Up around 7ish for an 8am departure. Free breaky at the hotel was nothing to write home about...fruitloops or stale bread rolls.

We drove for about 3 1/2 hours to Carlsbad, where we stopped for our picnic kitty lunch. Then into Carslbad Caverns which is the most amazing cave!! It's so big inside you could fit not 1 but 2 x 747 planes in there. Or 14 football fields. Photos just dont do it justice, it's purely breathtaking. The whole way through you're following the manmade path for about 3 hours going down, down, down until you're the eqivalent of 75 stories down. But here's the best part...to get back up there's a lift!!! WoooHooo!!!

We resurfaced around 4pm and there was another Trek America van in the car park. JD had keys to it and opened the trailer for a sticky beak, and OMG it was sooooooo messy! Everything just thrown in! JD keeps ours so neat and organised. Seeing the other one makes me appreciate everything JD does and I think he's a terrific guide...we really scored big time having him with us. Pity the young ones don't appreciate it.

We were back on the road around 4pm. We drove for another hour and arrived at our cabins at Carlsbad just after 5. Our cabin had a double bed and 2 sets of bunks. I bunked with Lissy & Becky.

There's nothing to do here either so since it's "date night" as JD calls it, we decided to go to town 15 mins away to see a movie.

With a few hours to kill I did some much needed washing. We had dinner at the cabins from the kitchen - nothing fancy - just a corndog and fries.

About 8.15pm we set off for the movies. The 3 boys wanted to see Avenger and the 6 girls wanted to see Five Year Engagement. It's a small town...they were the only 2 movies playing. We would have most likely split up to see both movies, but as we pulled in there was a huge sign on the window saying "Avenger sold out". All the boys groaned in protest and all the girls laughed it up that the boys would have to watch the chick flick! It was only $10.50.

I sat between JD and Chris. The walls weren't very soundproof and every so often we could hear loud explosions and action from Avengers next door. JD would just look at me sadly & frown, it was funny. Anyway the movie we saw was really funny and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it.

We got back around 11.30pm. No linen again so out with the sleeping bags. I can handle that, but I struggle with the whole no pillow situation! I used most of my clothes stacked up but it's just not soft & fluffy :-(

Later,
Tracey.