Arrived home after driving from the suburbs of St. Louis. No pictures as I am sure you already have seen enough corn and soybeans. Very uneventful trip although the Google Maps lady needed a lot of convincing that we really wanted to go up I-39 instead of the Tri-State Tollway, less traffic and more relaxing.
All told, we put just under 4800 miles on the car, some local and Phoenix driving included. We are glad to be home and also very glad we made the trip. Until this fall when we are off to France!
Had a rainy drive to Tulsa to visit Linda’s Cousin Kent. We got there in plenty of time to relax before we drove to downtown Tulsa to Kent’s club for their picnic in the sky to watch the fireworks. The view from the 30th floor was wonderful.
Sunset over Downtown Tulsa
Fireworks over Tulsa
On Saturday, Kent drove us around Tulsa and then we went to the Philbrook Museum. The museum is in the home of one of the Phillips oil barons. There have been additions but the home and grounds have been left largely in tact.
Philbrook Museum gardens
Today we drove to East St. Louis. The first part of the drive was pretty and uneventful, but about an hour and a half out of St. Louis traffic got slow. Of course today is the coming home day for the Fourth of July Weekend.
Traffic on I-44
Tomorrow we drive to home. It has been a wonderful road trip. Tomorrow will be very exciting trying to guess if it will be corn or soybeans next on the left!
Had a rainy drive to Wichita Falls today. We drove through an oil field in New Mexico, and farm and cattle land in Texas. The rain was sporadic with heavy rain at times. For this reason, there are no pictures. We enjoyed a wonderful BBQ dinner last night and settled into out hotel.
Tomorrow, we drive to Tulsa to visit Linda’s cousin Kent. We will celebrate the fourth with them and enjoy the visit.
Today is our last full day of touring. We visited Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks. Our weather luck finally changed as we drove to Carlsbad Caverns. As we started to the visitor Center, the skies opened up and we got pretty wet. We had a 10:30 reservation for the self-guided tours. We opted for the shorter 1.25 mile Big Room tour that used the elevator to and from the caverns.
Linda and I have been to both Carlsbad Caverns (NM) and Mammoth Cave (KY). If you have never been to one of these National Park caves, they are well worth the time. At Carlsbad, the Big Room Tour is paved and had handrails along the entire route. While it does gain and lose elevation, it is still an accessible tour.
Linda in Carlsbad Caverns wearing her new hoodie for the 56 degree temperature
The Giant Dome and Twin Domes
The Big Room from the overlook
After we left the caverns and had lunch, we took a chance that the low ceiling would improve so we could see the peaks at the nearby Guadalupe Mountains NP. It was still somewhat socked in but the fog did lift a bit and we got a few pictures.
Guadalupe Mountains in the fog.
Tomorrow we are heading for Wichita Falls, TX. We are mostly done with sightseeing after seeing 4 National Parks (Giant Sand Dunes, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, and Guadalupe Mountains), 3 National Monuments (Canyon de Chelly, Rio Grande Del Norte, and Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks) and 1 National Historic Landmark (Cumbres & Toltec RR). We hope to get a picture or 2 of Texas as we drive through.
We started the day going to the new Organ Mountains -Desert Peaks National Monument. The Organ Mountains dominate the city of Las Cruces. After stopping at the Visitor Center, we took a short hike on one of the trails. The views from the trail were wonderful.
View of the Organ Mountains
View from the trail
Linda on the trail
After we left Organ Mountains, we went to White Sand National Park. The park is right in the middle of the US Army’s Missile Range. The range has a long history and was used during WWII to train pilots in dropping munitions. White Sand is a new National Park, but it was a National Monument formed in 1933. The sand is a white gypsum unlike any other sand. As we drove out to the dunes, it was just like driving in a snowstorm.
The Dunes
The Dunes with the mountains behind.
After we left the dunes we drove to Alamogordo, NM for lunch and then visited Pistachioland, a true tourist trap, home of the world’s largest pistachio, we did not take a picture. After the trap, we drove to Carlsbad, NM. The drive was through the mountains as was quite beautiful. Tomorrow, is Carlsbad Caverns.
