We're being invaded!

April 20

We started our drive again this time to Roswell. We left late again which was probably a mistake. Driving through the desert is always an enjoyable experience for me. It’s so nostalgic and comforting in a way; most likely because we’d drive through it to get to Grandma and Grandpa’s and to get to El Centro.

As we’re driving, we see all these signs for “The Thing?” (question mark included) and of course we have to stop. So we pull over to this combination gas station/Dairy Queen/desert souvenir shop/The Thing? Exhibit. After buying some gas and post cards, we pay our $1 admission to The Thing? After walking through several rooms of old things (old horse drawn carriages, books, cars, etc) we finally get to the third and final room. Then we exit the third and final room. Nowhere in any of the rooms is there a sign that says “Here is The Thing?” Our only conclusion is that it was an old mummy-looking thing in a plexi-glass case. We’re still not sure though…..

We got to the New Mexico border and took a picture with the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign. As we were standing there, we realized that we didn’t get one with the Arizona sign. Then we turned to go back to the car and we see the Arizona welcome sign on the opposite side of the highway, gleaming in the sunset. Then we get the bright idea to run across all four lanes of the 10 freeway to get a picture with that sign. And we do. And we got our pictures. Mission accomplished. Probably not the brightest thing we’ve done, but it was necessary.

Again I drove the second half of the trip and unfortunately we drove through Ruidoso in the dead of night which is sad because I’ve heard it’s a gorgeous area. Our GPS, Gypsy, took us some screwy route and after getting lost a few times, we finally pulled in to our hotel in Roswell. It was very blustery and pretty cold. Again we were tired and we go into the room and just fell asleep. The next morning at the complimentary breakfast downstairs, the news informed us that there were fire warnings all over Texas, the next leg of our trip, and tornado warnings all over Arkansas. Oh goody!

We packed up the car and drove down the street to the International UFO Museum. Now, Roomie and weren’t quite sure why it was the “International” UFO Museum because we’re not sure who, outside of children on field trips from neighboring cities and tourist who just happen to be in new Mexico, would come to this museum. Most likely idiots like Roomie and I. So we paid our $5 to enter this museum and it was a total waste. It mostly consisted of the same news article over and over again, pictures of people who dug at the site, paintings by people who weren’t even there for the alleged landing, and replicas of the substance that the Roswellian farmer found on his land. Our favorite items though was the “Checklist of Ways to Tell if You’ve Survived an Abduction” and the VHS box of the movie they made about Roswell. Pure gems.

We bought some post cards and Starbucks and got the hell out of Roswell.