Monday, September 5, 2022

Happy Labor Day

It was a busy weekend for the Skinners in New Mexico!

We went to Carlsbad Caverns on Friday to watch half a million bats fly out of the one entrance on their way to a meal. It was pretty neat - the bats circle in what amounts to a vortex as they gain altitude to escape the bowl that the cavern mouth sits in. They then fly in a "river" to wherever they go to eat. It was silent to us, but you could hear the air moving from all those wings.

Saturday we took in a bunch of football games with some friends. Sunday I loaded up the motorcycle and headed into the mountains - I was lucky to find a campsite, as most campgrounds were full.




I grabbed the last site, then did a bit of riding further up the mountain to see the sights. 




Monday morning I was up early, as usual, and headed out as soon as the tent was dry. While I was enjoying some coffee and waiting for breakfast to cook, I noticed a long string of lights in the sky - I think it was a Skylink train of satellites, which was pretty cool. I only had my cell phone - so no cool photos.



On my trip up into the mountains (again), I came across a young bear running on the road. Thankfully he was small and mom was nowhere to be found. There isn't much protection from animals on a motorcycle!



The mountains are putting on a last, spectacular, display of flowers for the summer. The whole mountainside (below) was turning yellow from the flowers. We've had a pretty wet summer, compared to the wildfires we had, I'll take it!


Cheers,

Marc


No comments: