The BIG Room

How hot will it be today? Actually, it is a pleasant morning & I wake up at 6 am& don't want the alarm to beep, so I just get ready and go out for a short ride (11 miles) on highway 285. Lots of pecan tree groves around here & big too. Highway 285 has a nice big shoulder & reasonably low traffic. Up to Brantley Lake & only primitive camping at this spot & a $8 per day use fee. Back to camp at 7:45 & put on the coffee & KK's up reading her Nook. Let's cook a nice breakie & head south to the Caverns. Great breakfast! Now we're set for a big hiking day in the cave, so off we go & take the bypass around most of the downtown construction & it's 44 miles to the visitor center at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Go inside the Center to get our tickets for the day & yes, we get in free! (The senior pass!) I also get our tickets for the guided tour, which I paid for over the Internet, plus a $4 refund. We check out the gift shop & book store before heading off to the main entrance to the caverns & an hour long hike to the Big Room, 750 feet below the surface. We have to wait on a Ranger to give us the rules & off we go, down a long trail, with many switchbacks, wet areas, and steep trails, but we manage to arrive in about an hour & proceed to hike the BIG ROOM. And it is BIG! Over 600,000 sq ft and massive formations of all kinds: stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, columns, draperies, popcorn & many more forms of.....It is an amazing 1 1/2 hours of formations! Now to the rest area where we have some lunch & rest our legs for the 2:00 guided tour of the King's Palace. Our tour group has about 40-50 people and unfortunately, one kid is blowing a bubble with her gum & the "Ranger Nazi" goes bonkers. (But of course, she is not supposed to even have the gum down here-period.) He has only been here 14 months but wants everyone to understand that there are rules, easy rules to follow & please do it, or he will cite you! He will finally get over this & go to some bad jokes. So off we go to the Palace & no pics until we get there..GOT THAT! He opens a gate and we all go in and he gives some history of the cave & the local cowboy who discovered it back in 1898. His name was Jim White & he saw what he thought was smoke coming out of the mountains, but it was thousands of bats & he found the main entrance & started to explore the cave. Th e Palace is excellent & total darkness is witnessed by all & some water dripping onto a formation is awesome in the Ranger's flashlight light! One & one half hours later, we're done & back to the rest area, where we all take the elevator out of the caverns-it's too late to start the walk out to the surface. Oh, the Ranger was over adamant about protecting & caring for the cave- over & over-he must have been a sergeant in the Army. Anyway, it was a good tour & we were glad to see the palace & other rooms. By this time we are shivering, so when we finally get to the surface, it feels pretty good, even tho it's 102 out. A drive back to town, past White's City & it's gift shops & all of the road construction & a search for a DQ (none). So we opt for a "Lot A -burger"-no relation to our Ponca City original & it's ok, but not as good as the old one. A quick stop for gas & ice and back to the KOA for some e-mails & a dip in the pool! It's around 6:30 & the pool feels really good on our sore muscles & the hot tub feels even better! We probly hiked around 4-5 miles today& lots of ups & downs. There is some cloud cover, which helps, but there's so many kids and girl scouts in the pool that the escape to the spa is a relief. A nice shower & back to journal, blog & pop some corn for our supper. In bed at midnight. A great day!