Retirement Travels

Our next stop was Carlsbad Caverns. We arrived late Friday afternoon after stopping to check out Gaudalupe Mountains National Park.  We had reservations for a tour Saturday morning. On our drive out to the Cave we saw some barbary sheep. These are non-native originally from North Africa and first appeared in 1959. It is thought that the herd probably escaped from a private ranch in the Hondo Valley of New Mexico. We toured Carlsbad Caverns in the spring of 2021 and enjoyed it just as much the second time. There are so many different formations. The Natural Entrance The walkway down into the cavern. There are so many different formations. One thing we didn't get a chance to do in 2021 is watch the bats fly out of the cavern at dusk so we made sure to see it this time. The park has 17 different bat species however, the large colony of Brazilian free-tailed bats are what wow the visitors every evening from spring through fall with their outflights. The best way I found to get a still

  From the Grand Tetons, we stayed a night at Hill AFB Famcamp, Ogden, UT, a night at a Love's RV Stop in Filmore, UT and a night at Desert Eagle Famcamp, Las Vegas. From there we headed to Arizona and stayed 5 nights at Saguaro Skies, Luke AFB in Glendale. I was really happy to see my best friend and spend time with her. We had lunch at a newer restaurant called Stillery. The food was really good and so was the atmosphere.  From there we headed south and stayed at Boneyard Vista, Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson for a few nights. We had brunch with our friends Jeff and Louise and spent a few hours catching up with them. Our next stop was White Sands Missile Range Famcamp in White Sands NM.  A view of our RV and the San Andres Mountains We visited the museum which was really deep in history. Outside were old missiles that had been tested there.  Short Range Attack Missile Hound Dog Redstone A beautiful Ocotillo outside the museum in bloom. We also spent a day at White Sands National Par