Day 20

After first entering Texas on Monday I finally reached both of the Texas National Parks today. The first was Big Bend National Park and I will say I was pleasantly surprised. The terrain was picturesque and the mountains were much more majestic than I expected. The problem with taking pictures was fog and haze somewhat obscuring the mountains. Since I arrived early I saw quite a bit of wildlife including jack rabbits and road runners.

My next stop was Guadalupe Mountains National Park. While the mountains were equally impressive, the only way to see them is to hike. There is no road through the park.

My last stop of the day was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Had it just been me, I probably would have gotten my National Parks Passport Stamped and gone on, but Tigger had never been in a cave and we arrived too late to go into Mammoth Cave when we were in Kentucky. Jane, Chad, Wendy and I had visited Carlsbad Caverns the summer before I started to work at Kerkering, Barberio & Co. but I had forgotten how spectacular the cave is. In my opinion, while not as big as Mammoth, it is much more beautiful. Once again Tigger was in awe. I did get a few funny looks having Tigger with me, but I explained it as a grandchildren thing.

One thing I learned about Tigger today is that he is a bit of a daredevil. We were heading down this two lane road and hadn’t seen anyone for two or three miles so I decided to pick up the speed a little. Tigger was enjoying himself so much that he gave me a thumbs up. Problem was I thought he was telling me to go faster. Before I knew it we were at triple digit speeds. When we got to the park I had to stop and pick the bugs off of his teeth and out of his hair.

The new camera I purchased has a really neat feature. It allows you to take a series of photos next to each other then merge them for a wide angle shot. The first photo was made this way.