Do all good things end?

How could I ever have known that I really would come back from Phoenix raised as a Phoenix from the ashes. If you ever find yourself in a situation that you need some time for yourself go to the Arizona deserts when they are in blossom and enjoy everything you find out there.

Okay I'm on my way back to Amsterdam while I write this. At the last entry of my blog I was in Austin, TX. I went from there to Dallas. And before you ask, I missed the South Fork Ranch and Sue Ellen. I made it to downtown instead and saw the spot where JFK was shot.

In the evening I had an appointment with Tom, a friend of Rick and Derek from Butte, MT. Tom lives with his cute dog in a wonderful former warehouse close to downtown. Tom is a smart, good looking guy with brains and humor. We had an entertaining evening together.

Trough Fort Worth and Abilene I went westbound on I-20/30 to Grand Spring, TX where I left the Interstate. Heading North/West I reentered New Mexico and went to Carlsbad. Of course there is absolutely no resemblance between Carlsbad, NM and the original Karlsbad in the Czech Republic.

Near Carlsbad are the Carlsbad Caverns in a National Park. The caverns are famous for two things: bats and the cave with stalagmites and stalactites. The caverns are part of the Guadalupe Mountain Range, actually a prehistoric reef made of limestone. Since limestone can be solved easily in an acidic environment, that's exactly what happened and how the cavities in the mountains were formed. Carlsbad Caverns has two entrances a natural one that the bats use and that's how the caverns were discovered and one via the visitor center through an elevator that brings visitors in 87 seconds 230 meters below the surface of the earth. Down there is an unearthly atmosphere. The most beautiful shaped rocks and stalactites/stalagmites can be found there. The lightning in there was installed by a Broadway lightning specialist and makes everything even more dramatic.

Of course I took the natural entrance through the bat cave as well. Just before you enter the cave there is built an amphitheater where visitors can see the bats fly out of the cave when the evening falls. Millions of bats will come out of the cave at the same time. It takes them more then 20 minutes until they are all out of there. You can imagine that entrance stinks of all the bat guano there. Once I was beyond the point where the bats are the trail brought me downwards into the cave very quickly. After about one hour a reached the elevator and made made my way up to the warm sun light again.

The next stop was the Guadalupe Mountains NP back in Texas (“The proud home of our president George W. Bush”). I took a desert hike here for 3 hours along a party dried out river. It was a wonderful hike. I saw cacti, birds, lizards and even a small snake.

The last day of my tour I was taking the scenic route back to Phoenix. I wanted to visit the cliff dwellings at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, but when I was nearly there I found myself caught in a big bicycle race: The Tour of the Gila. It seemed that I was driving right behind the first three cyclists of the tour and I some point they took me out of the tour. I had to wait for three hours to continue my way or I had to turn around and go back to the main road. There was no other way to reach the National Park. Since I did not have the time to wait for three hours I turned around, continued my way and visited a ghost town instead. The drive through the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona was spectacular to say the least. I went trough woods, followed little streams crossed big canyons and had great views along the winding roads. I enjoyed the ride very much.

Back in Phoenix I stayed at James' place. Together we went to the state capitol and the botanical gardens. And on Saturday we had lunch with Kirk, Brian and Harry at “Los Dos Molinos”. It was Mexican food with lots of Margaritas as you can guess by the name.

On Sunday James brought me to the airport (called Sky Harbor in Phoenix) and here I am Flying home to Amsterdam.