It’s been so much fun spending time with our new friends. We are on similar adventures and therefore can empathise with each other in ways others may not understand. This morning was a chance for the kids to once again run around together, for us to reflect on the adventures we’ve shared and the ones we each hope to have in the future, and of course for some group photos, which in all our times together, we had yet not done.
We packed up our spot, hugs and high fives all around, and rolled back down the steep rocky road. They were heading to Albuquerque where their furnace had an appointment to be fixed for hopefully the last time and we were heading into Carlsbad for a chore day.
We dropped Jen off with all our Laundry at the Laundromat and I took the kids and Molly to a school we saw on our way in that had an open gate and an appealing playground.
They played, we had lunch, and I took a few minutes to design a plug with a loop out of the flexible filament on the 3d printer. We put carabeners in these loops and use the clips to hang various items such as wet towels/rags, swimsuits, etc. above the step inside our sliding door. These plugs pop into holes in the body that are there from the manufacturer.
We got a text from Jen that she was finished with the laundry and ready to be picked up. So we put away the soccer ball, scooters, and 3d printer and went back to pick up our queen. Our destination for the night was a new state, Texas and we were happy to hear the Google Maps voice welcome us to The Lone Star State. We pulled into the campground inside Guadalupe Mountain National Park but were bummed to learn that the first come first serve park had already reached it’s capacity for the night. A friendly volunteer ranger informed us of a less well known site a few miles back (still in the park) that we could camp at for the night. Same price, but we had the water, bathroom, and animal pens (this is at Frijole Corral, so if we also had a horse with us in the van, there’d be a proper pen for it). That was the end of the day for us, we did dinner, bedtime, and planned our next days adventures in the park that we had never heard about until we were driving to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
