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04/11/03; Day 4; Carlsbad, NM

Hello Everybody!

Another day of adventure for the Undaunted Four! Up early, we departed El Paso about 0720 under clear skies with a little breeze. The Temperature was 60 degrees. I had let “Clara” (our name for the Victoria) warm up before we left and she seemed to run OK. However, as I started to turn onto the main street, she began to spit and sputter. Dennis yelled over the CB, “You are pouring out a lot of black smoke!” I attempted to adjust the fuel mixture valve on the choke rod to get a smoother running engine, but it was no use. I guessed that I had fouled a spark plug and thought that the best course of action was to try to burn it clean. We continued down the busy boulevard lurching and jerking. After a couple of miles it began to run better – but not much better! Each stoplight was trouble – I had to keep the engine running (I lost it several times) and each departure was herky-jerky. Finally Clara decided to behave herself and ran pretty well, but refused to idle below about 1000 RPM.

We were on US 180 to Carlsbad, a four-lane highway for about ten miles. Then it turned into a two-lane road with a passing lane up most hills. It was a very smooth road and was enjoyable to drive. We wound up through the hills which got steeper by the mile until we topped out over 4000 feet. Yellow flowers grew in abundance along the road and on the hillsides. Then it was down the other side – a perfectly straight line for over 25 miles. With the gentle grade, it was easy to maintain 55 MPH without pushing the “four-banger.” The compass read 90 for almost 30 minutes, then we came to a curve and it read 80 degrees for almost another 30 minutes. The total distance today, according to my computer-mapping program, Street Atlas USA, is only 159 miles, including the run up to the Caverns. Our problem was that between El Paso and Whites City, where the road turns to the Caverns, there are no filling stations! Thus we had to plan on no gas for over 100 miles. This would not normally be a problem, but today with the poorly running engine, I was not fully confident that we could make it. While we were 30 or so miles from Whites City, the gas gauge was bouncing on one-quarter of a tank. We had a spare gallon of gas in the front toolbox, so I was not concerned, but Jo began to fret and worry that we wouldn’t make it. No amount of talk could convince her that we did not have a crisis – all we needed to do was stop by the side of the road and pour the spare gas into the tank. Finally, we saw what we took for Whites City – by this time the gauge was bouncing on zero! I got a rise out of Jo by saying, “I think I’ll run around town and see if I can get gas cheaper elsewhere.” That didn’t go over very big. It wasn’t even close; we only took 9 gallons of gas to fill the ten-gallon tank!

By 1100, we were walking down into the Carlsbad Cavern. It was a walk of about 1.5 miles, all very interesting and quite cool. The air temperature on top was about 85 while in the cave it was an even 52 degrees. We took our jackets, but Dennis and I didn’t use ours. At the bottom of this fascinating walk, we took the elevator, which whisked us up 750 feet in about a minute.  We had lunch in the park café and purchased post cards and souvenirs in the gift shop. Then, we were off to Carlsbad to find the Motel 6 recommended to us by our host last night. We arrived at 1415 and here I sit in the cool room while the sun beats down at 95 (or more) degrees on the cars in the parking lot.

It was an easy drive today and we could have driven a couple of more hours, but that would have put us where there are no facilities – a fruitless effort. We will enjoy the respite and when the sun sinks a bit lower, I may change the spark plugs and see if I can coax Clara to idle like a lady.

Gasoline prices continued to slide; today we paid $1.619. The dealer had just lowered his price seven cents for regular.

There is no Internet access here in the motel. Unless I can find it elsewhere in Carlsbad, this message will, also be delayed.

 Regards to all,

 Keith, Joann, Dennis & Joan

Akela Flats, NM

"Clara" at the Caverns"

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