In Praise of Skilled Workmanship, Carlsbad Caverns, No Whining Cafe

November 7, 2008 - Friday - Carlsbad, NM

Wellll... "Monroe's" right rear tire was very low again this morning - so we figured we'd better actually do something about it. We limped next door to a gas station and pumped it up full, then asked Leila where Tire stores were in Carlsbad - and headed toward one. But on the way, we passed "AA Tire Co", so I pulled into the driveway, but then noticed a Wal-Mart across the street with a Tire center, so decided that I'd rather have something from Wal-Mart (so I could get it serviced anywhere if I needed to) - and drove across to the Wal-Mart. Got pointed to "she'll take care of you" and waited until she was done on the phone (another customer). Annnd she proceeded to do the "standard WalMart procedure" and collect all of the information about my life history. Engine size. Color of my car. My Phone number - having to *re*enter most information. Before we ever got to "and what size tire are you looking for?" Sigh. You guessed it. They don't carry Bridgestone tires - and I wanted to match what was there so I didn't have to replace the pair. So I wasted about 20 minutes finding out that they didn't have anything close to what I needed.

So I drove *back* across the street to "AA Tire Co", pulled up, and the owner walked right over and asked what the trouble was. I told him that I thought I had a leak in the sidwall and wondered if he could match the tire. He took a look and said "I can PATCH that". Uhh... Really? So he slid a jack under Monroe, popped the tire off, discovered immediately that there was a *screw* buried in the tread - and rolled it in the back to fix it.

10 minutes later, he had patched the tread, confirmed that the side-wall blemish was *not* leaking and the tire was back on the car. He asked for $10.68. I figure that *IF* WalMart had done the job, I would have wound up replacing at least 2 tires - and it would have likely been $300 by the time I got done.

I'll take this opportunity to remind myself that we really do need to support and appreciate the few *craftsmen* left in America - who actually know what they're doing and have a SKILL. The guys who look at something and say "I can fix that" - rather than throwing it away - and who really *CAN* fix stuff. My salutes to this gentleman.

So. Off to Carlsbad Caverns - about 30 minutes outside of Carlsbad, NM. We used our National Park Pass (again - we're up to $140 of "use" on the pass - which cost $85 for the year) to get free admission to the unescorted tours: the "Natural Entrance" (as opposed to the elevator which takes you straight down 750 feet):
and the "Big Room" tours. You just wander down a *mile* of paved trail - to get down into the main cavern - *** 750 feet *** underground. It's a BIG cave. Then you wander around a paved path thru the "Big Room" - the largest single chamber of any cave anywhere other than Borneo.

It was beautiful.
It was amazing both for the size - and for the fact that a commercial cave with *that* many visitors - still has beautiful formations and structures. Sigh. I know I keep saying this on this trip, but "Words Fail".
Particularly when I add that Kathy and I got to stroll along at our own pace, hand-in-hand - in this fairy-land. It has been lit by a Broadway lighting technician - to keep it subdued and still feeling like a *cave* and preserving some of the natural coloring - and it's just - beautiful.
We finished the unescorted tours, then took the elevator up for lunch (there *is* a gift shop and small cafe down in the caverns, but there isn't much there since this is the slow time of the year). The elevators were very appreciated: we didn't even want to *think* about walking back up the path we took *in*.

Then we grabbed the tripod for the camera and took the elevator back down for our "Palace Rooms" tour - escorted.
Photographic tip: a tripod is *really* helpful for getting non-blurred photos in a cave.
You really don't want to use flash since it washes out the colors - and the ambience. So. With Kelly's great camera - on a tripod -
and allowing the camera to just take as long as *it* thought the shutter should be open (up to *15 seconds!!!*):

Wow. Just WOW. We've seen lots of caves before, but the formations are - again - impressive because they are so *huge* - reminding us of just how long it took to form them - one little drip at a time - and because they are so complex and delicate and beautiful in their own right.
We were shown thru the Queen's Chamber and the King's Chamber - and on out of the cave - to wait for the evening flight of the bats.

Yes. Bats. There are something like 5 million bats who "summer" in Carlsbad Caverns - and it is quite impressive to see them emerge from the very opening we went down in earlier - each evening. So we sat and reverently waited, but it turned out that our luck didn't work that way this time: it is suspected that the bulk of the bats have already left for Mexico - as of 2 days ago. So no show this evening. But that's OK.

We drove back to Carlsbad and found a fun dinner place - the "No Whiner Diner".
One of the signs had "Whiner Diner" - so I thought it was for me (no kidding) - but when we got inside - we saw that the name had a circle around it with a line thru it - for *NO* Whiner Diner. Lots of fun. Lots of silly things to make the menu more fun - like a line at the bottom finishing with "management is not responsible for poor life choices on your part". Happy, fun waitress and staff. Very-good food. Finishing with a *great* slice of pumpkin pie. This place *should* be in the "Diners, Drive-in's, and Dive's". A great dinner - with each other - to finish a great day together.

8165 miles. Heading for Dallas tomorrow.