Roswell to Texas

We awoke in Albuquerque, had some cereal and headed to Roswell. I expected New Mexico to be a little more sandy but it was surprisingly green on both sides of the car. It was however, flat. Definitely expected that. After only a few hours we arrived in Roswell! Definitely excited. I was in nerd heaven. There were alien-related things everywhere. The Arby’s (ugh) window said “Aliens Welcome.” The streetlights were alien heads. Since the crash site is private property (and I don’t ‘spect them to take kindly to trespassing ‘round these parts) we went to the International UFO Museum (although I don’t know of any branches in any other country; I should’ve asked the 17 year old cashier). We paid our $5 admission and got to see all sorts of newspaper articles on the crash, read stories about other UFO sightings/abductions and look at cheesy replicas and artists’ renderings. It was hokey and I loved it. 

There was a section on Area 51 and Jaimie almost had me convinced that we had driven right past it when we went through Nevada. After double-checking a map I realized she was wrong and I calmed down. We were on a time limit, so we left the museum and went to get lunch. Unfortunately the lady in the gift shop told me there weren’t any alien-themed restaurants. I told her maybe I’d move out here and start one. She seemed more concerned about what time she was going home. We decided to go to Weinerschnitzel, which had been recommended to us by my cousin in San Jose. We drove past that awful Arby’s and got some pretty great hotdogs and fries.

At this point I would like to note an interesting phenomenon. We drove through some small towns on the way to Roswell and they were all deserted. At one point we ran low on fuel and had to stop. Driving through this one town, I noticed homes and closed businesses. No cars. And then we passed the church. Full parking lot. Of course! It was 11:00am on a Sunday in the South. I thought about going in and seeing if someone could turn on one of the gas pumps. Thankfully there were some heathens at the Allsup gas station. We filled up, eyed some rather unsavory food sitting under heat lamps and settled on Moon Pies and Doritos for our post-cereal snack. Moon Pies, by the way are awesome. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find any in New Jersey when I get back, but I’ll try.

It was time to get to Lubbock, Texas. After about a 3 hour drive through fields of cattle and oil pumps we arrived. We set up camp and went in search of dinner. Of course, while in Texas, we had to go to a steakhouse. Of course, it was Sunday, and most of them were closed. We found Texas Land and Cattle, a franchise steakhouse. We ate some amazing steak amongst the heathens and headed back to camp. 

We sat down to work on our blog and apparently there are a number of birds that chirp in their sleep in the tree behind our tent. Jaimie is finding it quite humorous randomly shining the flashlight in their direction and listening to the startled commotion. I would have to agree. Tomorrow we head to Arkansas with a hopefully non-bird-poop-covered tent in tow.

**Jaimie researched Birds Native to Texas and narrowed it down to two possibilities...

Least Flycatcher or Grey Catbird???