Carl Henning

I think I visited here as a youngster. I vaguely remember millions of bats exiting the cave’s natural opening. How does Carlsbad Caverns National Park compare to other caves and caverns I’ve visited? It’s cavernous.

Home to the four highest peaks in Texas is Guadalupe Mountains National Park. And we saw them all, or at least the clouds that covered them all. And mistletoe.

City of Rocks State Park was on the trip down from Gila Cliff Dwellings to Deming, off a much better road. I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit here, but I didn’t have to. In the middle of empty meadows as far as the eye can see, suddenly there are rocks.

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is a remote park with seven caves in the cliff face, six of them were occupied. When I say remote, I mean an hour and a quarter of twisting, narrow road north of Silver City. The Park Service says to allow two hours, but that must be for eastern flat landers. The road was too narrow to allow painted lines, but it was paved. The reason this place was on our itinerary is that you can enter the ruins; that’s rare.

Silver City, NM is not a city; it’s a town. Still operating under its original town charter which apparently regulates prostitution. No further inquiries on the topic were made! Silver City was the childhood home of Billy the Kid, leading to Marty Robbins singing about him: “,,,in old Silver City he went to the bad…”

Sometimes small museums in small towns can surprise you with the content. There were two today: Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society and Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum. The former in downtown Pima, AZ (west of Safford) and the latter in Lordsburg, NM. Yes, we’re on the road again, going places that we’ve never been.

Our epic 2018 Summer journey is over. We’re back home after 54 days away from Phoenix’ heat. Some milestones are presented.

Roadtrippers app also showed us the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, KS. A must-stop for a baseball fan. I’ve had a long fascination with the Negro Leagues and especially its premier pitcher, Satchel Paige. He finally made it to the majors late in life, becoming the leagues oldest rookie. Bill Veeck, the Cleveland owner signed him and provided a rocking chair for him in the bullpen.

On February 3, 1959 an airplane crashed in a snow-covered Iowa cornfield. The pilot and three singers perished in the crash. Today, a gravel road north of Clear Lake has a place to pull over at an oversized pair of black-rim glasses. A quarter mile path through the cornfield ends at the spot where the plane crashed. A small memorial reminds us the Buddy Holley, Rickie Valens, and the Big Bopper died here with pilot Roger Peterson.

There’s a SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota. Who knew? The lady at the Minnesota Welcome Center knew. And said it’s the second most visited site in Minnesota (after The Mall). We were in Minnesota because we took a detour on the way home so Kay could claim her 50th state. I already had mine and had been to Minnesota for work (and Twins’ games) a couple times.