The gas regulator was installed this morning so we are back in business for cooking on the stove. After a good breakfast of sausage and eggs, we packed everything up and stopped at the gas station across the road from the campground to fuel up before heading to Carlsbad, NM. The drive took about 3 hours and at first the scenery was very boring....the same thing for miles on end.
Then the scenery changed quickly as we entered Guadalupe National Park. The mountains there were beautiful to look at with striking peaks.
Beyond the national park was more flat land but gradually we saw more homes and businesses as we drove through Whites City and finally came to Carlsbad where we are staying at an RV Park called Coyote Flats RV. It is large, very new, but not well maintained. The wifi is weak, the showers cost $5, and they don't clean up the trash from sites before the next traveler arrives to use the site. We picked up a bag of trash on our site. Most of the campers here are workers in the area rather than folks like us staying just a few days. We will make due for 2 nights, and will use our own shower.
Early this evening, before sunset, we drove to the visitor's center at Carlsbad National Park to see the bats exit the cave at dusk. The youtube video below shows a little of what we witnessed the bats' exit from the cavern beginning about 6:05 and continuing beyond 6:30, with over 300,000 bats flying out of the cavern to find food in the form of moths up to 35 miles away. They will reenter the cavern before dawn and repeat the process tomorrow evening. They did not allow us to photograph or video the bats exodus.
https://youtu.be/yLufIO5fZ6o?si=VMspfU5hnoXdcUNB
