Apologies if this is a bit long but there’s a lot to cover…

We started out from Alamogordo and drove through some gorgeous scenery
to Roswell. We did the obvious trip to the UFO museum which was
exactly what we expected and then went to the Roswell Art Gallery
which was great. Some very good desert photography and a good range of
art to wander around. We’re still not convinced about the aliens!

After a quick lunch we headed south to Carlsbad Caverns which were
stunning (see pic). An elevator took us 750 feet under ground and a
very well done walkway lead us around some of the biggest and most
impressive caves we’ve ever seen. It was hard to grasp the scale at
times but the occasional information sign helped greatly.

The drive on from the caverns was meant to be an easy 2 hour drive to
our motel in Van Horn but it seems Texas had another idea!

Just a couple of minutes after crossing into Texas we saw a couple of
trucks and motorbikes stopped in the road. As we got closer we saw
that a huge storm had been through and a load of water was flowing
across the road. We got out, said hello to everyone and waited for the
water to drop enough to drive through. Unfortunately after crossing
that one there was an even deeper section further on and another wait
was needed. Finally we all crossed and headed on to Van Horn, arriving
in town at about 10pm feeling tired. But…

The storm had taken out the power in Van Horn and there was not a
light for miles. This desert darkness is so complete it was near
impossible to find our motel and when we did we were told that we
couldn’t check in as the door locks are electrical so they had to
cancel our booking!

A Wendy’s burger restaurant nearby had a generator so we had a small
dinner there and bumped into a couple we had met on the flooded road.
Thankfully they told us about a motel that had batteries on their door
locks. So we set off into the black night and eventually found the
motel and checked in. We donned our head torches (thanks C&A!), dumped
our bags and went to sleep.

At 7.30am the power came back on and we decided to have a lie in as
trains going through the town blared their horns all night to warn
drivers.

Today, after pancakes and coffee for brekkie, we drove just 3 hours to
Midland and are ready for an afternoon nap!