 | During our Big Southwest Road Trip, I decided to show Kid 3 Carlsbad Caverns. I was there as a child, with my dad, so even though I knew it was an awe-inspiring, majestic, magnificent place, I had already seen it. It wouldn’t be the thrill it had once been. Therefore, I decided to let Kid 3 roam around and focus my energies on something I had not experienced before: the lunchroom. |
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Yvonne,” you say. “What kind of idiot goes to Carlsbad Caverns and anticipates the lunchroom?” Well, that’s just the kind of traveler I am. I love to explore each region’s specialties, but I also like to explore the mundane. I like to see if it still feels mundane in exotic locations. I’ve watched American movies in Vienna. Done laundry in Berlin. Visited the public library in Hong Kong. You know, ordinary stuff. If you stay in each area long enough, you have time to try their specialities and still see what the locals do with ordinary stuff. Nobody said you have to immerse yourself in the culture every minute you’re there. Just enjoy yourself. So, I looked for the lunchroom.
You can only take plain, unflavored water down into the caverns with you, and the only place you can buy food is in the lunchroom. It’s a lunchroom, not a cafeteria, because the caverns aren’t open during breakfast and dinner hours. And since you’ll spend two to three hours poking around in the caverns, you might get hungry. There’s food in the visitors center up top, but the thought of “no food for three hours” didn’t sound good to me. I don’t know if I have low blood sugar or if I’m just a wimp, but I like small, frequent meals. Those hobbits are on to something.
You can only take plain, unflavored water down into the caverns with you, and the only place you can buy food is in the lunchroom. It’s a lunchroom, not a cafeteria, because the caverns aren’t open during breakfast and dinner hours. And since you’ll spend two to three hours poking around in the caverns, you might get hungry. There’s food in the visitors center up top, but the thought of “no food for three hours” didn’t sound good to me. I don’t know if I have low blood sugar or if I’m just a wimp, but I like small, frequent meals. Those hobbits are on to something.
 | Just getting to Carlsbad Caverns is daunting. You drive miles and miles through the desert. It’s hot. |
 | Here’s Kid 3 and me at the entrance. |
 | If you’ve been down in the caverns, you’ll know that my little photos really don’t do it justice.  |
You know how you visit some place you saw as a child, and everything looks smaller? That didn’t happen for me in Carlsbad Caverns. It’s still just as enormous, and the stalagmites and stalactites are just as bizarre.
The atmosphere in the caverns is quiet, cool, and reverent. You know why? Because there are signs instructing visitors to keep their voices down due to the crazy echo possibilities. Also, strollers are not allowed. There aren’t very many rangers. Just you and your buddies, especially if you go early in the morning. I filled my introvert tank just walking around.
We walked all the way to the bottom (well, there’s more below that but it’s not open to tourists) and explored the Big Room. I lost Kid 3 for a while, but I knew he would probably turn up. He did.
The atmosphere in the caverns is quiet, cool, and reverent. You know why? Because there are signs instructing visitors to keep their voices down due to the crazy echo possibilities. Also, strollers are not allowed. There aren’t very many rangers. Just you and your buddies, especially if you go early in the morning. I filled my introvert tank just walking around.
We walked all the way to the bottom (well, there’s more below that but it’s not open to tourists) and explored the Big Room. I lost Kid 3 for a while, but I knew he would probably turn up. He did.
 | We finally made it to the lunchroom! |
 | Selections were small, because they can only bring in prepared food due to the delicate nature of the caverns. |
 |  |
 | Here is my humble lunch, eaten by romantic lantern light. |
If you’ve walked for three hours, even an overpriced white bread ham and cheese sandwich is delicious. With the cookie and water, I felt like I was on a school field trip. Without the teacher.
Kid 3 was mildly interested in the ancient metal mail box in the lunchroom. I explained that it was once cool to mail a postcard from the bottom of Carlsbad Caverns, and he got the same look on his face that he always gets when I explain busy signals, unleaded gasoline, and Saturday morning cartoons: curiosity mixed with pity. An older lady at a lunch table saw us looking at the mailbox and told us she had been a mail carrier. She told us how the boss didn’t want to hire her because she was female, but there were no men available and she told the boss she had a family to feed and wouldn’t let him down. He hired her, and she outlasted all the other male mail carriers. Very Madmen. Now she’s retired, and is spending her time exploring the world and taking it easy. We wished each other a good day and went away feeling like we had seen a good show that leaves you happy and content. In the lunchroom, the past met the present.
The cold but tasty sandwich got us through a beautiful day trip without getting grumpy, and the nice chat with the mail lady gave us a healthy dose of old-school charm. 5 stars for Carlsbad Caverns, and its mundane lunchroom!
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Kid 3 was mildly interested in the ancient metal mail box in the lunchroom. I explained that it was once cool to mail a postcard from the bottom of Carlsbad Caverns, and he got the same look on his face that he always gets when I explain busy signals, unleaded gasoline, and Saturday morning cartoons: curiosity mixed with pity. An older lady at a lunch table saw us looking at the mailbox and told us she had been a mail carrier. She told us how the boss didn’t want to hire her because she was female, but there were no men available and she told the boss she had a family to feed and wouldn’t let him down. He hired her, and she outlasted all the other male mail carriers. Very Madmen. Now she’s retired, and is spending her time exploring the world and taking it easy. We wished each other a good day and went away feeling like we had seen a good show that leaves you happy and content. In the lunchroom, the past met the present.
The cold but tasty sandwich got us through a beautiful day trip without getting grumpy, and the nice chat with the mail lady gave us a healthy dose of old-school charm. 5 stars for Carlsbad Caverns, and its mundane lunchroom!
PREVIOUS: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Travel
NEXT: Send My Bag: My Review