The first thing we did today was to begin the drive to Albuquerque. While we were driving we went to Hatch to get some chiles, Heather reached the 100,000 mile mark on her car so we got out to take pictures, and we stopped at Socorro Springs Brewing in Socorro for lunch where I had some homemade noodles with cheese.

When we got to Albuquerque we checked into the hotel and went to our room. The room was great, especially the very comfortable beds. After we were done unpacking the car, we took a shuttle to Old Town and looked around at all the restaurants and shops. I got a T shirt the says ‘Albuquerque’ and shows a picture of Kokopelli.

Last for dinner we went to a French style restaurant named La Crepe Michel. For dinner I had a crepe that had pork and dijon mustard. When we finished we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Today we first went to the Space Museum in Alamogordo. The museum was cool. We had to go through four floors then the main floor. We got to see a lot of spacecrafts, missiles, planes, and the people who worked on board the ship and in mission control. A nice man showed me what a Gyroscope is, it is a device that was invented by someone named Robert Goddard. It was used to keep a rocket ship from flying to the side. After we were done we went to the gift shop and got me a sled for White Sands and a gyroscope.

Next, we went to a New Mexican restaurant named Tia Lupe’s. While we were eating there it was raining really hard outside. When we finished eating we walked outside to get to the car. The streets were flooded so it was kind of hard to get to the car because there was a huge puddle of water.

Finally, we went to White Sands National Park. We had a great time. We got to go on the nature walk, which is a bridge that goes over some of the desert, protecting the fragile life under us. The bridge was static so you could zap each other or could zap your self. After we were done with the boardwalk, we drove to a spot to go sledding. When we found a good hill, we got out of the car, grabbed the sled, and climbed up the dune. I rode down the hill a few times, but we didn’t stay for long because the wind was throwing sand at us and there was a big storm coming.

After we were done, we drove to Las Cruces, checked into the hotel, got something to eat, and went to sleep.

In the morning we drove to Carlsbad, but we stopped at Living Desert State Park before we got there. We learned a lot about the New Mexico desert, and got to see lots of plants and animals that live there.

After we were done, we drove up to Carlsbad Caverns. We picked up our tickets and got in line to take an elevator down to the cave. When we got down to the bottom it was a lot cooler than at the surface. We waited for the ranger to start the tour. In order to get to the rooms we were going to see, we had to walk down 80 feet. When we got down there the first room we went to was The King’s Palace. The room was bigger than i thought it would be. The ranger told us who discovered the caverns, how he discovered them, and how hard it was for him to explore the caverns. Next we went to The Queen’s Palace, where the ranger showed us what it looked like when he was exploring the cave by turning off all the lights. It was so dark that I couldn’t see anything. She held up a lighter to make it look like it when he explored the cave. I was surprised at what it looked like, because I thought I would be able to see less of the room. And then she turned the lights back on and we went to the Papoose room. It was a small room with a lot of small stalactites and rocks that fell from the ceiling. Finally we went to the Green Lake room, which was named for the small green lake in it. We then went back up the 80 feet we went down at the beginning of the tour.

We went back to the Big Room and walked around the trail looking at stuff and taking pictures. When we were done, we went back up to the surface. We then went to the gift shop and bought a shirt and hat and then had dinner.

After dinner we went to the car to get our stuff before heading to the amplitheater to see the bats come out. When we got there we found our seats and waited for the bats to appear. While we were waiting, a ranger talked to us about the bats, what they sound like when they come out, and about the white nose disease. When they came out, they were flying in circles, which looked like a tornado. A few even flew over our heads!

After watching the bats for a while, we went back to the car and drove back to the hotel.

In the morning we had to drive from Houston to San Antonio for the first day of our New Mexico trip. When we first got to San Antonio, we went to the hotel to see if they had a room. They didn’t, so we grabbed our cameras from the car and went to the Alamo.

We went inside and walked around and learned about the people who fought there, the history of the Alamo, and the history of San Antonio. After we finished walking around, we went to the gift shop and I got an engraved penny, a necklace, and two postcards. When we were done, we went back to the hotel to check in and bring our luggage to our room.

After taking a break in the room, we went to an Irish pub for dinner. I had shepherd’s pie. I had never had it before, it was good, especially the potatoes and beef together. Once we were done, we went to the Riverwalk.

When we got in line to ride a boat around the river. While we stood in line, we met Jacob and his mother Jamie. He had been at a hunting camp, and she came over to pick him up. On the boat ride, we learned about the river’s history, some of the buildings, and the flood control project.