The Great Road-trip: Daily Travel Log from Hotel Rooms (by William)

Phoenix Arizona

The landscape from Los Angeles to Phoenix was not majestic.  Majestic to me means big, high, and gorgeous mountains covered with vegetation.  The fruitful valleys below are deep and vast.  Instead, I saw jagged and barren peaks and miles of sand. 

Dad said that there would be countless numbers of saguaro cactus outside of Phoenix but there wasn’t much.  I asked the hotel staff and found out that the saguaros had been relocated because of urban growth, and there will be more near Tucson. 

Saguaro Cactus

Tucson Arizona

On the way from Arizona to New Mexico, we stopped by at Tucson to see the Pima Air and Space Museum.  My favorite plane is the F-18 Blue Angeles Hornets. 

Blue Angel

I learned to fly with a gentleman named Chuck.  He showed me how to make turns and to go down or up.  When Chuck asked me questions, I stuttered “Um…um…” then Chuck would chuckle and answer the questions himself.  Today was one kind of a day!

Las Cruces New Mexico

We left the small town Deming and visited two museums in Las Cruces. 

The Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum raises cows, horses, sheep, and goats.  The goats and sheep kept baaing at me so I kept saying to the sheep “Okay, I am not trying to threaten you.”  At the Nature and Science museum, I learned how reflection and light works.  White light is made up by the rainbow colors.  A color filter only lets its matching light color to go through the filter.  A prism separates colored lights from white.  A convex lens focuses the light and a concave lens spreads out light beams.      

How Light Works

Ruidoso New Mexico

Today we went onto the mountains looming above our hotel in Ruidoso.  My parents enrolled me in a ski class with a few other kids.  Once we started skiing, I instantly remembered the skills I learned in Lake Tahoe and I quickly passes the other kids on stopping, high speeds, and turning.

After lunch I got to show my parents what I learned and had a snowball fight with my dad.  The snowflakes blew on my face like a hundred needles.  My legs hurt when I fell down but I didn’t quit.  At one time, the snow was hitting my face directly, then the wind shifted directions and slapped my right cheek.  It was a great day with snow.

Play in Snowstorm

Carlsbad Texas

Today’s visit to Carlsbad Caverns was amazing!  We went on the King’s Palace tour.  We saw many different cave formations such as cave popcorn, draperies, soda straws, stalactites, and stalagmites.  They are very beautiful and seem magical to me.  The tour guide was very humorous and I laughed at most of his jokes.  There were a few minutes that the tour guide turned off the lights and it was totally pitch dark.  I really liked Carlsbad National Park.

Cave Formation