Roving Cooks

February 6 – Wylie, TX to Abilene State Park, TX. 227 miles, 3.5 hours

February 7 – Abilene State Park, TX to Carlsbad, NM. 282 Miles, 5 hours

We spent nine days in Carlsbad, NM. The first couple days were beautifully warm, even hot (up to 80 deg F in the afternoon), and dry. I put sunblock on our kids and we filled up Camelbacks and extra water for everyone. Since Madelyn has almost completely dropped her nap (:/), we have had a more relaxed morning routine and tried to get into a pattern of packing a lunch/snack bag to take on an outing. Like in TX, we’ve explored a few (eerily vacant playgrounds). Unlike the last couple campgrounds, our current park doesn’t have other kids running around this particular week. Later in the week, it cooled down – a park ranger assured me that the polar vortex does appear in Southeast New Mexico every 4-5 years for a few days, and it probably wasn’t specifically attracted to the Cook family.

The two most incredible experiences for us in the desert have been, surprisingly, water based.

The first was the main attraction – the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I took Grayson and Madelyn on Wednesday to scout it out. We collected the Junior Ranger books for future study (which ended up being a fabulous Thursday morning activity), picked up new books on Snakes and Spiders, dutifully listened to the rules (which sounded especially challenging for Grayson/piece of cake for Madelyn – Stay with your Grown-up, Don’t Touch the cave formations, Stay Quiet), and took the elevator down 800 feet below ground to a blissfully humid-feeling 55 degree amazing space. We made it around the full “Big Room” loop (about 1.5 miles of nicely paved & railed trail), the second half at a brisk “Mama, I need to pee” pace, with Madelyn on my shoulders and Grayson begging about every 5 min to let him just go in the cave. We were all much relieved to make it to the restrooms at the cave entrance.

The caverns themselves are absolutely incredible; photos don’t do justice to the immense size of the space, the shapes and textures of different formations. Both kids were awed and a bit scared…but impressed enough that they were excited to go back again on Saturday to show Dad, and to turn in their completed Junior Ranger workbooks to earn new badges.

Based on the chilly forecast for Sunday, we picked up lunch and drove about 30 minutes into Texas for a brief visit to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. While we weren’t there long, the Visitors Center was well put together and the frost-tipped .75 mile trail to The Pinery ruin, a stop along Butterfield’s Overland Mail Route. I didn’t really know anything about mail delivery pre-Civil War to the West coast, and standing here was a flash of history. We’re ready to follow the gold rush.

The second incredible experience this week has been a simpler, unanticipated joy – the Carlsbad RV park has a heated indoor pool. We’ve gone swimming 3-4 nearly every day this week, just us based on a COVID friendly by-reservation-only protocol. I honestly can’t remember the last time I or the kids were in a pool – definitely more than a year, probably fall 2019. I come from a swimming family – playing in a pool is the primary activity that I associate with summer, family vacations, and goofing around with my dad and sister. Aside from the practical benefit of having exhausted kids ready to actually eat dinner at 4:30, it was just fun. We splashed, took Mama-dolphin rides, blew bubbles, discovered the treasured location of the warm water jet, and raced back across the parking into a warm shower. Daddy joining the fun after work Friday was probably the highlight of the year – Grayson had his suit on 30 min early and could barely stop jumping in anticipation.

At 5 and almost 3, our kids are fun – but Mama Jackie is not always fun (or having fun). In the last few weeks, our adventure and my focus shift from an IT leadership role to daytime parent has certainly enabled me to be more focused and present, to have loving moments and get to know the small details more. Most days, I’m exhausted at 7:30pm. Some days, I’ve had moments I’m not proud of, snapped at our kids in ways I never would to a client or co-worker. So these 45-60 minutes of time in the pool these days unlocked something special for me – something where I was able to connect with my kids through silliness, without a looming shadow from a future mess to be cleaned up, a mask to put on, or the energy drain of doing something that one party finds fun and the other does not. Perhaps the first parental flow I’ve found.