Today we started with a morning (ok, only a few hours) of rest. The night before, when we arrive I was unable to get in the hotel. They told me it was because of Covid procedures, but it seemed pretty permanent. It did make us hesitant to leave anything in the car, so we took anything of value just in case. I found it ironic because this was the first time staying in a slightly better hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn:
We did not have any set times we needed to be anywhere, just general windows. This allowed us to sleep an hour later than we normally do. In the morning, we were unsure what we would do for breakfast since it was the first time it was not included. This caused us quite some confusion and at this point while offering freedom, became a hindrance. Hence, we opted to check out the hotel option. It was unclear if we would be able to order food or what the continental buffet would be, but I had promised the girls they could order anything. As it turns out, the contintenal breakfast was free and had wonderful toppings for the realllllly healthy food choices they had made:
By the end of the meal, Sticky Fingers (formerly Back Seat Cop) and Sugar Rush (Tween) had eaten so much sugar that it made a fun science experiment. In addition, mom was thoroughly impressed with our wonderful parenting. You can really tell by the expression on her face:
Shopaholics
After making sure the kids were full of energy we set out for our first destination. We drove toward our first destination of the day which would be tour the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave. As we drove down the road and entered one of the many Native American Reservations Mom saw signs for gifts shops. Normally, she would give the kids a lecture about gift shops, but this one had a special sign that indicated Jewelry:
Although we had passed the store, after she thought about it, she did one of those burnout 180 turns. She’ll tell you she gently turned the car around, but it sure seemed like just out of a movie to me :). At this point we were ahead of schedule, so no big deal, right? As we entered the store this was the one and only place where you would think a Pandemic had just occurred. We were sprayed with cleaner and checked for sickness. I would probably have acted the same way given the history of how disease ravaged Native Americans during the founding of the country. I am sure it is burned into their lore:
I quickly picked out an expensive key chain, while the girls took roughly 45 minutes to find something worth buying. Ironically, Mom bought a sand painting and NOT jewelry.
Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave
We now were no longer ahead of our planned schedule. We proceeded to the volcano and ice cave. It was recommended to climb the caldera (which we were told would take 15 minutes) and then go to the cave to cool off. As we prepared to set off on the short hike we did not grab water, because it was short. That was a mistake. While the temperature was warm it was far cooler than earlier in the trip. This did not stop the reappearance of our huggable Marshmallow from reappearing. As we hiked up the caldera her drama classes from Arches came in handy. She had also seen enough people begging in the streets that she had learned to con a bottle of water from an old man. Yes, the seven year old actually managed to get an old man to give her his unopened bottle of water. He had fallen for her apocalyptical depiction of what would happen if she did not get water immediately:
We took in the sites at the caldera:
As we hiked back down we had to practically drag the youngster. While Mom and Tween the quick raced ahead to get clear of the persistent whining, Dad the unfortunate coaxed the Marshmallow step by step. We finally made it to the car and rejuvenated with water and a snack.
Still warm, we raced toward the ice cave an increased pace. Everyone was ready for some coolness, except for Mom the Always Cold. We climbed down the stairs to the 32F temperature. About halfway down everyone (but Mom) let out an exclamation of relief. One step it was hot and the next step it was cold and refreshing. We also discovered the ice would not be lickable (Marshmallow really wanted it to be cold and edible). It was still cool (Dad joke!) to see. We were in the middle of the desert and there was a big giant slab of ice:
Cool rocks in the ice cave 
Petroglyphs
As we left the ice caves we calculated how long until the next stop, the Petroglyph National Monument. This was a site that our Tween Archeologist wanted to do and was excited about. Uh oh. The monument closes at 4:00. Mom had planned a wonderful lunch at Denny’s, just the kind of high end establishment she liked to eat at (Sarcasm hint). However, there wouldn’t be much time so we improvised and decided we would do ice cream for lunch. As we tried stop after stop the lines were enormous. We finally decided to try the Denny’s. However, they were out of Ice Cream (shipping problems due to Covid), they were out of Mozzarella sticks, they were out of everything. Luckily, we had leftover junk food from the July4th fiasco. Mom did a great job planning ahead :). There is nothing like a package of Chips Ahoy cookies for lunch.
We raced towards the petroglyphs only stopping for gas. As the kids and Mom meandered about I gave stern warnings on how little time we had. As we read the information guide it said “4:00 pm last car strictly enforced”. We did our best job to speed down the highway, but our backseat cop only let us go so fast. We arrived in town and raced to the petroglyphs, cursing out every car that decided to stop at each light or drive below the speed limit. As we approached the entrance we could see the clock on the car ticking above 4:00 pm. Unfortunately, we got stuck at one last light. We sped past the visitor center (no time to get junior ranger badges) and onward to the main site. We arrived at 4:04, pulled up to the now empty entrance booth and squeaked our way into the park.
Since the park closes at 4:30 and the gates get shut we had roughly 25 minutes to complete the petroglyph hike. We hiked up and down the trail and were back at the car at 4:25.
If you look closely the gate is blocked 
We piled in and drove toward the exit. Indeed, they had blocked the entrance with a pickup truck. We headed toward the visitor center to see if we could get the junior ranger badges. As we went in, we saw a sign that said gates close at 4:30. It was 4:30. We proceeded into the park anyway looking desperately for a ranger. We found him. He was in his car and headed towards the gate to close it and lock us in. Luckily, he stopped to tell us so we didn’t need to sleep in the park overnight.
Dinner
Since we had not eaten a great lunch we were all ready for dinner. We headed to a place in Santa Fe that mom had found. We were really excited because it was an actual vegetarian restaurant! No junk food tonight! As we headed into Santa Fe, we saw a cool thunderstorm with streak lightning and there was lots of distant rain:
We arrived at the restaurant and were overwhelmed with 3 different menus from vegetarian american food to italian favorites.
We ordered the food and sat at some picnic tables outside. Unfortunately, the rain we had seen in the distance made it to our location and we jumped into the car to eat. Everyone tried the food. No one liked the food. Tween the picky tried as hard as she could to eat her fake chicken, but it turned out to be breaded mushrooms. Dad’s was the same. The mushrooms were impossible to eat. The ketchup tasted more like BBQ sauce then ketchup. The pasta dish was rejected by the seven year old. Even Mom disliked her meal. What seemed so promising was an utter failure.
Just as we became dispirited from our food failure god sent us a sign. As we left Santa Fe on our way to Las Vegas (NM) we saw a rainbow. I knew that we would never go hungry again. In fact, Tween had a DQ gift card that she really wanted to use. As we arrived in Las Vegas there was a DQ on the way to the hotel. We screeched the brakes as soon as we saw it. Even though it was late, we were all hungry so we stopped to have our “Dinner”.
It was another healthy day of eating!