THE NEXT FEW DAYS (see previous entry)

FRIDAY, MAY 07, 2010 Tuesday bright and early Judy dropped Corey and me off at the airport for our three day adventure. We boarded; in first class together, the Sky West 8:55 flight to Houston. Chris’ Lynn met us at the Houston airport with Chris’ car. We plugged in the Tom Tom and off we went towards San Antonio to see the River Walk and the Alamo. About three and a half hours later if I remember correctly we arrived at the Marriott Plaza San Antonio next to the sights. We got to our hotel after the Alamo closed but we spent perhaps a couple of hours at the River Walk walking up and down and eating at a Mexican Restaurant and taking the boat tour which takes from thirty to thirty-five minutes. Jayden and Bailey wanted Corey to bring them home a Texas souvenir each. Bailey wanted a cowboy hat and Jayden wanted a cowboy belt buckle with Texas written on it and a belt to go with it. We went through several shops. Corey got Bailey a pink cowboy hat in one and Jayden a belt buckle a couple of shops later. One cute side note; at one point Corey received an e-mail from Stacey with a picture of Jayden washing dishes. She said something like, “Jayden told me to sit down and rest and he would do the dishes. I wonder what he wants.” Corey had asked him earlier to help out and not let his mother work too hard. Jayden had done something like that for his mother once before. He’s a good kid. Later Corey sent each of the kids, pictures of their hat and belt buckle. They were ecstatic. Wednesday morning we were up it time to be at the Alamo when it opened at nine. We didn’t spend a lot of time there but spent maybe half an hour and read the major plaques and signs and looked at artifacts then sped off to see the Carlsbad Caverns which was 462 miles away. On the way to Carlsbad, through West Texas we saw two semis, each carrying two huge turbine blades. A little later saw hundreds of wind generators across the landscape mostly up on bluffs. They went on for miles. Carlsbad Caverns were fascinating. We got there too late to walk the natural entrance which is a mile and a quarter hike. We probably wouldn’t have taken it anyway. We rode one of four elevators which descended seven hundred and forty-fifty feet or seventy-four stories. Corey and I got in free because of my National Parks senior discount card. The part of the caves that are visitable is one huge room shaped something like a “T”. The trails which are in two parts and basically go around the outside of the cavern are around two miles. (Another source says one mile.) At the end of the tour I bought the kids five 3-D postcards of the caverns. We drove into Carlsbad city and ate dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant then headed off for Albuquerque. Some time, approaching dark, Corey shouted out, “Oh deer.” I looked up wondering what he was Oh dearing about. There were two deer standing at the side of the highway waiting for us to pass so they could walk across. Corey called his mother and she (Judy) and Jim got online and got us a room in Albuquerque (Rio Rancho) through Hotels dot com. They tried to use Priceline but couldn’t make it work. The hotel was north on Rio Rancho Boulevard in Rio Rancho which made it nice yesterday morning so we didn’t have far to drive to get to the 505 for our drive home. It was the Inn at Rio Rancho I think. (?) We got breakfast burritos at Federico’s and ate them as we drove. They were so big Corey couldn’t finish his. We got Whopper Jr.’s in Green River, Utah which again we ate as we drove. We got home around seven last night. Last night Judy Jim and I ate at Texas Roadhouse in Lehi.