Our alien photoshoot. :)

Today we started out by exploring the UFO Capital of America: Roswell, NM. Honestly, there is not much to see there, but we made our own fun. We started out by exploring the International UFO Museum, which unfortunately did not actually exhibit UFOs, but instead wall after wall of newspaper clippings, eyewitness testimonies, a few photos, etc dealing with the Roswell incident and its cover up, as well as testimonies from other alien/UFO experiences. They also had a few displays to take photos with life-size replica aliens, and a gift shop with several cheesy Roswell alien t-shirts. I found the perfect silly alien t-shirt for a souvenier, and it even glows in the dark... :)

At the UFO Museum: The Day the Earth Stood Still display.

After the UFO museum, we wandered down the block to Alien Zone, which in addition to its REALLY cheesy gift shop (where Gavin bought his own perfect silly alien t-shirt) has a dingy room in back where you can take photos with aliens in various scenarios, all mde from stuff the owners probably picked up in a junk yard somewhere. :) We had some fun taking pictures in there...

 

After our ridiculous photo shoot, we had a cheap New Mexican lunch at Martin's Capitol Cafe, then headed out of town to our next destination: Carlsbad Caverns.

We arrived at Carlsbad Caverns in the late afternoon, and the only hike/walk that was available at that time was the Big Room walk, a 1.25 mile walk along a sidewalk 800 feet below the surface through a cave that is 1,800 feet long and 255 feet high and full of beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, "draperies," "popcorn," "lilypads," "soda straws" and more! We were not allowed to touch any of the rocks, but before descending in the elevator there was a stalagmite about 5 inches high that had been brought up from the cave for tourists to touch. When we arrived in the cave, we were surprised to see a snack bar, restroom facilities and a large sidewalk to walk through the cave. Really, does people touching the rocks create more damage than actualy blasting out enough rock to create bathrooms, a snack bar and sidewalks through the stalagmites? And when they were blasting all these lovely formations out, couldn't they have brought a few more samples other than that 5 inch tiny little piece? :)

Carlsbad was lovely and fascinating to see the work of centuries of dripping water. Pictures don't give even a hint of the true scope!

 

The beginning of the Big Room walk with its sidewalk.

 

Popcorn formations.

 

Huge stalactites and stalagmites.

 

Soda sttraw formations on the ceiling.

 

 

Me beside the Crystal Fountain, the cavern's largest active (still growing!) stalagmite.

After Carlsbad Caverns, we got back on the road to our next destination, the White Sands National Monument. It was about a three hour drive, through which we saw three completely different ecosystems! We started out in the scrubby, dry plains, where Gavin stopped the Jeep so we could see our very first live tarantula calmly crossing the road. (Neither of us would leave the car to take a picture of it, but it was REALLY big!) As we headed into the mountains we saw a huge male elk standing in the middle of the road and several females on the side. We stopped well away from it and waited for it to walk away; we didn't want to tick off an animal that big, even from inside our Jeep! Heading deeper into the forest and mountains we saw another deer by the side of the road, and then three small deer jumped right in front of us not a minute later! Good thing we were keeping a look out! Coming out of the mountains we were in pinkish rocks and cliffs with more scrubby vegetation clinging to the sides, and we got to watch a beautiful sunset as we pulled in to Alamogordo for the night. We checked into our next cheap motel, the Satellite Inn, and had dinner at the local Pepper's Grill, the only place in town that stayed open past 8pm! After a long day of sightseeing and driving, even the lumpy pillows and saggy mattress will provide a blissful night's sleep. :)

Elk in the road. It looked much bigger in person...

 

Sunset over Alamogordo. Also looked much better in person. :)

 

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Road Trip!

Though most of our travels take us away from the country and usually the continent, we decided to stay stateside for this vacation and see some of the wonderful, quirky and striking towns and landscapes of the American Southwest We started off the trip with a visit to my brother in Dallas, and had a nice weekend of sporting events; two in a row, which is more sporting events than we have seen in the past six years or so. :) We first went to a "game watch" of my brother's alma matter Iowa State University versus their arch-rival Iowa. This was in Dallas, several hundred miles away from Iowa, but there were still 60 or 70 Iowa State grads of all ages in the bar all dressed in Cyclone colors and cheering at the TVs. Immediately after that, we headed over to the Toyota stadium to watch FC Dallas play Vancouver in a soccer match. It was a good day for my brother's favorite teams, as both of them won!

Everything's bigger in Texas... This was casually sitting in the parking lot of a bar.

Brad and I at the FC Dallas match.

GOOOOOAL! Brad was kind enough to lend me an FC Dallas scarf so I could look like a real fan. :)

The next day Gavin and I hit the open road in our rented Jeep Liberty that definitely shows the marks of previous travelers, including signs of an obvious break in through the driver's side. Despite the rental car associate's suggestion we take a Toyota instead, I insisted on the Jeep, feeling nostalgic for Gavin's old Jeep Wrangler soft top. :)

We headed through what is hopefully both the longest and most boring part of the trip: 8 hours from Dallas to Roswell, NM. The scenery, as it were, was mostly oil rigs, windmills, and cotton fields, with the brief relief of a beautiful sunflower field and the occasional tiny town. We attempted to entertain ourselves by listening to Jack Kerouac read his own novel The Open Road, thinking it appropriate because it describes his own journeys through the Southwest, but we got bored within a couple chapters and went "low brow" and listened to stand up comedy on YouTube instead. :)

We did stop to tresspass on a couple farms and take some pictures. :) I had never seen cotton field before and wanted to touch cotton "alive" and growing on a plant, so we turned off the highway and drove down a muddy dirt road to get a picture in a cotton field with some windmills.

Cotton fields and a wind farm.

Me copping a feel of my first ever cotton plant. :)

Sunflower fields. At twilight the sunflowers are all facing down since there is no sun for them to follow. I bet they look much more perky during full daylight!

 

We arrived in Roswell later in the evening, and checked right in to our hotel rather than go exploring. We did notice some Roswell quirks at some of the fast food restaurants...

 

McDonalds shaped like a UFO in Roswell. :)

 

Aliens are welcome at the Roswell Arby's...

...VERY welcome. :)

Tomorrow we look forward to trying to find and meet some aliens. :D Or at least find matching hokey alien t shirts... :)

 

 

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