RV Vacation of 2016:First leg, TX & NM

On the way home from spending an amazing week at Yellowstone National Park in 2014, I told Herself that we were going to save up for 2 years, and do it again for TWO weeks, except we would do a National Park tour in an RV instead of our car.  So, that is exactly what we did; saved our pennies and found a company in Wichita (USA Rv Sales and Rental; great company!) that would rent a family of six an RV.  I'm planning on putting a few memories down on this blog, mostly for the sake of my own memory, not because I imagine that anyone else would be that interested.

I had decided that as the spiritual leader of my family, I wanted to emphasize 2 different elements on this trip, and they would be the common thread that I tried to weave throughout the entire 2 weeks:
First: I wanted my family to study and appreciate God's creation and bring him glory through that study and appreciation, and
Second: I wanted my family to better understand some basic life/social skills of getting along with each other that involve sacrificially giving up what each of us perceive as our rights.  ie, it is my right to my own personal space, it is my  right to my turn on the ipad, it is my right to sit there, it is my right to drink the rest of the juice before finding out if anybody else wanted any.  You get the idea; there were ample opportunities for learning.  I just feel that this is the most basic of building blocks for a good relationship with anybody, but especially important with spousal relationships; you know, watching out for each other, not just yourself...

We started off Friday morning May 6th after taking the kids out of school a few days early. Here we are, about to leave:

We drove (and from this point on, when I say "We drove" know that I mean "I drove," Herself didn't want to drive very much, and I figured I'd be a nervous wreck as a passenger, so I did ALL the driving), on that first day about 10 hours, trying to get pretty close to Carlsbad Caverns so we could go Caving the next morning.

We stopped a few hours short of Carlsbad and camped, and while setting up camp, I noticed the inside Dually was completely flat.  Sooo, in taking care of that the next day in Roswell N.M., it took too long to get the tire fixed to be make the cut-off time to tour the Caverns (they want you there by 1:00, so that they can go home at 5:00...).  

Roswell, NM

So Mamacita got on her phone and found a camping spot at a different National Park just about an hour south of our intended destination called Guadalupe National Park, a much lesser known and smaller park that would suit our needs perfectly; we drove there, parked, camped, hiked, and slept.  Then loaded up first thing in the AM and got to Carlsbad early.

Carlsbad was... well, incredible!  I just kept thinking; All this cavern, and we would have never know it was there if there would have been one boulder sitting over the natural entrance...  How many more caverns are there under our feet that don't have a "Natural Entrance" like the one we descended into? Anyway, take it from me, if you haven't ever been, you should.

The elevator that normally takes people down the initial 700' below ground level that makes the main portion of it ADA accessible had been broken down for about 7-8 months, so we had to "Hoof" it.  It wasn't easy, but whoever said vacations were supposed to be easy? 

From Carlsbad we went to White Sands New Mexico. It was sooo weird; you are just driving through desert, when Bam! There is a 20' tall pure white sand dune smack in front of you. It was especially interesting to us as the kid's Grandpa used to set off rockets and missiles for the US government there, so we had heard lots of stories about it...