8a.m. (EST) Sept.1st 2008

Never been much of an "early riser". That's changed on this trip. Seems like I get most of my sleep in the car these days. Joe snores through the night and so instead of waking to an alarm I am roused daily by a sound I can only scantly describe with words. Imagine someone feeding truck tires through a wood chipper next to your bed. In any case, it hasn't diminished my enjoyment of this adventure in the slightest.
After the grand Canyon trip, we visited a meteor crater and I hugged a large meteorite. Craters are big. My butt hurt and we were hungryso we set out for Albuquerque NM to stay with Joe's aunt and uncle and visit with his mom and grandparents. It was a serious blessing for me at the time because I had basically lost the use of my legs and needed a couple days to recover. I'm dead fuckin serious. I had to lift my legs by hand for three days. You shoulda seen me hobbling around. My 87 year old grampa has one stiff leg and could move quicker than me. I'm sure I sustained permanent damage to my left hip socket but hey; ya wanna make an omelet, right?
From there we set out for the Carlsbad caves. I think the motel we stayed at takes the cake so far for creepy-as-hell/fear-for-your-lives establishment of the year. I did enjoy standing in the parking lot barefoot watching the bats hunt. There were probably anywhere from 20 to 30 bats flying around us at any given moment to feed on the many MANY bugs that are drawn to the lamp lights. I got lost for a little bit watching these silent hunters perform aerial acrobatics above and around me. So entranced was I that I failed to notice the massive amount of insects that weren't being caught but merely maimed and left for dead in the form of a sticky, crunchy carpet leading back to my room. Friends, take my advice on this one, wear shoes when you're walkin' around at night.
The caves themselves were just absolutely amazing. After awhile of seeing nothing but staggeringly bizarre beauty, you kinda go numb to it. I think there's only so much blowing the mind can take within a short amount of time before it just kinda shuts down and you revert to basic needs like food, water and indoor plumbing.