Day 5, Wednesday, July 6

First - we struck out on good deeds today. We've been doing pretty well, but nothing surfaced today.

We drove around a while in Pecos to get the local flavor. There's a huge division between the haves and haves nots there. Most of the town looks like it could be a Mexican city, but the wrong side of the tracks is really rough. We even saw a couple recent graves in the poorer side cemetery that were shallow graves. Sad.

Then on to the West of the Pecos Museum that was a lot of fun. Pecos is the home of the first ever rodeo back in the 1800s and was also where Judge Roy Bean took control. Paul Newman played him in a movie a while back. Judge Bean did things like making two criminals have a fist fight in the Rio Grande River.

Two hours later we were at Carlsbad National Park. Being a senior I have a lifetime pass to national parks so it was free. We like free. We also like Carlsbad. It has the largest limestone cavern in the western hemisphere and it earns the name Big Room. Great visit for us. We took the elevator down to the caverns, Pee Wee took it back it up while I did the steep one mile winding hike back up, only because I didn't want to wait for the elevator. Bats and birds are all over the place at the part where you walk out after the long hike. Plus guano is plastered all around too. Guano is bat poop. A guy walking next to me got bombed with bird poop, I made it out safely.

Then we drove straight north where we ended up tonight in Clovis, New Mexico. On the way there, as we drove on roads where we could go ten minutes without seeing another car, we bumped into stuff. Like where Brian Urlacher played high school football and donated the HUGE field house. Like my tire store. Like a giant windmill that was so close to the road that the wind from the massive arms was so loud we could hear it. Like roadrunner birds scampering across the road. Like Tatum, New Mexico. Our memory buttons went off when approaching Tatum. That's because 8 years ago we drove on the highway intersecting with the one we were on today. 8 years ago in Tatum we signed a petition for New Mexico to secede from the country. I think we used names of friends. Today we recognized the exact spot where we signed the petition. And guess what - New Mexico is still a state.

Anyone reading this leave a guess of the price of the shirt Pee Wee's holding, then tell us why. I was looking for a long sleeved shirt for the caverns and didn't buy this one.

Tomorrow ... well we don't know what's going on tomorrow. But we'll try to do better with the good deeds. Let me know if anyone wants a good deal on tires.