Road Trips & History Lessons pt 1 - White Sands & Lincoln

Last weekend we decided to take an overnight trip to Lincoln, NM and Carlsbad Caverns. We got up early Friday morning and set out for Lincoln. Our trip would take us up through Lincoln, trough Roswell, stopping for the night along the way, and then on to Carlsbad Caverns Saturday morning.

Once again, let me tell you the weather in New Mexico is very nice, but highly unpredictable especially in the mountains. We set out with clear skies and headed toward Lincoln. We passed through White Sands - which was very interesting. Dunes of white sand stretched along the road for a mile or so, then.....just disappeared.

We proceeded on our way, making good time, headed towards Lincoln, winding our way in and out of the mountains. Trust me when I say ANYWHERE you seem to go in New Mexico, there are awesome views. Even local trips to the grocery store leaves me looking around in awe at the scenery. Like our previous trip to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, the higher we rose into the mountains, the more the weather changed. It wasn't long before we were running into snow once again. Onward we went.

We arrived in Lincoln, NM shortly before lunch. Here's the history lesson part - Lincoln, NM was site of the Lincoln county "war" which took place in the 1870's between two "entrenched factions" over - yep you guessed it - wealth and power! Anyone remember the movie "Young Guns"?? That movie was based on the Lincoln County war. John Tunstall, an Englishman, arrived in the New Mexico territory hoping to establish himself as a profitable cattle rancher. He soon discovered that Lincoln County was controlled both economically & politically by Lawrence Murphy & James Dolan who didn't want to give up any of their government beef contracts or the power they had established. When Tunstal was murdered by members of the Murphy/Dolan "gang" the war began. Men working for Tunstal, who called themselves "Regulators" were deputized and charged with bringing the guilty parties to justice, but instead handed out some old fashion justice of their own. They went from hunting the guilty men to being hunted themselves. One famous "Regulator" was William Henry McCarty - aka-William H. Bonney..aka-Billy the Kid. The town of Lincoln was very small but many of the original buildings from the 1870's are still in existence. The Tunstall general store was still there as well as the court house where Billy the Kid once escaped. I found this bit of history fascinating, but the "boys" didn't find it very exciting.

After leaving Lincoln....we headed down through Roswell, NM but that's a story for part 2 of Road Trips & History lessons. Part 2 coming soon!!!!

"I MADE A POOpy"

As every parent knows....potty training can be and almost always is difficult, trying and very frustrating at times. It's one of those things that need constant vigilance and constant reminders.

We have been working with LB for some time now trying to get him to understand EXACTLY what the potty is for. NO!! it's not for washing G.I. Joe, it's not for seeing which car can swirl around the bowl the fastest....it's for going potty (tee teeing and poo pooing). We've tried explaining it to him over and over, we've tried taking things away when he went potty in his pants, we tried bribing him.....NOTHING seemed to work. I'll admit I was getting a little concerned. LB will be starting Pre-K in the fall (or so I hope) but I knew he would have to be potty trained completely before this could happen.

We finally got it through to him the proper uses of the potty and he has done really well with the tee teeing part. But come hell or high water....he would NOT go poo poo in the potty. I finally asked LB one day a couple of weeks ago if I took him to WalMart and let HIM pick out his very own potty seat if he'd try to go poo poo on the potty then. "mmmhmm yes Mommy, I go poopy on the potty then". So off we went to WalMart...LB picked out his very own potty seat, and I'm thinking "finally...he'll go potty". OH!! I should have known it wouldn't be THAT simple. (*laughs*) We arrived home, set the potty seat in place and then it started all over again. Crying and screaming "I dun wanna go potty". So potty seat didn't work either. So back to the pleading and bribing.

Well about a week ago BD had a dollar laying around and LB wanted it badly. So BD told him that if he'd go poo poo in the potty he could have the dollar then take it to the store and buy a car. Well LB said o.k. and I thought for sure that it would never work. A short time later LB decides that he wants to use his new potty seat and go try to poo poo. I'm sitting in the living room, BB having helped LB onto the potty, when I hear this excited yell......."I MADE A POOPY!!!!!". I didn't want to laugh and discourage LB but it was very hard to get up from the sofa from giggling. The way he yelled it....he was SO SO proud of himself, and he yelled it for ALL the world to hear. Well of course we all crowded into the bathroom to see this "poopy" he'd made. LB had the biggest grin across his face and was standing beside the potty, almost jumping up and down saying "see my poopy, see my poopy....I made a poopy". It's one of those things that instantly erased all of the headaches, the head banging, and other fit throwing (by ME not LB - lol) over potty training.

We've had one or two "accidents" since this monumental day, but for the most part......I feel sure that LB finally understands the REAL use for the potty!

GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS

Moving to this part of New Mexico has put us within driving range to a lot of incredible sites. A few short hours away we have the "Cat Walks", the Gila Cliff Dwellings, Carls Bad Caverns, the "VLA" (Very Large Array) and many other national monuments and places of interest to visit.

Saturday we decided to take the boys up to visit the Cliff Dwellings located in the Gila National Wilderness. BD & I have both been up to the Cliff Dwellings in the past but the boys had never seen them and since the day was sunny and warming up....we figured it would be a perfect day trip to make. So we loaded up...making a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up drinks and sandwich stuff and off we went.

The Cliff Dwellings are technically only 42 miles from us but it takes around 2 1/2 hours to drive there due to winding in and out of many mountain ranges. We left home to sunny skies but the higher we climbed into the mountains the more clouds we encountered. It first begin to rain and then as we snaked our way up narrow winding roads that rain quickly turned into snow. We were concerned that maybe we'd picked to wrong day for our trip but we kept going and soon were out of the high mountains and out of the rain and snow.

We stopped for lunch beside the Gila river allowing the boys a chance to see the river flowing and for LB to partake in one of his favorite past times....throwing rocks into the river. The boys really enjoyed skipping and throwing rocks into the river and it was a nice little spot to stop and enjoy our lunch.

After having our lunch we loaded everything back up, and headed out for the Cliff Dwellings once again. It took us another 45 minutes to reach them, but the ride was nice and the rain seemed to be holding off so maybe it wouldn't be a bad trip after all. Let me stop here and insert a little bit of history, for those of you who may not know, concerning the Cliff Dwellings.

Almost 700 years ago, the Mogollon (pronounced Muggy-own) Indians migrated from other parts of New Mexico & Mexico through the Gila Wilderness. They came across natural caves high in the cliffs and decided to build their homes inside these caves. For some unknown reason the Mogollon Indians only inhabited these dwellings for one generation before moving on to other parts. Cattlemen and archaeologists discovered these dwellings in the late 1800's, early 1900's and they have been protected since 1907 for future generations to visit and enjoy.

We arrived at the "starting" point of our trek, a one mile loop with a "steep" section climbing up 180 feet to the dwellings, and off we go. We hike at a good pace and seem to quickly reach the "steep" part. I'll admit I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath while my lil slave driver is yelling "come on mommy". We make it to the top of the 180 foot climb and there are the dwellings. BB is a little in awe of them....fascinated that people actually lived "way up here".

We wound our way through the caves looking at the different areas and answering what seemed like a million questions from BB and LB. LB seemed the most interested in climbing on everything so it was quit the adventure to keep up with him and keep him in one piece.

I think BB was very fascinated and enjoyed learning the different things about the Mogollon Indians who built these dwellings and once inhabited them, although getting him to admit to that fact would be an undertaking even I'm not up for. The Cliff Dwellings are very interesting and although this was my second time visiting them...I too, found the whole concept of people building their homes in caves high up on cliffs very intriguing.

After wandering around the Cliff Dwellings for a while, we decided to head back down, hopefully reaching the bottom before the rain decided to start. I'll admit the hike down was a lot more enjoyable than the one up - it's ALL down hill!!! The rain did hold off for us to reach the bottom and for that I was VERY thankful. After snagging drinks and snacks from the cooler we headed back home.

It didn't take long before LB's eyes began to close and his head began to bob and he was fast asleep. I soon followed him into the dream world with BB bringing up the rear, leaving BD with lots of peace and quiet for the drive back. We all had a wonderful time. We also found several ideal spots to go camping this summer....so you'll probably be seeing that here on my blog as the weather starts to warm up and we take more day trips and camping trips.

*a special "thank you" to BB for taking most of the pictures