SNOW

Left Lakewood, NM on Thursday the 17th. Weatherman said that there would be a headwind of about 15-20 mph and if I went about 300 miles north I had a 20% chance of hitting a little snow, less than an inch. So headed off. Passed through Roswell, NM with the sun shinning and only one alien spotted. Got about 140 miles down the road, about 10 miles south of Vaughn, NM, which was the planned stopping point for the day, and things started to get damp, not with water but some snow. Lightly at first but it increased and with the wind we were close to being in a blizzard. Since there was no where to stop, there is nothing between Roswell and Vaughn except open range farms, we slowed down and kept going. Got into Vaughn at about noon and parked in a small park. Took this picture out the back window after the snow let up some.

The gravel campground road on the near side of the fence and the paved city street on the other side of the fence did not get covered. But the rest had about one and a half inches. The day before this it was about 80 or 90 degrees and the dark roads absorbed some of that heat and kept the slippery stuff off the roads. By about 3:30 pm almost all the white stuff was gone.

The next day we went farther north and did not see any more than a little snow in some of the shady spots. We arrived in Tijeras, NM (about 10 miles east of Albuquerque) and at 6,600 feet with the tempature about 60 degrees.

On Sunday April 20th we got a call from a friend in Sedro-Woolley, WA and she told us that she woke up to about five inches of snow and it was still coming down. And this was happening on the 20th of April! The day, 34 years ago, we got married. I do not recall any snow falling after the first of April the 48 years I lived in the Skagit Valley.

To "celebrate" the day we went with some people that we meet in Lakewood who were from Anacortes, WA, to old town Albuquerque. This is the site of the original town and the old buildings are currently used as stores. Albuquerque was celebrating it's 302 birthday that day. Then we went out to dinner.

We have been slowly moving across Texas. Spent a week in Pecos waiting for our mail to arrive. Then we crossed into New Mexico and are currently in Carlsbad. On Wednesday we went to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

View out over the valley from the Visitors Center at the park. We entered the cavern via the Natural Entrance. To reach the bottom it is about a mile and a half and goes down about eight hundred feet.
View down the opening.
As you can see it is a fairly steep down hill route. This route has three sets of switchbacks with a short level spot in between. Even though there are signs warning about the down hill trip Diane deceided to try it and made it all the way down. The entrance is home to lots of swallows and they can be seen flying around. Once partway into the opening you can look back at
Took lots of pictures in the cavern, some without flash to see the farther away features and some of them turned out fuzzy. they can all be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/Scubadave2000/April

After reaching the bottom Diane stayed at the snack bar and I made the mile and two tenths treak around the Great Room. This is fairly level trail that can be made by wheelchairs.

We could have taken this way down instead of walking
It is amazing what a little acid and water can do to rock!