Day 12 - Out of this world!!!

It feels strange writing this blog as I've already written one this morning - but of course that was for the day before!

So now back on track - what did we do today?  Let me think.  Oh yeah, Jim!  After chatting away until the early hours with our new best friends Marie and Goiyo we probably didn't get into bed until 2 and woke at about 8.30 slightly groggy.  We said our farewells and I can even admit I got a little lump in my throat when I said goodbye to Jim.  Seems silly as I only met him the night before!

We stopped off for a quick pancake just up the road, back online that's where I was able to write the overdue blog from last night.  I wasn't too hungry this morning but so glad now that I managed to eat 2 of the 3 pancakes as we didn't stop for food until 7pm, which was in fun-themed Chili's.  Yay for pasta!

Okay so I jumped ahead there with food on the brain as usual, so let me just take a step back... so where was I?  Oh yeah, so we're back in the beast after breakfast travelling towards Roswell, the town of alien legend.

It was about a 3 hour drive.  Filled with anticipation (maybe spurred on by my memories of the TV show The X-Files) I was quite fidgety, just looking forward to getting there.  I think I must have been chatting Oli's ears off along the way because, with an hour still to go, I burst out laughing when he said "Be quiet and look for aliens"!  That boy makes me laugh...

We had about an hour to go and the landscape pretty much the whole way was fairly flat and barren - no good trying to play a game of eye spy!  Just as I thought I might drift off Oli said we were almost there.  I bolted upright and grabbed the camera ready for any alien action or ridiculous alien-themed buildings along the way.

To my utter disappointment, as we entered the town there was hardly an alien in sight.  In fact there was hardly anything in sight - no people, no cars... Okay so this was a Sunday but for one moment there we thought maybe the aliens had landed and abducted everyone living in the town!   

There was one small street where the UFO museum and research center was situated, with a couple of shops bursting with alien-themed mementos, but apart from this not much else in the way that I had expected.

 

The museum itself was fun, it exhibited the history of the Roswell incident, featuring newspaper clippings and statements from people claiming to have seen a spaceship on July 4th 1947.  I was hoping to be totally convinced or converted.  There were some interesting theories and I enjoyed learning about the supposed US military cover up (basically they claimed one of their weather balloons had crashed and that was what people had witnessed, mistaking it for a UFO) but I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced although I would like it to be true.

After exiting the museum there wasn't much else to do in the town - it's such a shame, really, as I can imagine this place was thriving back in the 90s, we were told that there used to be much more kitsch alien things around town, such as an alien diner and an alien-decorated Walmart.  It felt like the place was in need of a serious injection of a tourist boost... then again, it was a Sunday, but if the town is relying on the aliens to bring in the tourists, then there needs to be more there for the tourists to stick around and do.

We then made our way to Carlsbad, about an hour's drive away from Roswell.  We managed to find ourselves a hotel with a pink exterior to stay in for the night, can you believe it's the cheapest we've paid so far???   Who wouldn't want to stay in a pink hotel?!?!

By now it was 6.30pm, and I think this was the earliest we have found and checked into a hotel in the last week.  Usually we've been traipsing around in the dark so this was a welcome change.  With a quick dinner in Chili's we couldn't wait any longer....it was time to enter our first WalMart!  These stores are huge, took an hour just to find and buy a handful of toiletries, plus an essential pair of new Pepsi pj shorts combo!  Tonight will be a luxury to be in bed by 11pm (breaking in new Pepsi pj's) and snuggle down to watch a film, after all it's a school day tomorrow and Sundays are bath, hairwash and an early night:-)

Tomorrow will be our longest drive yet, we are leaving the friendly state of New Mexico and driving to yeehaa Texas.  Oli reckons will can do about 8 hours but with all our stop offs we shall see.

Laters!

Alien sightings 0, Nurofen Plus 2, tumbleweeds 3!

J&O