SUMMER ROAD TRIP 2019

Discussion in 'Test Server Forum' started by Cyrrena, Jul 21, 2019.

  1. Geroblue Well-Known Member

    My most sincere condolences.
  2. Cyrrena Well-Known Member

    Good Morning/Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!!! And welcome Dreamweaver to the SUMMER ROAD TRIP!!!!

    Its Wednesday and we are in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Spelunking we are going!!! Today we are doing the self-guided tours which are at our own pace. There are 3 of them and the estimated time at a normal walking pace is approximately 4 hours. If we bring flashlights they say we will see things we will not normally be able to see. Bring plenty of water. No gum, sunflower seeds, or anything like that. You can take pictures using your phones or cameras with a flash. Be prepared to wash the bottoms of your shoes so you do not track anything into the cave systems that could disrupt the eco-system for the bats.

    This evening at 7:30 pm we can go to the Bat Flight Program at the Amphitheater, the seating is first come, first serve and its where you watch the thousands of bats emerge from the cave. You cannot take any electronic devices to this event as it is harmful to the bats. Following the Bat Flight Program, I managed to schedule us a special group Star Walk, Moon Hike and Star Party. I think all of you will love these. I built an observatory in my backyard with a motorized roll-off roof and have a 20 inch refracting telescope inside. I don't do many Star Parties these days. So this will be a real treat for me as well. Tonight at 8:57 pm, the Space Station will be visible for 3 minutes from the telescope the Rangers have set up for their Star Parties, so if they also have a computer set up attached to their telescope like I do, everybody will be able to see it, not just the few that can actually get up to the telescope eyepiece in 3 minutes. From the information they sent me, it looks like they have a 16 inch refractor, on a tripod. Mine is mounted in a concrete base, so whoever takes my home when I no longer need it, will have a fully functional observatory!!!

    I have scheduled cocktail hour for 5:00 pm and dinner for 6:00 pm at the Red Chimney Barbeque here in Carlsbad. Then we should have about 20 minutes to perhaps change clothes and a quick shower before heading off to the Amphitheater, we are staying at Hampton Inn & Suites - Carlsbad, everybody has a Deluxe King size room. Our Cabana boys have already taken our luggage there.

    Tomorrow morning for those that want to get up at the crack of dawn or earlier, you can go to the Amphitheater again between 4:30 am and 5:00 am for Dawn of the Bats when the Bats return to the Caves for the day. I know I will be there!!!! Since we are a large group, they are doing our tours separately and not according to the schedules posted for other guests. These are Ranger Guided tours and we will be having them tomorrow and Friday.

    Thursday:

    8:00 am Hall of the White Giant
    Noon Lunch
    1:00 pm Lower Cave

    Friday

    8:00 am King's Palace
    10:00 am Left Hand Tunnel
    Noon Lunch
    1:00 pm Spider Cave

    Saturday

    8:00 am Slaughter Canyon Cave
    1:30 pm Lunch
    2:30 pm Living Desert Zoo in Carlsbad

    I think this gives us a good plan for the rest of our stay in Carlsbad. Where would you all like to go next. My brain is a little off kilter right now and I could use a ROAD TRIP VOTE on our next stop. I am sure I will be back in tip top ROAD TRIP shape in a day or two!!! Thank you for your patience.

    *passes out hats to everybody with bats on them, stealths over and puts a new bat hat on Ttobey so he is now a Batonga, casts the group speed buff, checks the time delays, and shouts*

    LETS GETS SPELUNKING!!!!
  3. Geroblue Well-Known Member

    Bats and cats, bats and cats. One wants my apple and one wants. Wait, I don't have any insects.

    Hmm. I do have somewhere, a film camera... aha there it is ! Oh, never mind, no way to develop the film and make slides.

    ( washes the bottoms of his hiking boots )

    A cave walk, flashlights galore, I can see with my light. Stalagtites holding tight to the ceiling, stalagmites sitting on the floor, rainbow stone curtains look like they are flowing down the wall.

    If you listen carefully, you hear the millenia long drip drip drip of water carrying minerals and slowly ever so slowly putting the minerals hither and yon.

    I exit the cave, and see it is almost sunset.

    Bats and telescopes !
  4. Breanna Well-Known Member

    I am so sorry Cy for all your problems. Very very glad your kid and adopted LOL kid are ok. Sorry also to everyone on AB who knew your friend. I have never played on AB so did not know him.

    Ttobey needs a new hat his is too tight and pinching off the circulation to his brain and he is getting delusional he keeps accusing me of doing something to you. I think he honestly missed you. Side note: We do worry about you when you're not around.
  5. ttobey Makes the Monsters Move

    The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and Hey wait a minute! The wheels are off and in front of the bus! Breanna loosened all the lug nuts! There are no wheels!!!! Oh no there's a cliff ahead! The bus is airborne and falling! There goes Uwk! She pushed him out first and Right down into the mouth of a shark! Why is she so crazed now? Geroblue jumps and oh no he flew into the engine of a passing jet! Gross! Oh there goes Rosyposy she's aiming for the bounce house on the beach below one bounce and over the horizon she goes! Annnnnnd KerRASSSSH the rest of the nut house is gone to the deep blue as the bus sinks blissfully into the silent depths of the ocean.
  6. ttobey Makes the Monsters Move

    I don't understand what happened to Breanna. Gamma Rays maybe?
  7. Dude Well-Known Member

    You think she was hanging out with Dr. Bruce Banner?
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  8. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    weird, I could swear it says Dude made the last entrance on this thread and ttobey before , so why is nothing of that showing ?
    o my I replied to the post and the last 2 replies appeared . play's mystery music
    CEAPPPPPPPPY.
    Or maybe I been abducted by aliens , and I lost time .
  9. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    ok this is not normal any post after Breanna's is gone into a black hole I even reloaded the forum and only when you post something yourself can you read the newest posts .
  10. Dude Well-Known Member

    I can see your posts. :confused:
  11. ttobey Makes the Monsters Move

    Something strange is going on here, a second ago I saw a post "Hmmmm" from Cyrrena and now it's gone.
  12. Dude Well-Known Member

    There is no Cyrrena, there is only Zuul!
  13. Azrael's Tear Active Member

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  14. Cyrrena Well-Known Member

    Not sure what is going on, but I can see everybody's posts as well...*hears Twilight Zone music in the background* If we keep having the thread eating posts, we will start the SUMMER ROAD TRIP 2019 PART 2 (to avoid the post eating black hole)...

    Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!!

    How are you all like Carlsbad Caverns? All those bats last night were creepy, I kept thinking, we don't have swarms that large during Nights of the Dead. And the number this morning around 5:15 am seemed about double what came out last night. I was afraid they were going to get in my hair or something. The Hall of the White Giant was absolutely amazing, that huge curtain of stalactites. I was surprised they allow flash photography, they usually try to keep extra heat and light to a minimum. This Lower Cavern is spectacular!!! If you train your flashlights over to the edges and sometimes a bit towards the tops of the walls you can sometimes see formations that look like orchids, they are gorgeous. A lot of spelunking to do for the next couple of days. Its amazing what a bit of water flowing through rocks packed with minerals can create and you never know it is right below your feet until someone happens upon an entrance or bothers to explore a cave they come across.

    The tour of the Lower Cave will finish at approximately 5 pm and then we will return to the visitor center. From there were can return to the hotel to shower and change before cocktail hour. The rangers did say that we have to wear different, clean clothing every day and rewash our footwear before every cavern system.

    I have scheduled cocktail hour at 6 pm and dinner at 7 pm at Mi Casita here in Carlsbad. After that, we are free to enjoy the amenities of the hotel, the spa facilities are open until 10 pm. The pool is 24 hours. The main bar is open until 2 am. The lounge is open until midnight.

    The remainder of the schedule from above is:

    Friday

    8:00 am King's Palace
    10:00 am Left Hand Tunnel
    Noon Lunch
    1:00 pm Spider Cave

    Saturday

    8:00 am Slaughter Canyon Cave
    1:30 pm Lunch
    2:30 pm Living Desert Zoo in Carlsbad

    I think perhaps maybe heading up to Santa Fe or Taos on Sunday. Any preferences? I know Schmet has done a lot of research for Santa Fe.

    *stealths over and puts Ttobey's new spelunking helmet on with 2 little headlights on it on him, its just wee bit bigger since Breanna thinks maybe his hats are too small, double checks the time delays, makes sure Ttobey's watchers have their schedules and their maglights in hand, and makes sure everybody is together so we can continue on with the tour*
  15. Breanna Well-Known Member

    I am staying at the resort for this yep yep uh huh, I don't do bats and spiders and ewwwww creepy crawly stuffs. I'll just sit back and relax maybe get a message.

    I hope the new hat helps with Ttobey's brain mal-functions, they are getting really bad. Now he has me killing off Uwk and Gero too. Why Oh Why would I do that, there is nothing to gain from it. Also if I killed off Uwk and Cy then who would I go to meetings with? Silly Ttobey I hope the new hat she gave you helps, otherwise we should maybe get you in and have an MRI done, I'm starting to worry about you.
  16. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    Cheers for the kids being safe Cy...thats really what matters the most.
  17. Geroblue Well-Known Member

    If you look around and see Rod Serling, you are in the studio audience and you are safe.

    If you look around and don't see him, you might be in The Twilight Zone.

    Eeeek !

    Backups ! Load backups !
  18. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Okay, apparently after this post, the others went missing? They came back in force, three more pages worth. :-/

    Uwk
    who has a LOT of catch-up reading to do...
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  19. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Anywhere near Olympus Mons? I still remember the movie with Gary Sinise, /Mission to Mars/, where it was speculated that the biggest planetary mountain in the solar system was formed due to a ginormous meteor strike that left it a "dead" world. Probably not the original crater site, but any geologically active rocky world is like a ball of Jell-O with a crispy coating; a smack into it on one side could easily generate volcanoes and mountain range folding on the other side (folks thought an increase in volcanism was why the dinosaurs were wiped out, since there was evidence for that happening at roughly the same time. The big Chicxulub space rock could still have generated that).

    Granted, the movie was a wee bit silly in places, but Da Hubster and I liked it. :)

    Uwk
    who wonders: when we really do land on Mars with a manned mission, will folks look back on that movie and go, "The landing was faked by that same director! :eek:"
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  20. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    I've been to Carlsbad when I was a little kid. With both parents as teachers in the same county as my school, we had our vacations at pretty much all the same time, and whenever we had a week or more off (especially in the summer), we'd go all over the country, as far as we could drive (cheaper than flying, though we did do that on occasion, too). Usually stayed at state and national parks and monuments, since it was cheaper (and more fun!) than motels. My dad being a biology teacher made every vacation a camping field trip, but in a good way. :) We must've eventually covered every state in the continent (haven't been to Alaska or Hawaii in RL; would like to!) but the New England corner. :D

    Uwk
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