Day 6 – Roswell and Santa Fe

“Welcome to the International UFO Museum and Research Center” were words of music to my ears when we finally strolled in the Center’s front doors. Granted, it was a low-budget operation – a sequin-covered flying saucer graced the front lobby, and a rickety metal saucer lined with Christmas lights made a focal point in the main hall. However, it was the series of sinister news articles and interviews that grabbed one’s more interested attention. In short: some sort of flying contraption made of exotic metal bites the dust in remote field near Roswell in 1947; farmer picks wreckage up and takes into town to give an interview to the local radio and newspaper; U.S. Army shows up, cordons off the scene, and takes the farmer off for some “friendly chats”; story completely changes and suddenly it’s a crashed weather balloon; other witnesses describe small, dead alien bodies at the scene; local mortuary is contacted by the military to obtain child-size coffins and receive information on what embalming liquid specifically contains; locals are threatened by Army not to talk about event…… etc etc etc. Who knows if any of it is even remotely true, but if it was just a routine weather balloon you’d think the Army wouldn’t give a darn. I totally like the alien slant so I’m sticking with it.

Unfortunately, no aliens offered to join our road trip, so we bought our own green blow up alien instead..

Stocked with cool alien souvenirs (including an official “Alien Invasion License” and a little-green-man Christmas ornament), we left Roswell behind and headed north towards Santa Fe.

Out in the middle of nowheresville, we were startled to be flagged down by a middle-age woman standing at the side of the road next to her van. Soenke and Knut hopped out to see what was she needed. She was cheerful, missing several teeth, and also missing most of her mental capacities. Knut and Soenke couldn’t understand a word she said, so I came back and discerned she needed a few bucks for gas. In the middle of this experience, we realized that we and our entire car were being engulfed in swarms of bugs…. tsetse flies? Locusts? I had no idea but we spent the next several hours (days) liberating these freaky little insects from the interior of our car (…clothes… hair).

Hours later, we were pleasantly surprised to stumble onto Santa Fe’s excruciatingly charming old downtown area – all red-stone, pueblo-style buildings. After 30 minutes on one-way streets searching a parking spot (huh, feels like Hamburg!), we finally were out strolling and window shopping. The windows were tantalizingly full of overpriced Native American handicrafts – carpets, rugs, jewelry, leatherworks. I picked up a red-and-orange-toned throw (that’s a small blanket) and some fabulous stone jewelry. Knut selected a small, hand-carved jasper elephant for a friend. Soenke carried the bags and hoped for lunch. We soon filled our bellies at the Plaza Restaurant, where I delighted in a homemade sopaipilla (flakey puff pastry) drizzled with honey.

A few steps up to the local church enabled us to check out the bronze-paneled doors, depicting scenes from medieval Christian history. I glanced to the left and was thrilled and surprised to see a giant labyrinth right there on the plaza – made of slate in the same pattern as the famous labyrinth at Chartres that I had journeyed to walk back in February (but was foiled). I smiled to myself and thought “aha! you don’t come to the labyrinth – the labyrinth comes to you!” before embarking on the 20-minutes walk in and out of the pattern. Soenke spontaneously napped on the ground during this process (that guy can nap anywhere), but then even he did the labyrinth too.

By this time the sun was fast disappearing – we found a place to lay our heads for the night and reveled in the many delicious moments of the day.

Day 7 – Los Alamos

For those (like me) who may a little rusty on WW2 history, Los Alamos was the super duper secret site of the atomic bomb development during the 1940s. World famous scientists such as Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and many others gathered in this “nonexistent” place for several years. Nuclear development has continued here ever since, and the place was not open to the public until around the 60s (I think). My grandfather was a pilot, and back in the 50s he was zipping around northern New Mexico totally lost and almost out of gas. Surprised to see an airstrip not on his maps, he landed (with my grandmother and dad) in great relief. This proved to be the top secret Los Alamos facility, and they were greeted by a dozen very very serious military police carrying very very big guns. Long story short, they were interrogated at length, refueled, and told to leave the area and never return again.

In happy contrast, we were welcomed (without munitions or interrogation) to the free Los Alamos Science Museum and treated to some really cool interactive exhibits and a video about the Manhattan Project. After awhile, I became unsettled by all the emphasis on developing ways to destruct our planet and its residents, so I spent most of my time hanging out in the children’s play room with little wooden puzzles and optical illusions. That was fun.

With no plan in mind, Soenke then guided us on a long, winding detour through mountainous forests, past huge open fields, and through a small pueblo ghost town dating from the 1200s. We treaded upon Indian reservation grounds and admired more red rock and small creeks, stopping frequently to simply soak in the wide open spaces.

Ages later, we rolled into the city of Gallup, New Mexico to call it a night. Gallup is a little bit dodgy but at least it has a Wal Mart…

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Photos follow:

Roswell’s UFOs greet us:

This is such a believable flying saucer model!

Our new tripmate:

Admiring Santa Fe’s historic architecture:

I finally get to walk a labyrinth!

DAY 3:

On every road trip, there must be a horrifying motel experience. We arrived late in the evening at the Tucson Econo-Lodge just in time for one. The stone-faced Indian proprietor conducted all motel business with us through a small opening in the reception door (he wouldn’t let us inside the lobby). A police helicopter with searchlight cruised overhead. A seedy-looking drunk Hispanic couple tottered by us on the way to Circle K. With false bravado, we crossed ourselves, bolted our motel room doors shut, and burned sage. No one was dead in the morning, so I guess it all worked out.

The nightmare soon faded as we made our way to the Kartchner Caverns an hour south into barren desert. A bouffant-haired Sedona resident I’d met in a pharmacy had pointed at me with a bony finger and insisted we come here; I was not about to disobey. Discovered under an innocuous hill back in 1974, the caves were kept a strict secret from the public until about 1990, when they were opened as an Arizona State Monument. We were not mentally prepared for the wondrous sites laying below the earth – the colorful, textured handiwork of millions of years of dripping water was absolutely mind-boggling!

We pressed on to Tombstone with visions of a cowboy shootout at the OK Corral dancing in our heads. Unfortunately, man’s cheesy recreation of the Old West stood in stark contrast to nature’s amazing handiwork back at Kartchner. Knut & Soenke cruised the main street looking for a gunfight, carefully avoiding horse poop generated by the stagecoach ride. We chowed down at an authentic Western joint, then got out of Dodge.

We wrapped up the day with a proper road-trip sunset on our bumper, and the mighty Rio Grande river at the fore. Our driving enthusiasm finally burned out at Los Cruces, New Mexico. Feeling princessy after last night’s Econo-Hell, I upgraded us to an $85 executive room at our luxurious-in-comparison Best Western. Heaven, I tell you, HEAVEN.

DAY 4:

Today we learned that New Mexico is 90% barren, except of course for all the top-secret fishy U.S. government stuff going on deep underground, under lands that America permanently “borrowed” from the Indians. We drove through nothingness into more nothingness, breaking up the barren desolation with an interesting stop at the White Sands Military Range. Being a military facility, our IDs were checked and we were strictly instructed as to photography privileges (“only take pictures facing the mountains, ma’am”) as we browsed the totally cool Military Missile Park, with heightened interest of course placed on anything that wasn’t facing the mountain. I didn’t see anything out there except a top secret tractor and a few top secret bugs, but I’m sure there was something going on out there. The missiles were colorful and interesting, but it seemed a little anti-cheerful to be checking out instruments of death and destruction.

A few miles onward, we arrived at the actual White Sands for which the area is named. It was like a gigantic truck had dumped about 5,000 tons of pristine, extra-fine, white white white sand out in the middle of the desert. In total solitude, we charged up & down sand dunes in our bare feet… kicked the sand, fluffed the sand, photographed the sand, laid in the sand, ate the sand. (ok, only Knut ate the sand). Nature had wowed us once again.

Newly filthy, we pressed on to Alamagordo. Nothing there.

Finally…. hours later….we made it….. tired…. smelly….sandy…. to the world famous ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO. HOME OF THE 1947 ALIEN SPACESHIP CRASH. Home of the International UFO Research Museum. Home to thousands of tacky alien t-shirts. On full UFO alert, we scanned the skies for spaceships. We set up our UFO headquarters at the ‘totally posh’ Fairfield Inn. With the hotel’s free, homemade blueberry white chocolate cookies and our cheap princess suite, I could almost forgive Roswell for not producing any real aliens during our visit. But I get ahead of myself… that’s a story for day 6 !

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Photos follow:

The warm reception at the mail slot of Tuscon’s Econo Lodge:

We don’t know why either…

A small view of the incredible Kartchner Caverns:

An educational book in the Kartchner Caverns gift shop:

Tombstone relives the Old West:

We smuggle ourselves into a top-secret restricted area:

Investigating classified flying saucers and missiles:

No explanation needed:

Off to conquer the White Sands:

Lounging about in the sand:

We didn’t stay here but I like the sign:

A road trip sunset concludes a successful day: