We drove across the bottom of New Mexico headed to Carlsbad Caverens. Our first stop was at Deming. While there we were able to drive down to Mexico and walk across the border to the "Pink Store". It was supposed to close about 15 minutes after we got there but when they found out we did not realize that they stayed after hours and fed us a traditional Mexican meals and let browse and purchase several items in the store. I would not have wanted to go much further into Mexico alone and on foot but this tourist attraction just over the border was very nice and safe. We also saw lots of medical and dental procedure places where I am sure many Americans go for treatment and meds.

Our next stop was Alamogordo where we toured a Pistachio Farm and stopped at White Sands National Monument. It is in the northern Chihuahuan Desert and known for its dramatic landscape of rare white gypsum sand dunes.

As we continue across the state we stop at the "Billy the Kid" visitor center on the Mescalero Apache Tribe Reservation. The center was enjoyable but the real jewel was the beautiful garden with the horse tribute that was done. There was a large horse track right next door that did not have races going on while we were there.

A little further down the road we stopped at Roswell and went through the UFO museum. The first hand accounts of the 1947 possible UFO landing and government coverup made me believe that it could have possibly happened.

On to Carlsbad caverans. This was probably one of the biggest dissapointments of any of the national parks. I had heard from everyone we talked to, who had been there, that it was every kind of beautiful that existed. I saw a super large cave, it took over an hour to walk around the perimete,r but I did not see all kinds of beautiful. Maybe because it was not privately owned and did not have all kinds of colored lights in it with cute signs but it was dark and the formations were not near as beautiful as other caves I have been in..

What was magical about the cave was the night bat flight. Each evening during the summer, Brazilian free-tailed bats emerge from Carlsbad Cavern in search of food. The size of the colony fluctuates from night to night and season to season.Between 200,000 and 500,000 bats Observations made by bat researchers have shown that bats who are used to total darkness and silence are disturbed by sounds and light, which can cause changes in their behavior.