Erin's Travels: Roswell, NM

I woke at 6:00AM and tried to sleep a bit more, but after 20 minutes gave up and tore down my camp and headed out. I started out of the park around 7, but it took me a while to get back to the main road. I have a GPS thing for my car and it was on crack, and in of all the places, the desert. It kept telling me to make turns that didn’t exist or to make a turn onto a dirt road that went out into the middle of the desert, and it eventually put right into some rancher’s driveway. I eventually told it to take me back south to Carlsbad instead of points north and that did the trick. Once I was back on the main road, I forgave it, but I was a bit nervous for a while.

I hit Roswell, NM about 9AM and was very ready for coffee. I’ve been trying to go to local establishments whenever possible along my way, so I was so happy to find the Not From This World Coffee Shop. Conveniently, it was located a block away from the UFO Museum andResearch Center, a destination on my itinerary for the day. All I can say is that Roswell makes me smile. They have totally capitalized on the whole alien thing and I love it. My pictures can describe it so much better than I can…

The museum and yes that light post does have alien eyes painted on it. Almost all of them do...

A top secret classified government document

The picture in the lower right corner is the design for the new museum

Who knew there was a Journal of UFO Studies? I wonder how many issues there are?

Ancient Mayan artwork apparently depicting their arrival on Earth from space - maybe that tour guide at Coba was on to something... (see my Mexico post)

No worries, this is just a model of "real" events

Even their Coke machines are into it

I like that the window if full of aliens - or are they angels?

I left Roswell around 11 with the plan of stopping somewhere in Albuquerque for lunch and gas before heading on to Blue Water Lake State Park for the evening. I’ve been eating PB&J for my meals on the road, but today I was in the mood to find a sit down place. I chose the Owl Café. It was also tasty. I have yet to go wrong with choosing local places and am hoping my streak continues. I had the California burger. I have such a hard time resisting things with avocado or blue cheese on them and this one had the former. They also gave a free little bowl of beans to try. I think I may have liked these even better than the burger. They had jalapeños in them, which gave them a really nice kick.

I reached Blue Water Lake State Park without too much trouble. T hat found me when I got there. The primitive campsites were on the lake, which was nice, but the roads to them weren’t so nice. My little Prius did just fine, but I was reduced to 3 mph, and it was a bumpy ride. When I got out of my car, I realized how incredibly windy it was. I kept putting rocks on my tarp and the wind kept blowing it up. I’m glad the people in the campsite next to mine didn’t laugh at me because it must have been a funny site. It took me twice as long to set up camp as normal. Even after I had the tent staked to the ground, I was still worried it would blow off into the lake. I put a bunch of stuff inside and that gave me a little peace of mind. I knew once I got in it it wasn’t going to go anywhere. I wandered around the campsite a bit taking pictures and checking things out. It is much pretty in NW NM than SE NM. I am starting to get into more mountainous areas and it is greener. There were a bunch of horses watering themselves at the lake. I doubt they are wild horses, but I’m not sure exactly who put them there or where they went. I also discovered that there is no running water at this campsite. Thank goodness I didn’t splurge for the “developed” site over the primitive site. T he thought had crossed my mind. I also have to say a big thank you to Scott for telling me to keep water with me because my Nalgene was on empty when I arrived. Thankfully, I had a gallon in the back. I’ll get more tomorrow for in Utah. I’d rather have too much than not enough.