Day 4: Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Everyone!

Lookin good in Twenty Eleven. Woot.

It was an emotional morning: We got up, checked out, re-packed the car, and then headed for Carlsbad Caverns. The rest of the day was  filled with adventure and more driving.
But there is a bit more to the story than that...

Have you ever had your foot ran over? by a car? loaded to the brim with your owns things? As of today...ya me too. I mean who hasn't? lol. I'll tell you one thing though, if you are going to get your foot ran over avoid wearing flip flops when it happens. Just saying. It might make for a nice bruise pattern, but it is possible that it would be less painful if one were to wear a different form of footwear.

This looked like an Amazing Race stop.

As if getting your foot ran over by your own car weren't embarrassing enough, I also cried this morning.  Not because my foot hurt, it surprisingly didn't hurt much at all. Rather because it hit me that today is one of the last days I'll get to spend with Bradley before his mission. So there I am driving down the New Mexico highway balling my eyes out and poor Darb didn't know what to do. What can anyone do when a girl is being all emotional?
Finally, we got to the caverns and by then I'd stopped crying and Brad and I were joking because sometimes my GPS is ridiculous.

The actual entrance to the Restrooms
at the bottom of the Cavern.

Carlsbad Caverns are so cool, but watch out for troll drool. he. he.
I think the best part of the whole experience was the bottom of the cave. I drank gatorade, ate a turkey and cheese sammish, shopped, sent a postcard, visited the restroom...all at the bottom of a cave!! it was awesome!
After we left Carlsbad, I took the wrong turn and we ended up going down an empty Texas Hill country road. Highway 54. It was simply beautiful. Miles of visibility, dry plains with Texan mountains in the background. Brad said it looked like a road from a car commercial. It may have been gorgeous, but it was a much longer route than the other freeway I should have taken. Personally, I'm glad I accidentally went down Highway 51.

Bradley and Lord Darlington on Highway 51

A couple hours ago we arrived in Fort Stockton, Texas. The only thing we had to do was find a place to stay the night. After price checking a few different hotels, we were blessed to get a room at this Quality Inn. I got us the room at 1/2 rate because the new guy working at the hotel took an hour trying to figure out another person's reservation. About every ten minutes I wanted to leave and go find somewhere else to stay, but I just had a feeling that I should wait and that everything would work out. And it did. Patience is a Virtue. Once we settled into our room, we headed back out to find food and ended up getting some awful chinese. It was supposed to be the best Chinese place in town, but it is not hard to be the best when it is the only Chinese restaurant in town. Both of us are tired and not feeling our best, so we just came back to our room to watch some TV.  And that's what we're doing right now. Watching Nick @ Nite and ironically The Nanny is playing. I can't believe tomorrow I'll be at The Collin's and Tuesday will be my first day as a Nanny.