Day 9

Today we drove from San Antonio, TX to Carlsbad, NM. Once again, it was a pretty straight-forward drive. There was absolutely nothing to see or do on the way, so we took our time getting out in the morning and then got started. Once we got about an hour West of San Antonio, there was pretty much nothing for as far as the eye could see.

We followed I-10 West to the town of Fort Stockton, TX and then got onto US-285, heading Northwest towards New Mexico. We were now in the heart of "West Texas". There's really only one word you need to describe West Texas ... OIL!!!

Everywhere you looked, there were oil wells, oil tanks, tanker trucks, drilling equipment suppliers, etc, etc, etc.

We finally arrived at our campground in Carlsbad, NM, crossing into the Mountain Time Zone. It was extremely hot outside, around 100 degrees, but it was definitely a "dry heat". We got set up and then went into the game room at the campground and played a few games of ping pong. Our campsite has cable TV hookups, so Josh asked if we could give our TV a try. We hooked it up, and wound up watching a "Naked and Afraid" marathon!!!

We made dinner, and then decided to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry's from the campground store. It was very over-priced, but well worth it!!!

Tomorrow, we get a little break from traveling. We'll be driving about 45 minutes from here to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The good news, is that the caverns are very cool, so while we're there, we won't have to worry about the heat. The bad news, is that apparently, contrary to what I expected, this park is actually quite popular this time of year, as it provides a way to get out of the heat. Hopefully the crowds won't be too bad.

Back tomorrow night with a report on the caverns.