Carlsbad/Roswell, NM

Carlsbad was originally christened the town of Eddy on September 15, 1888 and organized as a municipal corporation in 1893; the settlement bore the name of Charles B. Eddy, co-owner of the Eddy-Bissell Livestock Company. With the commercial development of local mineral springs near the flume for medicinal qualities, the town later voted to change its name to Carlsbad after the famous European spa Carlsbad, Bohemia (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic). On March 25, 1918, the growing town surpassed a population of 2,000, allowing then-governor of New Mexico Washington Ellsworth Lindsey to proclaim Carlsbad a city.

Carlsbad Caverns National State Park, these were some of the pueblos above the caves.

The cave was the largest I've ever seen, it is 850 ft.
down by way of carved out steps and walkways and what goes down must come up.

 There were pools and springs throughout the cave, places where the stalactites looked like chandeliers.

 The workout that you get from this cave would challenge even Jillian Michaels but the views are worth it. 

This is some of the mountainside in the national park, most of New Mexico is flat and treeless but there are areas like this where there's mountain's.

 

 Sitting Bull Falls is a series of waterfalls located in a canyon in the Lincoln National Forest southwest of the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The falls are fed by springs located in the canyon above. The water flows through a series of streams and pools until reaching the falls where it drops 150 feet into the canyon below. Most of the water disappears into the gravel or cracks in the rocks and either reappears in springs further down the canyon or joins the Pecos Valley underground water supply.

There are cougars that live in this area and often kill any cows or other wildlife that's in the park after hours, the park closes early for this reason.




The man in this photo was not eaten by a cougar, yet........

Panoramic View of the mountains from the top of the hike.

  Roswell is a city in New Mexico. it is the fifth-largest city in New Mexico. It is a center for irrigated farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production.

 John Chisum had his famous Jingle Bob Ranch about 5 miles (8 km) from the center of Roswell, at South Spring Acres. At the time, it was the largest ranch in the United States.

 If you recognize the name it is because John Wayne played him in the movie "Chisum".
In the 1930s, Roswell was a site for much of Robert H. Goddard's early rocketry work. His work alongside people like Oppenheimer helped to create the Atomic Bomb and future rocket fuels, his work with rockets is still used today.

The town is also noted for being the home of Pat Garrett, the Sheriff famous for killing Billy the Kid. Pat and Billy were childhood friends but after Pat became the sheriff that all changed.
It is also home to a man named Brazel who not only shot and killed Pat Garret but got off of the conviction claiming it was self defense. Even in that day and time that was unbelievable, meaning someone knew a judge, but that brings us to Roswell's claim to fame 1947 when a rancher named Brazel, the nephew of the earlier rancher saw what he thought was a falling aircraft. 

The story continues from there with intrigue, crime, conspiracy and cover up but I am pleased to inform everyone that aside from the museum exhibits, the only Aliens I saw were of the illegal immigrant variety. Sad that a town with so much history and important people is always foreshadowed by little green men, even the paper covering the story in 1947 highlighted this silly event and at the bottom in very small print was the murder of a women by strangulation that didn't even get a second look, I think as humans we often miss what is really important and only want to see the gossip page, and maybe we aren't alone in this galaxy, it would be naive to think this is all just for us but we are here to take care of this planet and its inhabitants, we are here to find love, understanding and forgiveness and you don't have to leave Earth to do so.

Be kind to one another, until next time.       

San Antonio, TX

 San Antonio original home to the Payaya indians, was discover by Spanish Catholic explorer's in 1691 it wasn't until 1709 when Father Antonio De Oliveras decided to build missions and a settlement there. It was 1716 before it was approved and 1718 before construction began and the town was founded.

The Mission San Antonio De Valero
 "The Alamo" as it would later be known,  built in 1744.
This is just one of five well known missions in San Antonio, Espada,  San Juan and mission Cincepcion which were built in the 1600's were moved in 1731 to San Antonio, San Jose mission,  they filled the missions with local indian converts for labor, due to the mixing cultures the Spanish married into the payaya's and Texian's which

created what would become Tejano's. In 1719 the Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo requested that the Spanish government send people from the Canary Islands, Havana and other places to populate Texas, Later in the 1800's people from England, Ireland and other places came to melt into this huge pot of cultures. In 1821 the Mexican army gained control of the Alamo after the Mexican War Of Independence, from then until 1835 it was manned by General Martin Perfecto De Cos, after the Texas Revolution Colonal James C. Neill stationed his 100 Texians believing the war was over, he also had another 200 sent to fortify it.

On Feb. 23 1836 he found out he was wrong,  General Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo that killed everyone but the women and children. Men like James Bowie, David Crockett, William B. Travis (who's statue looks like Liam Neeson) Just to name a few well known men died that day.
That defeat however gave texians the courage to fight for freedom and defeat the Mexican army once and for all some months later, giving Texas the try and take it attitude of today.

                                                                              
Depicted in the above picture is the original Bowie knife that James Bowie used in his famous fight, I got in a lot of trouble for taking this photo. Below is a memorial for lost men of the battle. 













The San Jose Mission The mission was founded on February 23, 1720, though the first buildings were just made of brush, straw, and mud, were quickly replaced by large stone structures, including guest rooms, offices, a dining room, and a pantry. A heavy outer wall was built around the main part of the mission, and rooms for 350 Indians were built into the walls. In 1768 the Church was built and in 1782 it was completed.

 The mission is still used for prayer and reflection though no one lives there anymore.

Below is the San Antonio Riverwalk, great place for shopping and a boat ride, also the spot on the bridge where part of the movie "Selena" was filmed, hence they call it the Selena bridge.



This has been one of the harder blogs for me to write, right in the middle of this trip we lost a very special family member, coming back to this entry seemed impossible, I didn't know if I could finish it, but they loved travel as much as I do and they wouldn't want me to give up, on anything, so I am ending with the last things I did before leaving and trying to keep happiness in front of me. Until next time.

New Orleans,LA

La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans.
 Napoleon sold Louisiana (New France) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
The story goes that Napoleon originally was gifted New Orleans by the Spanish king, Napoleon wanted it because he had sugar plantations new there and could sell and ship his sugar better with that port, but when his sugar plantations burnt down and he no longer needed the port he offered it to the United States for 10 million dollars, he then realized he didn't need any of that region anymore and told them if they through in another 5 million he would sell them the whole state, they excepted and it became the Louisiana Purchase.

  The french Quarter is full of bustling streets, Jazz music and french creole architecture.

 Marie Laveau was the so called voodoo Queen of New Orleans, she was actually a hair dresser and devout catholic whom used superstition and the salon gossip to elevate herself in a world where the only opportunities given to women of color were the ones you took.






Since Hurricane Katrina it has taken this city 8 years to even come close to where it was, there is still old business buildings that need to be demoed and replaced but the spirit of New Orleans has returned.

The Cafe Du Monde opening in 1862 by a creole freed slave women,  whom sold coffee on the side and earned enough money to buy he freedom, she opened the Cafe as well as buying carts to sell the coffee on the city streets and employed other slaves so that they would also earn the money to pay for their freedom. They have been serving coffee and beignets out of the building ever since. They survived two major Hurricanes, the French, Slavery and inflation. Cafe Du Monde is a Historical gem and a must visit anytime your in town.

  

Orlando, FL Vol 2

Well here we are again, I wish I had an amazing amount of history or info on this half of our trip but sadly it was all spent at Universal Studios Theme Parks, which in a whole are not that special historically. It opened July 7, 1990, one of the key partners was Spielberg. A funny tidbit about Universal Studios Film Company, which started in 1912, is that they are the very people that stole Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Walt Disney, which I learned that they just got the rights back for about a year ago, they traded Universal a sports caster, yep they traded a human for a cartoon.

 We went to the Harry Potter area where rode the Hogwarts Express, look through the shops and rode the rides.

 Here are some of the characters we saw, Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, Minions, Beetle Juice, Bumble Bee.

 We also got to see these guys perform as the blues brothers, they did a really good job.

this was the simpsons area, I really wanted a duff beer.
they had a Moe's Tavern that looked just like the real Moe's.

 Sea World, the shows here were really cute,
lots of cute tricks.

 I got to feed these guys some fish, they yelled at me when I ran out.

 these guys were so cute, holding hands, hugging, they were really having some fun together.

This little emperor penguin was off in a corner all buy himself looking sad, he must have been naughty and got grounded.  

 This was at Busch Gardens, I got to pet the Kangaroos, feed the giraffes and lorals.

 the giraffes were trained to let you rub their necks, I loved it.

the birds kept screaming in my ears when I wasn't feeding them, after the food was gone one hung around and tickled my ears for a while.













From Wilda beasts to Gazelles to Rams, they had it all.

 Kennedy Space Center, this is Dennis trying to lay in one of the first examples of the capsules, to say that they were a tight fit is an understatement.

 Here we are sitting in a two man capsule, still cramped but not as bad.



Below is a copy of the Hubble Telescope and landing capsule that went to the moon.

A real Apollo mission capsule , the new orbit crafts by boeing look a lot like this.

 this is the actual Atlantis space shuttle, it was displayed after the very last shuttle mission in 2011.

 This is a piece of the Challenger shuttle that crashed shortly after take off in 1986, a school teacher was lost in this crash.

 this is the windshield of the Columbus Shuttle,
which exploded opon re-entry in 2007.
Though very tragic these two accidents resulted in NASA making changes that would ensure that these kinds of accidents will never happen again.

 This is the VAB, it is where the shuttles were made, they are looking to reuse it somehow later.

 the control room at the control center, just as it was after the last mission in 2011, now it is being changed for commercial and private launching companies, (boeing, elon musk ect.)

these were real rockets that sent the shuttles up.
so much to see here but I'm glad its over, we are exhausted.