There is a lot to talk about on this trip and there are a lot of pictures (although only about 1/3 of what we took). We left the OC on April 11 and arrived at Whites City, NM on the afternoon of April 12. There are only a few pictures for this post so don’t pour a cold one just yet.
This was a somewhat more complex adventure than most of our recent trips. There was an airport shuttle (Thanks Kylie!). This was followed by a short flight to Phoenix; an hour+ wait for a flight to Albuquerque; a shorter flight than the wait for the flight (all checked bags arrived!); a car rental encounter at ABQ with a Dollar Rent a Car employee who was not of American descent, obviously hated his job and then got PO’d at me because I could not hear him well enough to understand him. He then proceeded to be utterly disgusted with me since I refused the rip off additional insurance. Through all of that… it was a flippin’ miracle that we got a truly fine, almost brand new out of the box Nisson Murano SUV. A short jaunt to Casa de Pat and a delicious light dinner and early to bed.
Next morning, bright and early, we hit the road for Whites City, NM which is about 7-miles east of Carlsbad Caverns at the bottom of the hill. It was a little over 295 miles and an almost a 5-hour trip with stops. The first 60 miles on I-40 to Clines Corners were scenic…. then we turned south on US-285. While the road is in extremely good condition, I believe that this stretch of road has changed my mind on the most boring stretch of road in America. For entertainment, as we would top a hill and look off in the distance along that straight ribbon of highway, we would note the mileage and guess as to how far ahead we could see the road. There was a 13-mile stretch in there that won on this trip. It continued straight for another several miles, but a hill had blocked our view. We stopped in Roswell, NM (yes that Roswell with little green men) for a quick, nutritious, delicious lunch at a Wendy’s and back on the slog south. The trip south from Roswell was more entertaining as there was oil and gas production to see and a lot of not great looking homesteads with couches in the yard and 10-20 rusted out parts cars and trucks in the yards. BTW, you can get 5-acres of God’s country (only one that wants it) for the staggering amount of $2,500. I suspect that is surface rights only in this part of the world.
Whites City (named for Charlie White – not Jim White [see later posts]) is not a booming metropolis by any stretch of the imagination. It owes its entire existence to people turning to go to Carlsbad Caverns. The park being closed during the covid era pretty well devastated Whites City. It is slowly clawing its way back. There are 3 motels (1 open), one cafe (not often open), an RV park (full), gas station, grocery (see cafe note), souvenir shop and a couple of other empty stores. The gas station is open 24-hours but if pay at the pump is busted, you are SOL. the grocery and the cafe both seem to close at 3:00 PM. We stayed at the motel for the princely sum of $80/night. It was clean, bed was sleepable and an OK base of operations except the refrigerator was not functional and getting ice from the motel office was not always successful. Luckily Joy and Larry had started their adventure for 2023 meeting up with us at Whites City and they provided some ice for chilling the wine. A quick run the 16 miles back north to Carlsbad, NM with Joy and Larry in out trusty Nissan, based on our no-tell motel office ladies recommendation, netted an extremely delicious and a massive Mexican meal, topped off with real-sugar Orange Fanta.
