Day 7

Good morning!

In order for us have an extended vacation, Ken is working remotely one day per week.  Today is one of those days. Unfortulately, the wi-fi here is unreliable, at best.  We are at the Carlsbad RV park in Carlsbad, NM approximately 20 - 30 minutes from Carlsbad Cavern NP.  Our plan is to just rest and relax today, perhaps do some laundry, swimming, etc., then go to the Bat Program this evening.  Carlsbad Cavern NP is well known for its Bat Flight evening program where visitors can witness the bats leave the cave for their evening hunt.  Tomorrow we plan to tour the Cavern and some of the children will do the Junior Ranger program.  As it turns out, there will be no Cavern tours on Friday, so our timing is perfect for a tour on Thursday.

The campground here has an indoor swimming pool!!!  So, no need to reapply sunscreen every 20 minutes while swimming, although we still need it for walking around the campground, etc.

We are having a couple problems though.  The A/C in the camper did not seem to be working last night. (It was 107F at 7pm Mountain last night!)  The transmission on our Excursion got hot yesterday and we had to let it cool before proceeding.  When we stopped to set up camp, we realized that there were dried splatters of an oily liquid along the driver's side of the vehicle and the camper.  Ken checked it out and believes that the seal around the transmission line is leaking as the pan was full of fluid but when he checked the transmission fluid dipstick, there was plenty of fluid.  My cousin in Albuquerque is helping us to get an appointment with a mechanic for Saturday as the RV park manager here siad that the local mechanics are not good and to drive at least an hour north to find a decent mechanic.  Our situation does not seem critical, but it does need to be attended to before we enter the Rockies.  We will know more when we drive to Carlsbad Cavern' Bat Flight program this evening as we will leave the camper here at the rv park when we go to see the bats.  It is about 20 miles south of here, so if all goes well, we will hitch up Friday morning and head toward Albuquerque with a stop in Roswell along the way.

Not sure if this photo shows it, but the fluid sprayed the entire length of the camper as well as part of the Excursion.

Zeke on the swing set in the sprinklers at almost 8am Mountain time.  We have stayed on Eastern time and have not attemped to adjust.  

Our 2003 Excursion with a front hitch mount rack and both Honda 2000 generators.  So far, we have not used the generators as we have been staying at RV parks with electric hookups.  We drydocked one night at a Bob Evans resteraunt in Ohio and one night at Mammoth Cave NP, but it was cool enough to sleep without the A/C.