el-grando

El Paso - Yayy

On the road again. 22 hours and 1200 miles from St. Louis to El Paso. My country tis of the is all you can say about the breathless terrain. Judy drove the first 600 miles during the day and I drove the next 600 all night. I have to wonder why judy has straight easy going driving and I get the maze of Jersey barriers and orange barrels, squeezing through tight spaces. lol. Oh and make sure if you drive I10 you have a full tank of gas and an empty bladder! you will not see a rest stop for 100 miles. We arrived in El paso at 6:30 in the morning with absolutley no sleep and raring to go. We are staying with our friend Jim Rickel from grammar school. Judy has not seen him since grammar school. I saw him at the last class reunion. Jim is retired from a life career in the Navy. Salute. He has a beautiful home and works 3 jobs from home. We phoned our grammar school friends Tom Dowin (my first bf) and Kevin Lyons who are still very close to Jim. Then we went to dinner and had some big ass margaritas that Jim insisted we have. Never had anything that size in my life. But lo and behold I was able to finish it. Oh and Jim planted one big smooch on Judy (said he wanted to do that since 8th grade lol). Jims daughter Christine joined us for dinner. What a cutie. Then back at Jim's and a little 2-step dance lesson from Judy. You never know when it will come in handy in this neck of the woods. Thanks Jim (travel dad) you are the BEST!! off to the caves today.

Day 2 and the laugh meter peaking. The great thing about St. Louis is the archetecture. So many unique old buildings. Most are made of brick. St. Louis Bread company is the original Panera bread. Today was Annes Birthday and some of her special frineds joined us as to celebrate. We had dinner at a restaurant /The Hill district, where many mafia and baseball players resided years ago. We had lunch at Blueberry Hill a famous musicians pub. We drove down the famous Route 66. yay. St. Louis was a blast. Now to head off to El Paso to visit our good friend Jim. Onward ho!!

Day 1 - Departed Judy's at 10:30pm March 30. Driving 1100 miles was easy. Jules drove first all night long in the snow and did a fantastic job of it I must say. Judy took over at the first sign of daylight and wow can she drive. We had no problems at all. GPS is good. Internet throught droid works amazing on the road. We met up with Anne O'dowd and her kids, had St. Louis Pizza and honeymoon salad (lettuce alone). Lots of drinks and laughs. will be visiting the Arch today and god bless us for the willingness to ride it to the top. (jules will freak out). lol