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Alright, up and at them; time to hit the road again. This should be a short day of riding as the destination is Roswell, NM. That is unless some aliens spirit me away! Think I'll stop in Roswell and play tourist for the day for a change of pace.
I decided this morning that I would start the day with a good old-fashioned doughnut. On the way out of town I see C & T Donuts and they claim to make the world's best donuts. Now, this is promising so let's get one! Well, THEY LIE! The doughnut was mediocre but it's hard to call any doughnut bad because after all, it is a doughnut. So, I had my questionable doughnut and rode over to where I saw a building that said La Nortena, World Famous Tortillas who claims to be world famous. Well, La Nortena, I never heard of you and Pecos, TX is not the world! I'm starting to see a pattern here in Pecos, hmmm. You guys need to get out more!
So, I leave Pecos and pretty shortly, I start seeing these palm looking plants with a stalk coming out the top. I immediately recognize the plant but can't for the life of me remember what it is called so I pull over to take a picture since I will have a hard time describing this plant later. Now, the ones I saw are pretty well past their prime and the stalk is dead. When they are in their prime, the stalk is covered in pretty white flowers from the point where it leaves the plant to the very top. This stalk can be as tall as 3 feet as I recall. I remember these plants from my childhood. See, we used to drive from Corpus Christi to Laredo fairly often as both my parents were from Laredo and had plenty of family there to visit. On the way home, my parents would pull over on the side of the road and just go cut the stalk off one of these plants to take home. They grow wild on the side of the road so nobody cares if you cut one and take it home. I remember that they would cut the flowers off the stalk and cook them somehow and eat them. I think they were pretty tasty but I can't remember. There is a downside to this "free" meal though. It seems we weren't the only ones that liked these stalks. Ants would sometimes turn them into a home so you had to be picky about which stalk you threw in the car. One particular occasion, my sister Mira and I were in the back seat when my dad got one of the stalks and put it in back with us. Damn sneaky ants didn't make their presence known till after we were down the road a bit and by then throwing the stalk out was not going to do any good since the ants decided the car and we were unlikeable. My sister and I spent the rest of the ride home swatting ants and managed to get most of the ones that got on us before they bit but a few got through. Funny now but not then! My parents grew up as farm folk so they knew what plants they could harvest in the wild and eat. They also kept a garden at home going most of the year where they grew their favorite veggies and some fruit trees. They even had an avocado tree as well.
I've been seeing a lot of drilling rigs on the road but finally came across one in full operation mode with a crew and everything! The guys there were moving around fast so I figured something just happened or was about to so I got the heck out of there. I left Texas and got into New Mexico fairly early in the day. I had to remind myself that only Texas has the 85 mph speed limit! So, I'm in New Mexico and pass the traditional "Welcome to New Mexico" sign and notice it is full of bullet holes. I’m starting to wonder just how serious New Mexico is about this whole welcome thing! I’m sitting there thinking of my two vehicle instances in New Mexico; the one from my twenties and the one on my way down this trip. I am going to be paying extra attention this time through!
I'm going along when suddenly there's this huge bean field before me and I immediately get a movie flash back to the Milagro Bean Field War. If you haven't seen it, you should. Beans, beans, as far as the eye can see!
I get into Orla, NM and see that the only real thing left of this town is a truck stop loaded with truck drivers and realize the old saying is true, "Old truck drivers never die, they get Peterbuilt", because this parking lot has a large number of Peterbuilt trucks and old crusty looking gents. The rest of the town appears to be nothing but old abandoned buildings for the most part. Still, on this stretch of road, I get to a sign welcoming me to the outskirts of Carlsbad, NM, home of Cody Ross. Since I have no idea who this guy is, I immediately have to assume he is a sports figure since that's my biggest area lacking in knowledge! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that I know about everything; I just know that sports are what I probably know the least about! I stop and think for a moment of veering off to go see the caverns but decide not to. We went there a couple of times when the kids were young and it is a cool place to see and literally a cool place (temperature), I decided I wanted to do my tourist day in Roswell instead. One thing I will say about Carlsbad is that they know their politicians. I snapped a picture of a building that says City Hall on one side and bar on the other side. I guess they don't want their politicians to stumble too far. LOL.
On down the road past Artesia, NM where their claim to fame is this awesome looking bronze statue called "Trail Boss" smack dab in the middle of the road. If you miss this roadside attraction, you won't "miss it" because you're going to run right into it.
Finally getting into Roswell and I realize these folks have a great sense of humor! Right there in the middle of a field on the side of the road someone has built a spaceship complete with aliens, people from the 50's and little lights blinking. I think that normally, in a car, I might have missed this roadside attraction but I am glad I didn’t. Whoever put this together must have had a blast doing it. I had a good laugh and headed into Roswell to find a place to stay. I got into Roswell and decided that I would stay at the Crane Motel again since it was clean and cheap, especially the cheap part! The guy at the counter must either have a photographic memory or be bored out of his mind because he remembered me and knew about my trip from our conversation when I was going south. I was impressed! He even upgraded my room to a slightly larger room and put me in a corner where the rooms on either side of me were empty and it was quiet. I unpacked the bike and decided I would go into town and start this whole tourist thing.
First order of business has to be the UFO Museum, of course. I am the eternal skeptic, and I don't apologize for it. While I am open to possibilities, I demand real proof. Here’s an example; I believe that there must be life somewhere on another planet for a simple reason. I think it is arrogant to believe that given the expanse of space and the billions of other planets out there that we would be the only place life could take hold. It’s just a theory since I have no real proof….yet. So, anyway I decide I am going in and taking some pictures. While I may be a skeptic, I have loved ones and others who are wholehearted believers and I thought it would be nice to share the museum with them. I had to start with a good laugh before I went in because they have this art piece right outside that made me crack up. It's a metal sculpture of a cowboy in a debris field and there's an alien sitting on the ground waving howdy. For some reason, it just makes me flash to the old Where's Waldo book we used to read to the kids. So I pay my $5 admission and the tour begins.
Overall, the museum is pretty fun because they take some stuff seriously but at the same time it is evident that they have a sense of humor about some of it. Some displays are pretty cheesy and corny but others are pretty well done. There's everything from homemade sculptures to miniature models of the crash depiction and walls of newspaper articles and government papers. They have maps displayed showing the location of the crash site and other locations of interest. I saw a map where you stick a pin on your hometown and decide to do that on the way out but I forgot. Not a biggie though since it appears at least two other people from Ketchikan, AK have been there. They have a wall of testimonials from people who claim to have had an experience of one kind or another and some walls where I couldn't make out what the point of the wall was.
Pretty funny but someone put a lot of work into designing some of the displays. There's displays of "metal fragments" from the spaceship where someone very carefully mimicked what has been said about the shape of the fragments and even had a mini I-beam type of bar where they drew some odd designs on and then had a card telling you about the symbols. Some displays would pose a question like "Project Mogul and the Roswell Incident - Is There a Connection?" OK, I'll bite. I read the display and came away more confused because they didn't answer the question one way or the other.
So what Museum is complete without a NASA crash test dummy? Don't know what this had to do with UFO's but it was interesting because NASA seems to think people should be really short from the looks of this dummy. It's from the 60's and in pretty rough shape. This guy had a hard life, I guess. So, I'm walking past another display of aliens standing around under a spaceship and could swear one winked and said whazzz up. It made me laugh. It's right next to a statue of our old friend Klakatu from the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still". No Keaneu Reeves with him. This must be from the original movie from 1951.
Other displays in the museum are equally funny. There's the horse covered in newsprint of UFO sightings and such. For a moment I considered jumping on for a selfie but thought better of it. There's also the display I mistook for Michael Jackson in a hyperbolic cylinder. Turns out it was just another alien using it at the time? And of course, there had to be the display with a reference to the movie Alien with the body floating in a solution in a vertical glass cylinder.
Hey, they even had a display with all the details of the first ever reported alien abduction! If you are a believer, this is big stuff. If you are a non-believer, this is who you can blame. Your choice! Then there’s this Mayan plaque that I could not, for the life of me, figure out what it had to do with UFOs. Let's not forget the Nazi Foo Fighter of 1945 display created with toys. I have no idea what this is supposed to really represent but I might have to research this when I get home out of curiosity. There's one display that asked the question I had in mind "Wow, What's this?" It was also created in 1945 with toys. I still can't figure out what it is!
They had one wall with pictures of presidents and other high-ranking folks who were believers. I liked this wall and thought to myself "If I was president, at least I would be in a position to know once and for all!". They even have posters of several movies about the Roswell crash. Leave it to Hollywood to milk anything until there's nothing left to tell and then do it a couple more times anyway!
So, here's where I knew for sure that they had a sense of humor because they had a wall of just humorous stuff about the whole alien thing. Pretty cartoon-ish but fun nonetheless. The display I thought someone spent a lot of time on was the alien autopsy room. Someone went to a lot of work to put this one together and paid attention to detail.
It looks like even Sony was milking the alien thing for what it's worth. They put out a game about it. Always surprises me how we think the worst of those we don't know. Every movie out there depicting aliens always paints them as hideous, murderous, mutants. I guess that sells better then aliens coming to earth and handing out flowers at the airport! By the way, I think if there are aliens amongst us, they are these same flower children at the airport!
Out of the museum and into the town to see just how ingrained the alien culture is in this town and how much they milk it. I was not disappointed because right off the bat, I find the Alien tattoo shop. It seems most stores here have some kind of alien theme to them with names like Starchild and such. I just about fell off my bike laughing when I saw the Mexican bakery; you guessed it, its alien themed. They have paintings of aliens serving up sweet bread! I went in and got a piece of sweet bread. No sense passing up one of the last chances for this stuff before I get home. I'm going along when I see this really neat tiny little house right on one of the main drags of town. I had to stop to take a picture because I can only imagine that this house has to be no more than a studio apartment on the inside. It's boarded up so we may never know! I also find a cool looking old closed up gas station. I start thinking to myself, if this was Corpus Christi, this would be a taqueria or at least a fruit stand. What a waste!
I spent a while driving around checking out some interesting buildings and right there in the middle of town the most impressive police station I have ever seen. This is a huge building and also houses the courthouse. I start wondering just how troublesome are these people that they need that big a police station? This building is next to what I think is City Hall and it's also an interesting building. They have this huge anchor displayed in front and I know they are nowhere near any body of water so what's the purpose?
Again, I almost fall off the bike laughing as I pull in front of a shop with carved aliens by the door. I guess these folks don't want to be sexist so they have a green alien and a pink alien! Hell, even the music store is alien themed in this town as well as the outdoor supply store! This pace has me in stitches as I see a window display which immediately takes me to Mexico. That is back in the days when you could go to Mexico and not fear for your life! What the Mexican people did with stuffed frogs, these people have done with miniature aliens! It's hilarious. I walked by the music store; they also have a display in the window. It seems aliens like to rock out too!
So, by now I have figured out that I have a tire losing air, the back one. Here we go again with problems in New Mexico. Although, I must say, that every time I have had trouble in New Mexico, the solution has not been too far. I decide I better get this dealt with and head over to a tire shop. They don't deal with motorcycle tires at a regular tire store but I knew they would be able to point me in the right direction and they did. They give me directions to Motion Performance Motorcycle shop. They took the bike in right away and I sat around for a while talking to the guy at the counter. He is one chatty guy and a couple of times, the woman in back had to get him to stop talking and do some work. He is from Wasilla, AK and it seems he has a Facebook friend in Ketchikan. I don't recognize the name so he writes it down and wants me to look her up when I get home and tell her hi for him. I lost the name and figured well, at least he is her Facebook friend so he already can say hi to her himself so not a big loss that I lost her name. Their prices are reasonable so I have them do a couple of other minor things to the bike since they already have it on the rack. These are a nice bunch of folks and quick too. They give me back my bike and off I go.
Time for a little dinner and I find another place on my must have junk food lists, Arby's. They have a sign that says Aliens Welcome and I have to wonder, "Does that include the illegal ones too?". Right by Arby's is this Indian village looking motel and I'm thinking too bad I didn't' see this place first because I would have stayed here just for fun. What Indian village is complete without and alien display? They have a small spaceship and aliens of different sizes including a mutated giant one calling home by the looks of it. It looked like an AT&T phone to me!
Since it was a nice warm day with just a hint of rain, I opted to spend the day riding without my leathers so I could soak up some sun and enjoy the breeze a little more at slower speeds. Well, it goes without saying that I obviously have no idea what I am talking about when it comes to predicting the weather because I got caught in the rain wearing only a t-shirt for protection. I got soaked on my way back to my motel. This is my first real rain of the trip and man it is coming down. The motel manager sees me ride in and comes over running. He tells me that the room next to mine, which is the corner room, is used only for keeping supplies and no plans of using the one next to it either. He tells me I can pull my bike up on the sidewalk because this corner is well covered from the rain and my bike fits there well. I thank him and immediately pull the bike up where it can stay dry. Since I got back to my super cooled room with a wet shirt, I am freezing and can't wait to change shirts. I change shirts and put my jacket on to warm up. I decide that I better dry the bike as best as I can now so I go out and start doing this. So, this older guy named Robert and his wife are staying a couple of rooms over and he comes out and is admiring my bike and we get to talking. This guy makes me look short and I'm no slouch at 5'11". He is all of 6'7 and has quite the story to tell. We get to talking and he tells me he is a cook and has worked all over the states and met a bunch of interesting people. He says he met Mae West when he was young and says her whole persona was not an act, what you saw in the movies is how she sounded and how she acted in real life. He also met Redd Fox and said: yes he is as foul mouthed in person as he is in his comedy! Robert used to have a bike when he was younger so we spoke for a while about places he has ridden and such. He says he is too old for that anymore but has his memories. His wife took our picture but refused to be in a picture herself.
The rain let up and I figured I would treat myself to a movie. The only movie they had that looked interesting was Sin City but I don't think anybody else thought it was interesting because I had the place to myself! I took a picture of the empty theater and sure enough, with lights off, the picture came out bad. The clip came on where they tell you to turn off your cell phone and the rebel in me, not much of one, had to pull my cell phone out and say, "oh yeah, make me"! I’ve got to say, those Sin City movies are getting worse each time. Bunch of violence for the sake of violence is about it. I guess yet again, Hollywood feels that if you make one successful movie, you should exploit the hell out of it until no one comes.
Back to my upgraded room for bedtime! The room may be bigger this time but it's still just as old looking as the first one was! Comfortable bed after a tiring day! I ended the day having only traveled 201.1 miles today.
Following is some detail on the pictures:
Pic 1 - Lying Donuts: C & T Donuts where they claim to make the best donuts in the world. THEY LIE!!! Adios Pecos, TX.
Pic 2 - Lying Tamales: World Famous? Never heard of them. Maybe famous in Pecos, TX but that's it!
Pic 3 - The unknown stalk: Not sure what this plant is but I remember from childhood that the stalks grow a bunch of pretty white flowers and they grow wild all over the place. My parents would stop and cut a stalk which they cooked the flowers from and ate them.
Pic 4 - Black Gold: Working oil drilling operation just outside Pecos, TX
Pic 5 - Adios Texas: Goodbye Texas!
Pic 6 - Adios Texas: Hola New Mexico!
Pic 7 - False Advertising: From the number of bullet holes on the sign, I'm not sure they are being honest with the whole welcome thing. For a town with a name like Loving, NM, I would expect a little more Love!
Pic 8 - The Trail: Just a random historical marker but I needed to stretch my legs.
Pic 9 - Milagro Bean Fields: Look, the Milagro bean fields! Where's the war? Now find the movie reference here.
Pic 10 - A Town Blown to Dust: Couldn't resist taking a shot of these abandoned old buildings in Orla, NM. Not much of the town left but a truck stop crowded with truck drivers.
Pic 11 - City of Caves: Guess I gotta do some research and learn who Cody Ross is/was. I guess Carlsbad, NM needs more than the caverns as a claim to fame.
Pic 12 - A Building Done Right: Finally, a city that really understands its politicians! City Hall and bar in one building! Carlsbad, NM knows their politicians well!
Pic 13 - Bronze: Huge bronze statue in Artesia, NM. Trail Boss
Pic 14 - The Aliens are here: Awesome roadside attraction in a corn field right outside Roswell, NM. Just had to pull over for a good look! That does it; I'm spending the day in Roswell exploring!
Pic 15 - Back to the Crane: Deja Vue! I stayed here on the way down. They welcomed me back and even remembered where I came from and where I was going. Really nice folks! Gonna stay in Roswell and play tourist for the day!
Pic 16 - The Museum: Ever the skeptic but I have loved ones and not so loved ones who are true believers so I figured I should post some pics. After all, this is the alien Capitol of the world!
Pic 17 - Tour Time: $5 to get in so we are getting off on the right foot.
Pic 18 - Hidden Alien: Where's Alien Waldo?
Pic 19 - Welcome: Some displays were corny, some were funny, and others were serious. Overall fun displays.
Pic 20 - The Rendition: Tiny sand rendition of the famous crash.
Pic 21 - Wall of Stories: Personal accounts of experiences by regular folks.
Pic 22 - Wall of Maps: Location of the crash site!
Pic 23 - Wall of Testimonials: People's stories about being abducted and fiddled with!
Pic 24 - Wall of Crap: Random stuff, I couldn't get a handle on.
Pic 25 - Metal Fragments: Recreation display of metals from crash site.
Pic 26 - Alien Symbols: The prior display was so detailed that the tiny ibeam even had the symbols on it.
Pic 27 - Huh: They never did answer the question.
Pic 28 - Dummy: What alien museum is complete without a NASA crash test dummy?
Pic 29 - Whazzz Up: I coulda sworn one of them said "whazzz up" as I walked past!
Pic 30 - Dig It: Photos from the Roswell dig looking for artifacts, I guess.
Pic 31 - Klakatu: What alien display/museum would be complete without our old friend Klakatu?
Pic 32 - Explain this: I thought this was funny. It's covered in UFO newspaper clippings.
Pic 33 - Michael: Hey look, it's Michael Jackson! Wait, no......it's not! Damn!
Pic 34 - Alien Movie: They had to have gotten the idea for this from the movie Alien!
Pic 35 - Me First: All the details of the first documented alien abduction case. These folks started it all. Now you know who to blame.
Pic 36 - The Mayan Connection: I have no real idea what this has to do with aliens but they claim an ancient connection.
Pic 37 - Nazis: The Nazi connection, at least with toys.
Pic 38 - Still Waiting on an Answer: Wow, what's this? That what I asked and no one told me.
Pic 39 - Presidents: Old presidents and such who were believers.
Pic 40 - Movie Time: Hey, there's even a movie. Turns out, there are lots of Roswell movies!
Pic 41 - Funnies: They have a sense of humor.
Pic 42 - Operation: The autopsy room display was pretty cool.
Pic 43 - The Game: And to top it all off, you gotta have a play station game to go with it.
Pic 44 - Alien Tattoos: Even the tattoo shop is alien themed.
Pic 45 - Starchild: The book store.
Pic 46 - Alien Pan Dulce: I thought I had seen it all and then I found this Mexican bakery.
Pic 47 - La Casita: Couldn't pass up a picture of this tiny little house right on one of the side streets by downtown.
Pic 48 - What's This: Heck if I know what this is but it was interesting anyway.
Pic 49 - On The Tracks: I forget which side is "the wrong side of the tracks" but once the train honked behind me, I realized the middle must be it!
Pic 50 - No Taqueria: What a waste. Abandoned gas station not turned into a taqueria!
Pic 51 - The Tiny Lady: Tiny little gift shop with an even tinier lady manning it.
Pic 52 - Hey Hombre: The little guy was in a pic I took on my way down.
Pic 53 - Odd Building: Not sure what the design idea was here! Just a weird looking building. Looks out of place.
Pic 54 - Impressive: Police station/courthouse. This place was huge!
Pic 55 - Anchor in the Desert: I have yet to see any standing water in NM so not sure what the anchor is holding down.
Pic 56 - Graffiti: Random street art on an abandoned building right in the middle of town.
Pic 57 - His and Hers: No sexism allowed at this shop! Male and female carved aliens.
Pic 58 - Alien Music: Even the music store and the comic shop were alien themed.
Pic 59 - Street Art: Pretty good random street art.
Pic 60 - Roswell gear: Meant to go in here to find out what it was but got distracted and forgot.
Pic 61 - Alien Village: What the Mexicans did to stuffed frogs, these guys did to small aliens!
Pic 62 - Alien Rockers: Come on, even the music store?
Pic 63 - My New Ride: This is what it's gonna take to get me to replace my Mazda! It's available at Discount City Army & Navy Surplus.......just in case.
Pic 64 - Flat Tire: Waiting here for these guys to fix a slow leak in my rear tire. Great folks, they took it right in. The guy at the counter is from Wasilla but I told him we wouldn't hold it against him. Talkative guy though, the lady told him I wanted my bike today!
Pic 65 - Junk Food Time: Even the illegal ones?
Pic 66 - Old West Motel: If I had seen this place first, I might have stayed here. Pretty funny looking place.
Pic 67 - The Landing: Homemade saucer at the Western Inn.
Pic 68 - ET Phone Home: How's this for ET phone home?
Pic 69 - Riding While Wet: So, this is what you look like if you get caught in a rain storm while riding with only a t-shirt on! Felt great after all the heat except when I got back to my now super cooled room! They got too much lightening here for me.
Pic 70 - Let it Rain: First rain of the trip. Coming down heavy but won't last.
Pic 71 - My New Buddy: Met Robert as he was admiring my bike. Had a long conversation with him. He has been everywhere and met people like Mae West (he says her act was no act, she was just like you saw) and Redd Fox amongst others working. He's 6'7" I'm not a midget!
Pic 72 - Under Cover: Gotta love this motel! The owner came over while it was raining and told me they were just using the room next to mine for storage and I could pull my bike up on the sidewalk in front of it to get it out of the rain!
Pic 73 - Theater to Myself: So, opted for a movie tonight at Icon Cinemas. Sin City movie was on and I had the whole theater to myself. I have my phone out and I dare me to report me to the staff!
Pic 74 - Crappy Movie: Icon theater for a showing of Sin City. Boy those Sin City movies are getting worse each time. Guess if you make one movie people like cause it's different, exploit the hell out of it!
Pic 75 - Back at the Crane: They gave me the bigger room this time! Still ancient but very clean and quiet.
Pic 76 - End Of Day Miles: Short day of riding since I opted to stay in Roswell and play tourist.
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