Checked out of the stagecoach Inn this morning, which (unlike our EconoLodges) does not offer free breakfast; therefore, we seek out a Rotten Ronnie's for a cheap breakfast. I try a Bacon McGriddle meal (which appears to be an Egg McMuffin with bacon). However, when I take a bite, I realize there's syrup in there somewhere. Um, yuck? Syrup on eggs, bacon and cheese? I can't find it at first, then finally realize it's in between the layers of the bun itself. Huh. And kind of bleargh. Should have stuck with the tried & true Egg McMuffin.
This morning, we're headed back into Texas, for a return trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. That's right, we're going to hike to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.
You know what's great about Texas? Their single lane highways are 75 mph, versus New Mexico's double-lane highways at 65 mph. Viva Texas! Everything is bigger, bolder, and faster!
And you know what else that means? That it would have been FASTER to go through El Paso instead of that craptacular road to Nowhere, Artesia. (No, I'm never going to let that go.)
The other thing I've noticed about the whole southwest region of the US is that whenever they have a bridge, there's almost never any water there. A lot of the bridges are over "washes", so obviously they're seasonal. But some of them claim to be passing over "Black River" or something like that. You'd expect there to be water. Nope. Is this why they have signs telling us to "watch for water"? Who should I tell if I see some? I wonder if they find it weird when they drive through Canada, and there's always a river or stream when there's a sign that says "something river" or "something creek". Every single time, there's water!!!
Anyway, enough about Canada. Back to Texas.
It's a long hike up. Of course, you will say "duh. The trail guide clearly says 8.4 miles. That's 13.5 kilometers." And it's UP. Up is tiring. Up is hot sun in your face and climbing, climbing, climbing. Thank God for my hiking poles! Worth every penny. When you're climbing, it takes some of the strain off your knees (you have to save those so that you can safely visit Carlsbad Caverns when you're older). When you trip over a rock, they save you from falling over the side of the cliff.
I guess our feet must be lazy from years of flat floors and concrete sidewalks, because scrambling and bouncing over rocks is tiring for them.
Anyway, hiking up up up. The beginning has a steady ascent, and then there's a series of switchbacks. It's a welcome relief when the trail levels off into slight dips and inclines. This is because the trail is winding its way around the hill you've halfway climbed. Then you go around the corner, and you see another bigger hill, and see the switchbacks going up that one. I can do that! I still have energy! So we motor off, up and up and up. And you get near the top - whew, that was tiring, wasn't it? - and the trail leads around another corner and over a wooden bridge... and there's another stinking peak hiding behind that one. @$#$%^!!!
Okay. Drink some water. Get moving again. Up and up. OMG, this is getting tiring. The ascent is much steeper. We sit down on a big rock to catch our breath, and look down at El Capitan (one of the other mountains, so obviously we're almost there). Just a little bit further, and finally we see the marker at the peak. Stagger up onto the rocks there, next to the other hikers, and sit down to drink some water.
There's a log book for climbers at the peak; we sign the date and our names.
After that, it's time to stand up, look around, squint and look south to see if I can see Southfork. Darn it - not quite. But it is a clear day, and you can see a long long way. And there's a nice cool wind blowing (apparently, you have to watch out for the wind up there, but we've obviously picked a good day, because it's not blowing us off the peak).
As we start heading back down, there are only a few people coming up. Most of the hikers probably start earlier in the day. There's two park rangers on the way up, a guy with a backpack who is red-faced, but just motoring at an impressive speed. An army guy & girl who are in full combat gear (including gloves), and loaded down with a heavy backpack. Combination training and sight-seeing? There's an air force base nearby, so maybe.
We also briefly chatted with a couple from Roswell who were making their the way up the trail. He was a reporter, so he'd had to go to the Roswell Museum several times, and he says he's sick of aliens. We told them that we were sure that Roswell would be the highlight of our trip (but only because we don't have time to go to Lubbock, the real Jewel of the South).
It's a happy thing when we can finally see the parking lot way off in the distance.
Off with the hiking boots - ahhh! My feet taste freedom again. Unload the backpacks, start up the car, turn on the A/C, and we're good to go again.
Off to Roswell! Unfortunately, that means driving past my sworn enemy, Artesia. >:-( Artesia, why did you take El Paso away from me, and leave me with nothing but boredom???
It also means we're driving north, for what might be the first time in a long time.
To summarize our climb:
10:30 a.m. We start out from the trailhead.
12:48 p.m. We reach the summit. We then kick around for about 15-20 minutes, eating our trail mix and guzzling Gatorade. It's a clear day, and despite the sun, there's a refreshing breeze blowing. We sign the logbook with our names and city, take a few pics, then start down.
3:05 p.m. We're back at the trail head.
That's about 4.5 hours. The visitor centre says 6 to 8 hours. Hah! Beat ya again! :-)
We passed 7 people on the way up (although two of those were senior citizens, so I'm not sure they count - an 80-year-old man is hiking up that mountain. Awesome!), and of those we met at the summit, we passed 6 of them on the way down. Not that anyone is keeping track, or anything. ;-)
Roswell! Aliens! IHOP! Need I say more? This place is like paradise. Tacky paradise.
Have I ever mentioned my love of the IHOP? It was in Chicago that we first met. Yummy pancakes, so much food, and so cheap! Well, there's an IHOP in Roswell, and when Stephen asked where we wanted to go eat supper - the Cattle Baron steakhouse, maybe? Or Applebee's? - I screamed "THE IHOP!" in his ear.
Now that he's eaten there, he's a recent convert to the Church of IHOPiness. Yum!
Yes, they have more than just pancakes. I had Mediterranean Chicken, because I'm trying to teach my body that healthy food does exist, and he had the sirloin tips. Unfortunately, while my intentions to eat healthy were good, I got derailed a bit. Stephen doesn't like veggies, and gave me his broccoli. I'd already eaten mine, and now I had another serving to eat. Stephen had leftover gravy. I discovered that broccoli dipped in gravy tastes divine. (To be fair, anything is gravy is pretty awesome.)
Back at our motel, I had my first extraterrestrial incident. The bathtub wouldn't fill with water. The tap ran and ran, but still, there was only a shallow pool of water. OMG, the aliens are totally stealing my bath water! Some might say it was just that the plug was a crappy loose plug that wasn't sitting properly, but you and I both know it was THE ALIENS.
In a completely unrelated topic, any news of sudden water shortages in Roswell are totally not my fault. ALIENS.
This morning, we're headed back into Texas, for a return trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. That's right, we're going to hike to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.
You know what's great about Texas? Their single lane highways are 75 mph, versus New Mexico's double-lane highways at 65 mph. Viva Texas! Everything is bigger, bolder, and faster!
And you know what else that means? That it would have been FASTER to go through El Paso instead of that craptacular road to Nowhere, Artesia. (No, I'm never going to let that go.)
The other thing I've noticed about the whole southwest region of the US is that whenever they have a bridge, there's almost never any water there. A lot of the bridges are over "washes", so obviously they're seasonal. But some of them claim to be passing over "Black River" or something like that. You'd expect there to be water. Nope. Is this why they have signs telling us to "watch for water"? Who should I tell if I see some? I wonder if they find it weird when they drive through Canada, and there's always a river or stream when there's a sign that says "something river" or "something creek". Every single time, there's water!!!
Anyway, enough about Canada. Back to Texas.
It's a long hike up. Of course, you will say "duh. The trail guide clearly says 8.4 miles. That's 13.5 kilometers." And it's UP. Up is tiring. Up is hot sun in your face and climbing, climbing, climbing. Thank God for my hiking poles! Worth every penny. When you're climbing, it takes some of the strain off your knees (you have to save those so that you can safely visit Carlsbad Caverns when you're older). When you trip over a rock, they save you from falling over the side of the cliff.
I guess our feet must be lazy from years of flat floors and concrete sidewalks, because scrambling and bouncing over rocks is tiring for them.
Anyway, hiking up up up. The beginning has a steady ascent, and then there's a series of switchbacks. It's a welcome relief when the trail levels off into slight dips and inclines. This is because the trail is winding its way around the hill you've halfway climbed. Then you go around the corner, and you see another bigger hill, and see the switchbacks going up that one. I can do that! I still have energy! So we motor off, up and up and up. And you get near the top - whew, that was tiring, wasn't it? - and the trail leads around another corner and over a wooden bridge... and there's another stinking peak hiding behind that one. @$#$%^!!!
Okay. Drink some water. Get moving again. Up and up. OMG, this is getting tiring. The ascent is much steeper. We sit down on a big rock to catch our breath, and look down at El Capitan (one of the other mountains, so obviously we're almost there). Just a little bit further, and finally we see the marker at the peak. Stagger up onto the rocks there, next to the other hikers, and sit down to drink some water.
 |
| I'm (momentarily) taller than you, El Capitan! |
After that, it's time to stand up, look around, squint and look south to see if I can see Southfork. Darn it - not quite. But it is a clear day, and you can see a long long way. And there's a nice cool wind blowing (apparently, you have to watch out for the wind up there, but we've obviously picked a good day, because it's not blowing us off the peak).
As we start heading back down, there are only a few people coming up. Most of the hikers probably start earlier in the day. There's two park rangers on the way up, a guy with a backpack who is red-faced, but just motoring at an impressive speed. An army guy & girl who are in full combat gear (including gloves), and loaded down with a heavy backpack. Combination training and sight-seeing? There's an air force base nearby, so maybe.
We also briefly chatted with a couple from Roswell who were making their the way up the trail. He was a reporter, so he'd had to go to the Roswell Museum several times, and he says he's sick of aliens. We told them that we were sure that Roswell would be the highlight of our trip (but only because we don't have time to go to Lubbock, the real Jewel of the South).
It's a happy thing when we can finally see the parking lot way off in the distance.
Off with the hiking boots - ahhh! My feet taste freedom again. Unload the backpacks, start up the car, turn on the A/C, and we're good to go again.
Off to Roswell! Unfortunately, that means driving past my sworn enemy, Artesia. >:-( Artesia, why did you take El Paso away from me, and leave me with nothing but boredom???
It also means we're driving north, for what might be the first time in a long time.
*****
To summarize our climb:
10:30 a.m. We start out from the trailhead.
12:48 p.m. We reach the summit. We then kick around for about 15-20 minutes, eating our trail mix and guzzling Gatorade. It's a clear day, and despite the sun, there's a refreshing breeze blowing. We sign the logbook with our names and city, take a few pics, then start down.
3:05 p.m. We're back at the trail head.
That's about 4.5 hours. The visitor centre says 6 to 8 hours. Hah! Beat ya again! :-)
We passed 7 people on the way up (although two of those were senior citizens, so I'm not sure they count - an 80-year-old man is hiking up that mountain. Awesome!), and of those we met at the summit, we passed 6 of them on the way down. Not that anyone is keeping track, or anything. ;-)
*****
Roswell! Aliens! IHOP! Need I say more? This place is like paradise. Tacky paradise.
Have I ever mentioned my love of the IHOP? It was in Chicago that we first met. Yummy pancakes, so much food, and so cheap! Well, there's an IHOP in Roswell, and when Stephen asked where we wanted to go eat supper - the Cattle Baron steakhouse, maybe? Or Applebee's? - I screamed "THE IHOP!" in his ear.
Now that he's eaten there, he's a recent convert to the Church of IHOPiness. Yum!
Yes, they have more than just pancakes. I had Mediterranean Chicken, because I'm trying to teach my body that healthy food does exist, and he had the sirloin tips. Unfortunately, while my intentions to eat healthy were good, I got derailed a bit. Stephen doesn't like veggies, and gave me his broccoli. I'd already eaten mine, and now I had another serving to eat. Stephen had leftover gravy. I discovered that broccoli dipped in gravy tastes divine. (To be fair, anything is gravy is pretty awesome.)
Back at our motel, I had my first extraterrestrial incident. The bathtub wouldn't fill with water. The tap ran and ran, but still, there was only a shallow pool of water. OMG, the aliens are totally stealing my bath water! Some might say it was just that the plug was a crappy loose plug that wasn't sitting properly, but you and I both know it was THE ALIENS.
In a completely unrelated topic, any news of sudden water shortages in Roswell are totally not my fault. ALIENS.
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