November 10 - Drove 301 miles today - 36.8mpg
No way you enter the Roswell twilight zone and not go to the center of its universe. In this case, it is in a converted movie theater. Sort of an appropriate venue.
Cricket long ago stopped being shocked by Pam's weird friends, particularly those not of flesh and bone.
Cowboys and aliens, wasn't that the name of a movie? More interesting than this odd jumble.
But we paid our $3 senior rate each to enter and vowed to keep an open mind. We gathered that the FBI was probing flying discs while assorted yokels were claiming they were abducted and, invariably, probed up the fundament by aliens obviously with a butt fixation.
Somehow this diorama says much more about humans than does the alien ready for his post mortem. How would you like to be on a planet far, far away and wind up being abducted by these two really creepy "aliens". "And ma, they kept poking their fingers in naughty places!". Brrrrr.
The folks at SETI are trying to make contact with guys like this. We better pray that they don't act like this fellow looks. If their minds work just like ours and they have the power to run all over us, we may be forced to participate in their version of "The Trail of Tears".
Conspiracy theory in cartoon form. From the "Arkansas Gazette" no less.
The ticket seller said that the museum averages 3,000 visitors a month. Why would someone who lived the U.S. stick a pin in the U.S. on the world map when a map of the U.S. by itself is right next to it? Could it be someone who is actually.....an ALIEN?!?!
An alien made of tires. Next to the museum is a row of single level stores selling all things alien, from tattoos to bric-a-brac to costumes. There's money to be made here and there is nothing alien about that.
Next stop - Carlsbad Caverns, about an hour further south in New Mexico. Very crisp weather and clouds that at times appeared to threaten instead simply remained photogenic all day. This is the view from the front of the visitor center - a knockout.
As for the "are you a caver" question, try to crawl through the small opening to find out. Norm considered it undignified and watched a kid dive right through. Obviously a future spelunker.
Norm suited up to go caving. Cheesey? Perhaps, perhaps not.
We opted to take the elevator rather than take the hour ramp walk to get down the 75 stories.
We watched the elevator wiz down and down and down.....
We walked around the path for an hour and a half.
The cavern recently had its lighting completely upgraded to great effect. It accentuates the natural beauty and intricacy of the multitudinous types of formations, not detract or distract.
The Apple camera picks low light levels almost too well. In real life the lighting is more subtle and the darks darker.
Many formations are nothing if not Dali-esque. This is the Lions Tail mentioned above.
There are no cave paintings here to enliven the proceedings. Those Frenchies seem to have a lock on much of that market. It's too bad for the average 3,000 - 5,000 people who visit the Caverns daily "in season". Those elevators are jumpin'. As it was, we encountered only a handful of people as we made the circuit through the caves. Only one kid seemed to have not heard the ranger's admonition to speak softly because of echos.
The 8.2 acre Big Room is the largest known cave chamber in the Western Hemisphere.
The citizens of Flint would have died for water this pure, rather than literally dying from lead overdoses.
Every turn brought new phantasmagorical shapes.
Cricket was a trouper in the caves - just looked around and never said a peep.
Only two directional signs on the entire circuit for those afraid of losing their way. Cutouts with benches are spotted along the way, mainly to permit sitting down to commune with the stone.
We kept eagle eyes out for miscreants, although this was the only phone like this.
Love the posters - probably Depression-era artists in the 1930's.
We left Carlsbad Caverns and headed for our hotel about 2.5 hours away. We had the road to ourselves. Looks like we're headed for some kind of "close encounter of a third kind". ROSWELL!!
Not far from the Caverns we stopped at the Guadalupe Mtn National Park Visitor Center.
Welcome, lonely traveler (that's sort of a play on words - "lonely", "alone"...eh?
November is a great time to be here - no crowds so we can see all the exhibits easily. This is one more fine example of what the National Park Service is serving up to visitors whether the site is Big Time like Carlsbad Caverns or less well known, such as this one. Very polished.
This area was covered in water 250 million years ago. Today the land looks sandy and desert-like.
Luckily Cricket didn't run into one of these, but wait...that looks like a squirrel!!!!
Nice skies as we drove along the road to Las Cruces. Too bad we also had a few bug spots on the windshield. This is the land of two lane country roads with 75 mph speed limits. Bliss.
We've driven into Texas 3 times now on this trip - via Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. It certainly is the (second) biggest state in the Union. We can't let it get away. But California seceding? Now that's a not half bad idea given new impetus by recent events.
Carlsbad Caverns and now this. To quote Lawrence Welk, "It's Wunnerful, Wunnerful".
We arrived at our hotel in Las Cruces at 6:30pm in 59 degrees. Brisk but clear skies along our drive today and few cars.
Tomorrow we enter more familiar terrain and commence something of a sprint to Gold River.
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