UFO's are in the air....

October 15 – It was such a wacky day, I’m not sure I can remember it all!  After a quick cereal breakfast Bill went out to unhook and was playing with the neighbor’s dog, throwing Frisbees.  He really liked that dog and when I went out to do the brake light check the dog brought me the Frisbee, but I didn’t want to give the dog big expectations!  We drove the 2.5 miles back out to the main road at a snail’s pace and got on our way for the day.

Lava Rock fields we drove thru

We had planned to visit some more petroglyphs but I wanted to get in earlier to park for the night so we nixed it and went on towards Roswell, NM.  On the way we stopped for diesel at an Indian station with no attendant and could only get $75 of fuel.  That gave us a ¼ tank!  Bill went in the store to see if they had any DEF and bought just a 1 gallon jug since it’s overpriced in the jug.  Guess that’s why they don’t offer it at the pumps. 

As we approached Roswell we took the bypass by mistake so we had to detour around a bit to get back into downtown where the International UFO Museum & Research Center was.  Bill tried to call and see about parking for the RV but they don’t provide a direct line, they’re all “business” numbers.  Along the main street a truck of young people were waving at me and I thought it had to do with me being a woman driver but they kept at it and I pulled over and the DEF

compartment door was open.  Bill closed it and guessed he didn’t lock it earlier.  Lucky break for us!  When we got to the Museum we immediately realized we could not park in their lot so we took the side street where there were some businesses that are not open on Sunday, lucky for us. 

Since it was 12:30 we decided to have lunch first and the only thing within 2 blocks was Subway.  Not my first choice by any means, but Subway it was.  I had a salad that in no way compares with Wendy’s.  The museum was across the street and I knew Bill was not really interested but I’ve always been intrigued by the talk of  Roswell  and  the  aliens!  He  tends  to humor me so we paid our

admission, received our admission stickers and off we went.  I was slower as I was ready all of the old newspaper articles and signed testimony of people from 1947 when the report of tiny bodies with big heads and unusual metals and plastic was found and reported by a farmer a couple of days after the find.  He couldn’t just leave his farm work undone so he waited to go to town and report it.  He ended up being held by the military base as a “guest” for 5 days.  Mysterious he didn’t have a nickel to his name before the incident but after was driving a new truck and refused to discuss it with anyone in town.

The museum has a chronology of the events, the secrets, the testimonies as well as worldwide discoveries, information on Area 51 and reproductions of the “aliens”.  After about

10 minutes Bill came back to me and said he was going to the RV.  However, he ended up staying as long as I did and admitted that it was very interesting and would make believers out of people.  We took some photos and made the obligatory stop at the gift shop.

At the RV we had huckleberry ice cream sandwiches while Bill ran the car the required time.  We had 3 choices of exits, one of which looked like it might be a problem to make the turn onto the street towing, and the other two looked steep but Bill said just take it slow.  I took it slow and at an angle thinking it would not drop the front of the car down all at once in the low drain,

but we heard the most awful scraping so Bill had me pull over ASAP and he got out.   There went ANOTHER mud flap!  We had a devil of a time getting the flap off as the metal bar was wrapped up and down.  So with a hammer, wrench, screwdriver and ratchet Bill worked under the RV and I motioned the traffic around us.  One guy pulled up behind us and I motioned him around but he stopped and got out and offered help.  He and his wife are full-timers.  We had just gotten it off and were taking it apart.  We thanked him for the offer but the hard part was over.  We salvaged the rubber mat but hopefully my brother can find and help us make another one!

It was another boring drive.  It was beginning to look like Texas, lots of oil derricks and trucking to all of the facilities.  Then it looked like Georgia, with fields of cotton and groves of pecan trees.  Did we make a wrong turn? 

So it’s good thing we passed on the petroglyphs this morning as this put us behind schedule and we took longer in the museum that we expected.  Our final destination for the night was a Wal-mart in Carlsbad, NM.  Had our friends made the trip with us we’d have stayed in a campground for 2 nights and gone to the caverns, but we’d been before and are pretty ready to be heading home.  The driveway at the light entering Wal-mart was VERY narrow and cars were in the lane to exit and cars were behind me and I had to try and make the turn.  I held my breath and told Bill to watch the tow car as I was watching the exiting traffic and they could see I was getting in a pickle.  They started pulling to the side as I inched in and one driver held back until the lane cleared and let me make my left turn.  Then there were so many tanker trucks and one RV and Sunday evening shoppers that we didn’t think we’d be able to park.  I went to the designated side of the lot and there was nothing we could get into with the car so I U-turned in the loading dock and just as I complete my turn one of the tanker trucks left and we pulled in right behind him!  Lucky ducks again!

I took ground beef out this morning so I immediately put my meatloaf together and in the oven.  Then we relaxed a while with iced coffees.  I tried the power button again on the washer, no luck.  That was just ticking me off so I took the breaker panel cover off and turned the breaker off, waited, turned it on.  Then I reset both of the GFI outlets and tried the washer and “Yeehaw” the washer came on!  I guess last night I wasn’t being as patient or in the correct order.  So I started the load of laundry and then we went to Wal-Mart for the short list of things we needed.

I boiled a few new potatoes and enjoyed a glass of wine while they cooked.  Once the meatloaf was done I steamed some broccoli and we had dinner.  Bill said it was good meatloaf, so I guess my combination of leftover spaghetti sauce, Italian bread crumbs, dried mixed veggies and an egg did the trick.  We shared a little pound cake I’d frozen when I made them for dessert.

Bill called 3 upcoming stops for the trip home and 1 was full so I looked up another place for him to try tomorrow and I found places for the last 3 nights on the road for him to call tomorrow also.  Hopefully we can get in them all and have that chore out of the way.