TWB July 14th 2018 Experience: Day 4- Carlsbad Caverns

Day 4: Carlsbad Caverns

Yo yo yo! Welcome to the dopiest blog of the trip, brought to you by Brandon Ruff, Hana Blair, Callie Bryant, Caroline Royals, Emma Schieck, Lilly Beth Glenn, Morgan Edwards, Leslie Coffey, Nicholas Mullis, Rachel Sealy, Garrett Duque, and Will Bradley.

FIRST OFF, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PRESTON BISSON AND AINSLEY BUTLER!!!!!!

We woke up at 5:15 AM to the shrieking sounds of bagpipes. We groggily loaded the buses and we also had to sprint two laps around the buses to prepare for the Grand Canyon. Everybody very quickly fell back sound asleep on the buses. We eventually stopped at a bus stop and anticipated Dallas’ van, whom took the scenic route that included traveling 10 miles in the wrong direction #TeensEastwardBound. The rest stop map helped guide our journey across Texas, eventually leading to the Carlsbad Caverns. The rest stop also gave us time to explore the local wildlife of beetles; turns out even the bugs are bigger in Texas.

We departed from the rest stop, where we had a wonderful breakfast of bagels, poptarts, and Cutie oranges. Emily Beck and Mikalya Brumbles had their very first bagels today for breakfast. On the bus, we continued our journey across Texas by jamming to Party in the USA, God Bless the USA, and other TWB classics. We had a taste of reality at a Flying J with Cinnabon, chicken wings, pizza, and 50L water jugs. We loaded the buses and shared memories of embarrassing stories and elementary school troublemaking stories, led by Dallas.

We finally arrived in the arid state of New Mexico after countless hours of Harrison yelling about oil rigs every time he saw one. TWB soon made its’ way to Carlsbad Caverns, one of the breathtaking Seven Wonders of the World. We arrived to the entrance of the caverns where Logan Trotter presented information about the Carlsbad Caverns and Lilly Beth Glenn taught us about the state of New Mexico.

We escaped the desert heat by embracing a fantabulous and rejuvenating temperature change to 56 degrees in the caves. While lowering ourselves into the dimly-lit, impressive, and gargantuan caverns, we channeled our inner Indiana Jones as we quietly hiked the two-mile trail (no booby traps though L). As we stopped to take pictures, we appreciated the majesty of the icicle-like rock formations. As tempting as it was, we did not touch the calcite structures of the rock, as advised by the park ranger (we were told to rub our front teeth because the material had a similar texture). After our hike, we reached two small elevators and took turns cramming sixteen people inside at a time. We quickly resurfaced as the elevator hastily climbed 750 ft. The last minutes of the caverns were used by roaming around the gift shop taking pictures with each other.

We loaded back into the buses with our souvenirs in hand to make our way to Roswell! Our first stop in Roswell was our long-lost friend, Walmart, which we hadn’t visited in 24 hours. While traveling to Walmart, we passed by endless alien-themed decorations. The new cooks (Grumpys) loaded on a Mexican-themed dinner while people visited the equisite cuisine of McDonald’s. Our first alien encounter of this mysterious town was with a bird that repeatedly flew into the bus windows. Around 7:00 pm (Mountian State time zone), we arrived to the New Mexico Military Institute, where we were informed about the history and interesting facts about NMMI by Colonel Jeff Cunningham. Grant Berry gave us our information about Roswell and Ben Campbell presented the history of NMMI.

Later that night, we ate delicious tacos made by the Grumpys. We then created an Eno Cavern on the drill field's pull-up bars. We concluded the night with a sing-along, making sure to sing happy Birthday to both Ainsley and Preston individually. We finished the night with an information session about tomorrow’s events and then showers. See you all tomorrow!!! Dopeys out!