Trip out West - Drive to Carlsbad Caverns

Day 4; Monday, July 2nd
Drive from San Antonio, TX to Carlsbad, NM

Another early start for us as it was the day to pick up the rental car and start the road trip aspect of our journey.  Matt drove us back to the Austin Airport, with James in tow – the cute little boy didn’t want us to leave.  In the few short days we’d been with Matt’s family, James had grown rather fond of us.  I he even tried getting into the car (an adorable little silver 2007 Saturn Ion).

Still, we somehow managed to all pull ourselves away, we said our goodbyes to our gracious Texas hosts and off we went towards New Mexico.

The interesting thing about driving in Texas is that everyone goes the speed limit.  Either there’s strict law enforcement in that state, or folks are quite content booking along at the very legal 80 miles per hour.  Speed aside; it was still a long drive to Carlsbad, NM (the next stop on our itinerary). 

That evening we dined at a Sonics – a first me.  For those not familiar: it’s a 50’s style eatery where you order at a drive-up-like kiosk and they bring your food out to your car.  It was fun.

Our motel was interesting – each room had an adjoined carport.  I’d never encountered something like that before; it was pretty neat!