But Wait... there's more...

Visiting a place like Carlsbad Caverns can be quite a heady experience. The whole hike down I was shaking like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Not because I was cold or afraid of the dark.... no, I was in such awe of this place. The time of reflection and pause would soon come to an end. Our innocence would be shattered ....forever.

For those of you who have been to the caverns.... since the cafeteria in "The Big Room" was remodeled in 1968... you might know how odd the situation is. The decor is "Fred Flintstone meets Battlestar Gallactica," apparently the choices of food used to be much greater... now they feed their captive audience strange little cold sandwiches.....nasty. Then you are seated in a room of the cave with other tourists just as bewildered by the whole experience as you are.

Our story picks up here. We are forcing down these makeshift meals with a wide assortment of people...mostly young families and bikers, save for the table of little old ladies just behind and to the right of Amber. The relative silence of the moment (mind you, the Rangers warn you to talk in a low voice inside the cave) is suddenly broken by a...well...extremely loud belch. For a moment, I thought it must have been one of the bikers...then my eyes caught one of the little old ladies who had a startled look on her face (see exibit A below). This was followed by spontaneous laughter from her two friends...and Amber..............and me.

Exibit A (we caught up to the perpetrator a bit later on the tour...she's the one in sea-foam green)