Not Just a Hole in the Ground

Carlsbad Caverns were amazing, even for a claustrophobe like me! I don't remember ever being inside a cave before, but this was like nothing I could have imagined.

Unlike the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns were not formed by the force of water running through rock. The hills under which the caverns are formed were originally a limestone reef, the collected bodies of marine sponges and animals, not coral. Previous older deposits of plants and animals underneath this reef created oil and gas deposits that released hydrogen sulfide which, when combined with rainfall and ambient oxygen, formed sulfuric acid. The acid carved large holes in the limestone, and changes over time formed the caverns.

On the approach road, many of the cliffs have holes of varying size, carved in the same manner. Because it was fairly early in the morning, there were very few people about, and these stately big-horn sheep felt safe enough to go foraging. We were fascinated watching them. If you blinked for too long you would lose them in the grass - they blend in so well.

Back to claustrophobia: there is none! The "big room" is approximately the size of 6 football fields. At one point, the top-to-floor distance is over 250 feet.

The caverns are filled with a variety of speleothems, which is the collective term for all the stalactites, stalagmites, columns, soda-straws, and curtain formations. Another commonly-used word is decorations.

We spent three hours over about 1-1/2 miles gazing and gawking and taking over 100 pictures. The three below are just a small sample and don't begin to do it justice.

After we left the caverns, we went slightly south, around the Guadalupe Mountains, and into a tiny slice of southwest Texas, very close to the Mexican border. Here we found roads that defined straight, going off into that "vanishing point" we all were taught about in art class and never really understood..

Our overall impression of the high desert was one of stark, severe beauty.

Back into New Mexico, we spent the night in Las Cruces.

In the Dust Bowl

Leaving Arlington, TX this morning at 60 degrees felt great!

We always do the "idiot walk" as we leave a hotel room, peering into every corner to make sure we haven't left anything behind. The hallway carpet in this very nice, new Hilton Garden Inn has a pattern that weaves back and forth across the hallway, providing a nice visual reminder in case you've forgotten to check your room.

Driving through West Texas , there is a lot of open space and not much else. We've left the foothills and are back in the flats, the favorite home of the "White 3-Winged Windmill". They do not migrate south for the winter, so they're everywhere! The "Black, 4-bar Linkage Oil Jack" must be on the endangered list here as we've only seen a very few.

78 degrees in Snyder, TX, where we stopped for lunch at a nice little dive (my favorite type of place) called Taqueria Guadalajara. Enchiladas Suizas for me and Tacos al Pastor for Bob. Good, but I'm still on the hunt for the pinnacle of enchiladas Suizas.

We are on an undivided, 2-lane road for the next 198 miles. Speed limit is 75.

There are many fields that look freshly plowed, ready for planting cotton. Cows and oil jacks coexist happily. Moving irrigation pipes create crop circles. A dust devil appears in the distance and just as rapidly disappears. The first tumbleweed of the trip hits the car. The wind picks up and blows a curtain of dust across the road, reminding us that we are driving through part of the "dust bowl" described in the Ken Burns documentary.

There is so much of nothing out here when you compare it to the east coast. The small towns we pass through on I-20 are very linear (everything is right along the highway). Every other business has something to do with oil.

As we approach Carlsbad, our stop for the night, we are able to see the Guadalupe Mountains in the distance. We'll be driving alongside them tomorrow after we leave the caverns.

Tonight we are staying in the best hotel in town, a Hampton Inn, and had dinner at the best restaurant in town, a Chili's.

We are now on Mountain Time, so we can watch The Good Wife and The Mentalist and get to bed early.

Flatland

It's raining again, but it's intermittent and not too heavy, and has the benefit of washing the salt off the car.

About 50 miles east of Little Rock the grass turns green. 

We decide not to detour to Hope, AR, birthplace of Bill Clinton and home of Paul Klipsch (maker of fabulous speakers). We went to the Clinton Presidential library in Little Rock last year.

The landscape has flattened out significantly in the western part of Arkansas and into Texas. I-30 comprises both a high-speed interstate and a local access road, so there is a lot to look at. There are a few large ranches with enormous main houses right out of a movie, but there are also trailer parks and rows of cookie-cutter houses.

There are pawn shops and gun shops everywhere you look, sometimes combined into one business.

As we approach Dallas, we pass a couple of high schools with stadiums that are the equal of, or maybe better than, those of many colleges in the northeast.

Downtown Dallas, at least what we can see from the highway, has a lot of interesting modern architecture, using glass, angles and curves, and sometimes colored elements in the buildings. Dallas's "World Trade Center" (convention center) is the exception: it is a dark grey/brown, hulking cube with no architectural features whatsoever to relieve its monolithic appearance.

The highways here are large, with lots of lanes and proper banking on the curves, which makes for fairly pleasant driving. Still, there are signs to remind everyone of the 3258 traffic fatalities in 2012. I had to look up the rate to get some perspective. Texas has 1.3 fatalities per 100 million miles. Arizona is at 1.8. Montana is the highest in the nation at 2.0. The lowest rate in the nation? Massachusetts, at 0.6. The old joke is that we never get going fast enough to hurt anyone badly before we crash into each other. Still, all of these rates are half of what they were 20 years ago, thanks to seat belts, air bags, energy-absorbing bumpers, and so on.

Tennessee

It's still cold as we leave Hagerstown, MD, for Knoxville, just about 14 degrees, and it snowed about 3/4" last night.  The road looks clear, and I have seen a couple of plows/sanders, but we haven't gone more than 5 miles before we see the first accident . Others are announced on the radio. Lets hope conditions improve.

We will be following I-81 for a couple hundred miles in Tennessee. Right now we are about 20 miles west of the blue ridge mountains, which are bathed in the early morning sunlight, with puffy clouds as a backdrop. Well be driving alongside them for a long time. Very pretty.

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Friday was a "teid" day (diet spelled backwards). There should be fewer of these once we are in our own place and we can at least control what we eat part of the time.  I'm not so naive as to think we won't eat out or drink too much. As I'm reminded by my Facebook friends, a lot of our trips and activities seem to revolve around food, and today is no exception!

We started the day with the usual, complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn, where they had surprisingly good biscuits and gravy. Gail gobbled these up.

Lunch was in Nashville at a Mexican restaurant with the odd name of "Chuys", oddly in the shadow of The Grand Ole Opry. This was our second time here - the first being last year on our way back. I had chicken enchiladas with green chiles from Hatch, NM, the chile pepper capital of the southwest. Bob had the southwestern enchilada, made with blue corn tortillas. Did I mention that they make their own delicious tortillas? And that the decor includes faux Diego Rivera murals, beautiful Mexican tile work  and artificial palm trees? Odd name and place, but nothing odd about the food.

We reached Memphis, and had a little time before dinner, so we made a very brief tour of the STAX Museum of American Soul Music. Isaac Hayes, Booker T. Jones (and the MGs), James Brown, Otis Redding, Bobbie Bland, Ike and Tina Turner, and many others all had their start there.

After a suitable interval so we'd be hungry again, we met Dan Lewis, old friend of Gail's from HP, at Neely's Interstate Barbecue, also in Memphis. It is owned by the uncle of Patrick and Gina Neely, of Food Network fame. This humble restaurant has been named as the best barbecue in Memphis. We agree. After a lot of catching up, we drove over the border into Arkansas for the night.

I'm Sorry, We Just Ran Out

Northeast states are so small , except for Maine, of course, that it seems one is making great progress : Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland - all in one day!

Today: Maryland, West Virginia (just a corner), Virginia, Tennessee.

Tomorrow: Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee. And about 50 miles into Arkansas. It turns out that Tennessee is a very long state when you traverse it NE to SW.

I can't wait till we reach Texas.

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When I was growing up I dreaded going out to eat with my family. No matter where we went, it seemed that (a) they were out of whatever I ordered, having just served the very last to the table next door; or (b) they brought the wrong dish; or (c) my dinner came last, often a full 5 or 10 minutes after everyone else was served. After a while it became a family joke, although my sense of humor has never been at its best when I'm hungry. This scene in all its variations continued even after I was married, although less and less frequently, and by the time I was about 30 had stopped.

Fast forward about 30 years. Two nights ago (the night before we left) we had dinner at Not Your Average Joe's, where I ordered a yummy-sounding flounder special. Yup - they were just out of it, and it was only 6 p.m.! I reminded Bob about my dining curse, but he assured me it was only a fluke. (Groan) Yesterday was uneventful. 

Tonight we went to a steak place in Knoxville, where we both ordered Beefeater martinis, Bob's with olives, mine with onions. And for all you purists out there, I know that a martini with onions is really called a Gibson, but having tried to order that once or twice, it only serves to confuse the waitperson, so I choose my battles. A few minutes later she comes back to let us know that they have just run out of Beefeater, and would Bombay Sapphire be ok? Yes, of course, although in all honesty we both prefer Beefeater. 

Another few minutes go by and she returns with the martinis, Bob's with 3 big, beautiful olives, and mine....naked. She told us they had just run out of onions! To their credit, the manager was on his way to the store to buy more, and in a few minutes the onions appeared. Not only was the price of the martini taken off the bill, but the manager came over later to apologize himself. Very nicely handled. 

We'll see what happens the rest of the trip.

Arranca!*

We're on our way!  It’s 9 degrees outside with bright blue skies, and we are comfortable inside our 70 degree car.

There's always a feeling of excitement when we leave for a vacation, whether it’s a night in New York or a week in Louisville. Starting a drive across the country adds an element of uncertainty and anticipation. On previous trips we have always found the odd and unexpected; they are everywhere if you look for them. We're starting on familiar, well-traveled roads. Bob says he can anticipate every curve. To me, there is still a special feeling because I know they will be taking us to some new places.

We’re in Pennsylvania now, and regrettably, the weather is no warmer. The temperature has not climbed above 20, and there is a brisk wind, making it feel even colder. I’m sure there is no sympathy from the New England crowd! I think we'll have to wait a couple more days.

Driving along routes 80 and 81 the road is frequently sandwiched between the hilltops it was carved from. There are picturesque waterfalls of ice on both sides, but alas, no place to stop and take a picture. The Delaware River was full of small ice floes, making patterns as they drifted by. It would be great if cars came equipped with a remote-controlled, outside-mounted camera that could capture these scenes!

Pennsylvania has some great place names. How would you like to live in (and spell) Hecksherville? I wonder whether there is any gas in the rock under Frackville? And how about Shamokin – do you remember the Allan Sherman song about it?

We passed by one of the Bell and Evans chicken farms near Fredericksburg, PA, on our way to a coffee shop in Hershey to meet another old friend from Tufts, Helen Delano. We spent a very pleasant hour catching up.

Even though I grew up near Philadelphia, about 90 miles from Hershey, I’d never been there before. The park is closed this time of year, but it was impressive just to drive by it and catch a glimpse of a few of the 11 roller coasters that it boasts. The town itself is small but very attractive, built around the chocolate factory and amusement park. The aforementioned coffee shop is on W. Chocolate Ave, near Cocoa Street. The streetlights in the center of town are shaped like Hershey kisses, some wrapped and some unwrapped.  

We reached today’s destination of Hagerstown, MD. Tomorrow: Tennessee!

*And, they're off!

End of Term

Don't let anyone tell you that you will be bored in retirement. We have more to do than there are hours in the day to do it. Hockey, gym three times a week (two different ones of course), shopping, book group, movies, poker group, errands, bridge group, theater, getting together with friends, concerts, travel, gardening, condo board - our calendar looks and feels like a project plan!

Something was missing this fall. I still had a little time on my hands since I no longer do the cooking, etc., so I decided to go to school! There was a newspaper article about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and edX, a consortium of several schools, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, who were trying this out. Why not? I had always enjoyed school; it was free, so no real pressure; and I picked a course I thought I had sufficient background in to be an enjoyable refresher: Biostatistics for Public Health and Epidemiology.

A warning before you read on: I became addicted! 

OK, you've been warned. PH207X (I'll use the course number instead of its long name above) was taught over 12 weeks as a series of videos by two professors from Harvard's graduate school of Public Health. They coordinated videos on biostatistics and epidemiology. Each week there was a homework assignment, and we had use of statistics software called Stata.

The prerequisites for PH207X were "merely" a sound knowledge of algebra. Estimated time was 10 hours a week. No problem! I own a vintage math degree containing two full semesters of statistics (like new, hardly ever used). 

You can probably guess the rest of the story, but since this is a blog I will continue. Weeks 1 and 2 were a breeze, and I was congratulating myself already on how well I was doing. Beginning with week 3, the tempo with which the material was presented increased, and I realized I would also need to dredge up those study skills I had stored in the basement. Fortunately I had the box clearly labelled: Taking Notes & Reviewing.

Over the course of the 12 weeks I managed to fill an entire 3-ring binder with notes, tutorial examples, and homework problems and solutions. I was astounded by how rigorous the course was, and I guess I'm more competitive than I thought, since I took up the challenge. 

What made the course even more interesting was the discussion board, on which I had the opportunity to read and exchange ideas with some of the 37,000 students taking the course. (Yes, 37,000). It was fascinating to read about the ongoing projects that some folks had, especially in India and Africa. What was most remarkable is that from time to time one of the professors would respond to a post. I was impressed.

I took the final two days ago with great trepidation. What if those study skills I had stored were past their freshness date? Turned out that they aged pretty well. I passed, and I am thrilled! I can't wait to find out some course statistics, such as how many of the 37,000 took the final, and how many of

those passed.  

But now I'm in withdrawal for a few weeks until Spring.

For the Spring term I have registered for a course from MIT edX called The Economics of Global Poverty. I have persuaded Bob and my friend Gale in AZ to take a course called Justice, which discusses the important social, philosophical, and political issues of today.

Does that make me a pusher as well as a user?

Here is the link to Spring classes: https://www.edx.org/courses  

Why This Blog and Title

Last year's blog of our trip cross-country and through the Southwest was fun to write, and I have read it several times since, reliving the trip and smiling each time. I am so glad that I did it for Bob and me. Many of my friends and relatives were kind enough to tell me that they, too, enjoyed reading it. A few, remarkably, even admitted to waiting eagerly for each installment.

Still, I did not intend to blog about our trip to Arizona this year. What more could I possibly add? After all, the distance between here and Tucson has not changed, so far as we know. I am not a science-denier, but my knowledge of meteorological history and climatologic trends is alarmingly slim, so the best I'll be able to do is report on the weather of the day, information you can easily get from Accuweather. Our itinerary does not currently include detours for roadside oddities, although it's possible the odd one may pop up. 

Despite having heard our plans for a sedate and uneventful time away, several of the aforementioned friends and relatives gently twisted my arm - it didn't take much - and asked if I would blog about our experiences again. How could I not acquiesce?

Which brings us here: it's the second time around, and I have only a few inklings about what may appear. I hope you enjoy them.