Carlsbad Caverns, NM

[ickaimp]

I LUUUUUURVE New Mexico. I don't care what state I was actually born in, New Mexico will prolly always be my home state.

-that said, last night, picking up supplies at WalMart, I got greeted to the state, cause I obviously wasn't from around here. *face palm* (granted, i get the same thing in los angeles, despite my having lived there for 20+ years, but it does get old after a while)

Today we went to Carlsbad Caverns, which I haven't been to since about 1992. Sadly, either I hadn't developed my mapping skills at that time, or they've changed the paths around because some of the stuff I remember seeing is not longer there, the trails are different and the sights are slighly out of order.

Still, massive Cthulu-y

And we got to disturb the rangers by pointing out that one of the stalagmites looked like a giant rabbit dildo. Then proceeded to ask another ranger if someone died in the caves and was left for hundreds of years, if it would mummify, like it would in the Mammoth Caves. --it won't. the humidity is high enough the body would be perfectly preserved, similar to a peat bog-- Then asked another one about what damage human presence was doing to the caves.

Turns out the number one enemy is lint. It flies away and carries all over the caves, carrying and trapping mostiure (a lot of the water in the cave systems is acidic) that hurts the formations. But it's not something that can be avoided, unless they make everyone wear protective gear, which isn't feasible.
They're also starting to build up the sides of the paths, so that the majority of dead hair and skin cells people shed can simply be vaccumed up, since 90% of it falls straight down, then gets blown away later.

We were all slightly disturbed by the cafe 750 feet under the surface.... there's cave, cave, cave, then this round and square thing in the middle of the caves with a smooth floor. Is really very jarring. Espeically since it's more of a glorified snack cart than anything else.

-were grateful for the toilets however.

Came up to the surface and my brain tried to pop my eyeballs out of their sockets so it could ooze out my eye sockets. Ended up falling face first on to the table and sleeping for a while.

People came back. Talked about seeing bats. Brain not working. Speach not working.

Got up and walked down to the auditorium where the bats fly out of the natural opening in giant billowing clouds that look almost like smoke. With my eyes closed.

Most of the way anyway. Allie grabbed my arm and steered me along so I didn't crash into things. I don't remember most of it, evidently I was snoring....

Slept for a while at the seats, got up, went to the bathroom and begged a pain killer from the lady running the souvenier cart. Which got me pain free enough to watch the bats go zooming around in circles out of the cave like some sort of demented bug eating dust cloud. Massively cool.

And there were a couple of monks watching the bats too. Hee.

Now we're back at the hotel, my brain still isn't working, but I can talk again just as long as I don't try standing up to walk. Crawling works well tho. Tomorrow we're off to Colorado. yay.

Detective Conan Fandom Related:
Kaizou is celebrating 1 year, and so the Detective Conan Translation Project just released six things today. OVA 7, episodes 238-239 (Osaka 3K, from vol 29), episodes 240-241 (bombs on the shinkansen, Sato & Takagi, vol 30) and a two-hour special, episode 263 (Heiji's first stand alone case, with Okita, vol 31), which is very much yay.
Check their tracker for torrent listings.

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[wren-chan.livejournal.com]

But then they'd get cold. It's a pretty steady 56 degrees F.