Wednesday, December 8, 2010

THE Trip, Odessa TX to El Paso, No, Make That Carlsbad, New Mexico

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We started the day headed for El Paso along I 20. Then, we remembered suggestions to visit the Carlsbad Caverns. We actually remembered just in time, about 30 miles east of Pecos Texas.

So, we jumped off of I 20 and headed north west on 285 to Carlsbad. Basically a 2 lane road, one of the most remote we have been on. Lost the Internet and cell phones here and there, it was that remote. In total we drove about 160 miles.

As we drove through Pecos we saw signs for a local museum. Since we had effectively cut our drive almost in half of what we had expected to do for the day, we decided to stop if we could find a place to park Big Butt and Tana. Turned out there was no issue with parking, we found a great spot right by the museum. And, what a museum we found.

West of the Pecos Museum, housed in the 1896 Saloon/1904 Orient Hotel. Because of the bedrooms upstairs the museum has individual rooms (some 50 or more) they can use for specific displays, such as a music room, a school room, a doctors office, a kitchen, a barber shop, a room that highlighted washing machines (including a wash tub and scrub board), and a display of several early telephone switchboards, and MORE!  Here are a few photos, a few of the best of the best.

The bar. The friendly bartender (decked out for the
holidays) is, mmm, mechanical, & motion detector activated,
he will tell you all about the history of the bar.

You just know they had to have a collection on Pecos Bill!

Maybe some of Reflection's readers will remember our rant at
a campground in November of 2009, when a nice (?) campground
employee told us, "this is not my first rodeo".  Man and I have never
forgotten the phrase, and laugh about it a lot.  So, dear campground
employee, were you at THE first rodeo??  1883??  Really??

Nice bottle collection, taken through the fenced in door.

And, finally, from the land of the truly bizarre, some
 kind of electric hair curler (photo to the right actually
shows some chick hooked up to this monstrosity).
Makes me really glad I gave up curls and love the
straight and natural look!
I took over 175 photos at the museum and along the road this travel day.  Man felt good this day, but, by the next day he was feeling quite punk.  So the next few days at Carlsbad I will spend catching up, reality days, laundry, dog grooming, blog writing, sleeping, resting, grocery shopping.  Man will spend it resting, updating software and such on the iPod Touch, coughing and generally feeling icky.  We are having cool nights, mild days, and buckets and buckets of sun.  We have our home on wheels, are in a campground, a few days off are not a bad thing ('cept he feels crummy, that is never a good thing). 

On the agenda while we are in Carlsbad, the Caverns, of course, there is a River Walk, and the Living Desert State Park.  When Man feels better we shall continue the trek westward.



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5 comments:

Barbara Poole said...

So Western. Fab picture of the bottles, looks like something from a magazine. And the hair curling machine scares me. Very nice museum and I'm glad you stopped.

Susan Clark said...

I've no words for chair. Honestly thought it was for an execution. The things I'm seeing through your lens, Carol! Hope Man feels better soon.

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

That chair is truly frightening. What women did for permanent waves was scary, and it still is scary if you think of all the chemicals! What a great collection of stuff.

Unknown said...

What a great find in the museum...the chair is another thing. I'm sure it was used for the long curls girls used to wear down their backs. You'll love Carlsbad Caverns just be sure to wear your most comfortable walking shoes

Jack said...

You know, that electric hair curler chair thing is a little creepy looking and has the look of a torture device, but I can't help but to look at that chair and see a kind of Duchampian piece of art. I think I'm going to talk to a couple of friends who are welders and see if I can't make something similar to it for my living room.