The Epic Cross Country Road Trip Comes to an End

Two countries,  twenty-three states and over 8,000 miles after it began, our epic cross country summer 2012 adventure came to an end.  After New Orleans we breezed through Mississippi and Alabama and didn't do anything in either state, but instead just drove through straight on through to Niceville, FL.  We spent the 4th of July in Niceville with my aunt, uncle and cousin and then drove back to Brianne's house near Tampa, bringing our trip to a close.  It was an amazing summer and I would do it all again if I could.  There aren't enough great words to describe the awesomeness of the trip so I'll just all the posts I previously wrote peak for themselves. 

I promise I will eventually write about my trip to England, Wales, Spain and Morocco, but in a few days I will be embarking on another epic road trip adventure.  On Sunday I will begin my trip to Colorado, Utah and Arizona!!  It promises to be an awesome adventure and a wonderful chance for me to visit some of the most incredible people I know.  I've never really gone on a trip where I was more excited to see people than I was to experience the place I was visiting.  This trip is going to change that.  I could care less what I do while I'm on this trip...my main priority is to spend time with some of my favorite people in the entire world.  I cannot wait.  And I promise to update this blog more faithfully than I did on my last road trip :-)

Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

After we left Houston, I was so excited to get to New Orleans!! Brianne had been to New Orleans to see the Gators play in the Sugar Bowl and she was not excited to go back.  She kept telling me that the city was just dirty and gross.  Well, I'm glad I didn't listen to her because she was definitely wrong.  It's very apparent that she's never been to NYC if she thinks that New Orleans is dirty.  I LOVED New Orleans!  I thought it was just great!  I totally felt like I was in Europe when I was in the French Quarter and I loved every minute of it.  When we got there our first night, we found out that we'd been upgraded to a better room in our very quaint and charming hotel.  It was great!  We spent the majority of the next day in the French Quarter.  We explored the French Market, had beignets at Café du Monde (they are to die for!! So delicious!!), walked along the waterfront, bought postcards, went to the Saint Louis Cathedral which is the oldest continually operating cathedral in the country and which was absolutely beautiful (and very enjoyable for the theological scholar in me) and then we went to the aquarium (the penguins were easily the best part!).  It was a super busy day, but so worth it.  I would definitely go back to New Orleans in a heartbeat.  On our way out of the city we drove through the Garden District and admire the beautiful houses!

In the French Quarter

French Market!

St. Louis Cathedral

St. Louis Bible...absolutely stunning

Houston, we have a problem (sorry, I had to do it!)

After spending a few days in San Antonio, we headed on to Houston.  Really the only thing I wanted to see in the area was the Space Center because I am obsessed with all things NASA, astronomy and astrophysics related.  If I wasn't afraid of getting lost in space and thought I could handle the experience of multiple G's without vomiting, I might have been an astronaut.  Alas, I am not an astronaut and we no longer have a shuttle program so there's no point anyway.  But I digress.  The Space Center was super cool.  We took a tour, saw rockets, shuttles and other cool projects they had going on at the time.  We checked out the exhibits they had as well and I'm sure I acted like a five year old giddy with excitement.  I also bought some souvenirs which was money well spent.  After we finished there we trekked on to New Orleans!!

Home of the Alamo

After our amazing experience at Carlsbad Caverns, we drove through what is possibly the most boring, desolate place I have ever seen in my entire life -- West Texas.  There was literally NOTHING to see for hours and hours.  It was terrible.  But we finally made it to San Antonio where we spent a few days with some of Brianne's family friends.  San Antonio was awesome!!  It's just a really cool city. 

The first thing we did in San Antonio was go to the Alamo.  I've gotta admit, I was less than impressed.  We waited in line for awhile and once we got inside there wasn't much to see.  Also, I don't really know much about the history of the Alamo so maybe that's why I wasn't as interested as some other people.  But the architecture of the buildings within the complex was very nice.

 

 

The next thing we did was head down to the San Antonio Riverwalk.  The Riverwalk is a network of walkways along the San Antonio River that are lined with shops and restaurants and all sorts of fun things to see and do.  We took a really neat boat tour and even got to see the spot where they filmed part of "Miss Congeniality" which was so cool because I absolutely love that movie!!  After the Riverwalk we headed to the Tower of the Americas where I met someone whose husband was from Rhode Island and whose daughter was looking at Georgetown for college.  Small world.  The next day, we decided to take a break from the heat (naturally it ended up being the one day that was a little rainy and cool) and head to Schlitterbahn, the best waterpark ever.  Schlitterbahn has won the Golden Ticket Award for best waterpark every year since 1998 AND it is consistently featured on Travel Channel's show about the best/most extreme waterparks in the world so naturally I've wanted to go there for years.  And it was awesome!  The park is huge.  There are actually 2 sections -- the old, original part of the park and an entirely new section which is basically a separate park in itself.  We didn't have nearly enough time to go on all the slides so I will definitely need to get back, but I'm so glad I finally had the chance to go!! 

Along the Riverwalk

 

Does this look familiar?

 

 

 

Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns is one of the coolest places I have ever been in my life.  To get to the main section of the caverns, you need to go about 800 feet underground.  There is an elevator you can take down, but I was not about to take an elevator 800 feet underground in a cave (re: my irrational fear of elevators).  Well, it turns out that my refusal to take elevators unless absolutely necessary was a great thing because instead of a boring elevator trip down into the caverns, we were able to hike in via the natural entrance.  The natural entrance route brings you down into the caverns via the Main Corridor.  Along the way we got to see Bat Cave, Devil's Spring, Green Lake Overlook and the Boneyard, all of which we would have missed seeing if we had taken the elevator down directly into the Big Room route starting point!  It was so amazing to descend into the earth and watch the entrance grow smaller and the light emanating from it grow dimmer until eventually it could no longer be seen.  It was a fantastic experience!

Here are some fun facts about the thing we saw as we descended into the cavern via the natural entrance.  First we walked through the bat cave which is where the majority of the caverns bat population lives.  We then passed into "The Twilight Zone" which is the portion of the cave that is between light and darkness.  There is enough natural light before the twilight zone to see without the use of artificial light.  Immediately after the twilight zone, it would be pitch black without artificial light.  As we headed down into the dark portion of the cave, we entered the Green Lake Room which is one of the scenic rooms in the cave.  Apparently, back in the 40's they tested the caverns for use as a fallout shelter and used the Green Lake as an indicator of how safe they were.  They tested a nuclear bomb somewhere and waited to see if ripples appeared in the lake -- none ever did.  Pretty cool.

When we finally got down into the Big Room, I felt very satisfied with our decision to hike down via the natural entrance and things just got even better from there.  The Big Room is INCREDIBLE.  It's the largest chamber in the caverns (4000 feet long, 625 feet wide, 255 feet high) and it's the third largest chamber in America and the 7th largest in the world!!  It was absolutely amazing that you could be 800 feet underground and feel like you're in a vast open space.  Definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been!

We saw so many amazing things inside the caverns including The Bottomless Pit (which is actually about 140 feet deep), the "Rock of Ages", the "Temple of the Sun", Mirror Lake and Devil's Spring which was one of my favorite parts of the caverns.  If I'm ever back in New Mexico I would definitely go back to Carlsbad Caverns.  Definitely worth seeing.

Natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns

Descending into the caverns!

Getting further underground

Hiking back up to the surface