Spring Tour

We spent spring break on a fun-filled four-day trip through Texas and southern New Mexico. The first stop was a random "exhibit" outside of Amarillo, Cadillac Ranch. 10 Cadillacs are burried, nose first, into the ground. Visitors are able to graffiti with spray paint.

We found a left over can and let Bailey express herself.

She might have enjoyed herself a little too much.

(She was acctually pointing at a nearby dog, but looks like she is pointing at her can)

Next stop on the journey we headed to Palo Duro Canyon in TX where we met some friends willing to hike parts of the canyon with us. Such a georgous day! Of course the underlying intention with hiking was to work up an appetite for The Big Texan Steak Ranch, which would prove to be more powerful than our hunger. If you have not seen our Facebook posts lately, The Big Texan Steak Challenge is a 72oz sirloin steak served with shrimp, salad, baked potato and a roll with one hour on the clock.

Look at that determination! On Man vs. Food, the host Adam called the steak "a bicycle seat made of meat". It was HUGE!

Even though we kept Bailey up way too late she was in good a good mood cheering on Daddy.

Although Chance could not finish the meal he did eat the shrimp, salad, roll and baked potato along with 45oz of steak. 27oz of leftovers. Over 48,000 have attempted, only 8,000 have succeded.

We finally left Amarillo with full bellies and made it to Lubbock, TX where we spent time with friends, recovering, relaxig, and believe it or not - ate more delicious Texan foods.


Monday, we left for Carlsbad, NM, but having left too late to visit the caverns we spent the night and hiked the caverns the next morning. If ever you make it to Carlsbad Caverns we recommend you hike the natural entrance. Don't opt for the elevator.
The forms taken in the caves are amazing to see and none of our amateur photographs due them any justice. We hope you enjoy them anyway.

Taking the natural entrance drops 750 ft in about a mile.

I thought this one looked like and old man's hand pointing up to the ceiling.

This is the "Rock of Ages", I think because you can see the layers forming, like rings in a tree stump.



After lunch we continued on our way to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Thank goodness for the time change over the weekend as we had just enough daylight to make it to White Sands to watch the sunset over the San Andres Mountains (after running out of gas earlier in the day, and waiting an hour and a half to get going again).

Here is how the National Park Service describes White Sands:

Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and created the world's largest gypsum dune field.

They're like a giant sandbox and Bailey loved it.

Now with life back to normal, it's time to gear up for the final months of school and look forward to summer.