26 June, 2000

States visited today: New Mexico

Total states seen: 7

Day 7

Got up in the morning and found a NAPA store. I bought an ignition module and a coil and installed them. This little MG, fresh from restoration showed up.

We drove to Carlsbad Caverns and saw the caves. For the first tome in the 100 years of recorded history, a rock had fallen down in the natural entrance; so that area was off limits. We took one guided tour and saw some of the stuff: the guided tour was more a reflection tour on the discovery of the cave and how the people must have thought. There were two LOUD Mexican kids who didn’t obey instructions; and their computer geek stepfather (?) who was more interested in recording every bit (Now, how you may ask, did we figure out he was a computer geek? Easy: 1) curly wash-n-go hair, ear length, un-styled, where it falls after its washed look. 2) AOL 5.0 Shirt. 3) Digital camera/VCR permanently fastened to his hand; he did the entire tour by following it. 4) Round body and pale skin. See him in the picture to the right.

After we finished the tour we ate lunch at the café 700 feet below ground. All the food was pre-made, sandwiches and heat & eats.

We did the Grand Cavern tour, and about half way through got stuck behind a huge group of Mexican school kids, age about 8-10. There was no way to get around them. A smiling teacher said something to the extent of "They must learn", to which I replied "BOOKS, give them books!"

Back on the road we headed towards Alamogordo. Made it in there and called a friend from Zweibrucken, whom I hadn’t seen in 18 years. He agreed to meet me after he got off work at the motel. We had dinner at a buffet near the motel. Aaron got charged for a child’s meal showing they thought he was under 12.

We went to the biggest Wal-Mart I had ever seen. Had about a full sized grocery store in it! Got some beer and medicines for Aaron and checked out. I asked the clerk (excuse me, "associate") if she wanted to card me, She said, "No, you look about 30". I told her I was 37 and my motto was ‘stay single, stay young; get married and get old’. A lady behind us in the line had a shocked look and said "That poor boy!" (referring to Aaron) We got a big kick out of that!

We went back to the motel and did laundry. Al arrived around 9 p.m. and we started drinking some beer. It was great seeing him again. After 2 hours and the death of an 8-pack, he called his wife to take him home. She greeted me as an old friend with a hug, even though I vaguely remember her. But I do I remember the Burrito’s she and Al made for us on the flight line though…