Tue 12 Feb - Roswell, NM

It is time to move on again and head south for new sights and experiences (and hopefully some warmer weather...). This time, extraterrestrial... Well, sort of...

Roswell, NM is most popularly known for having its name attached to what is now called the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, even though the crash site of the alleged UFO was some 75 miles from Roswell and closer to Corona (We copied this from Wikipedia as they did put it quite well)

We decided to take the long way round to Roswell, going east first to Santa Rosa and then south through Fort Sumner and taking some smaller roads. We start with I40 heading east and its a good thing we did because overnight snow is on the road in higher places and the busy truck traffic on the I40 has cleared nearly all of it, so driving is ok.

What keeps us amused on this stretch of quite boring road is the multitude of billboards. In some sections you get about 20 at once and only the most dramatic catch your eye. Billboards for fireworks sales occur often.

Heading south from Santa Rosa we reach Fort Sumner around 11am. This sign on the way into town builds up our expectations - yes, we came to see Billy The Kid's grave... But hopefully so much more!

Billy The Kid's grave is in the middle of farm land about 5 miles out of the other side of town, along Billy The Kid Drive. Here it is the gravestone...

To explain why Billy The Kid's headstone is behind bars and shackled to the ground you need to read this board... In summary, the stone was stolen, lost for a long time, recovered and then stolen again.

 

The Cemetery itself is grim... It looks old, unused and grey. The other major headstone is for Lucien Maxwell, who seems to have owned about a quarter of New Mexico a century ago.

 

We then head into Fort Sumner town for the "and so much more"....Sorry to say, we didn't find it. The "much more" that is...

Fort Sumner is almost a ghost town. These pictures are from one small block parallel to the main drag.

The Rodeo Diner was open, which advertised the "World Famous Billy the Kid Burger", so we pulled in for an early lunch. We did not order the world famous burger as it was too expensive, with tax about $10. We went cheap with a burger, fries and soft drink for Hans for $5. All we say is, you get what you pay for.

The Rodeo Diner definitely had a cowboy roping/rodeo theme with press clippings and posters like this on the wall. Not brilliant but we did not have much choice. We think this was one of only 2 or 3 places left in Fort Sumner for eating.

The most interesting part of the journey was leaving Fort Sumner on state road 20 - we saw just 1 other car in 40 miles. Hans had no qualms about standing in the middle of the road to take this photo.

Yep, there is plenty of empty country out here. In fact half of what we passed was one huge ranch called the Double V.

We arrived at Roswell and checked into our motel around 2pm and decided to wander downtown to the visitors centre. The helpful lady inside gave us lots of materials and opinions. Including on El Paso - just pass through, no reason to stop, and the Mexican sister city of Juarez...dangerous! But we will go there in a few days time - it just has to be done.

You know you are in Roswell because the Alien and UFO theme is everywhere, including official United States Postal Service boxes. This one appears to be R2D2 from Star Wars, with a web address of uspsjedimaster.com.

Back to our hotel for some planning and reading before dinner at a local grill place called Peppers Grill.

We shared a main course, nothing else and still were very full afterwards. For $22 we shared a side salad, salsa and corn chips, a full set of pork ribs, coleslaw, a roll, a baked potato and drinks each of a beer and a tea. Good value and delicious smokey ribs but we always struggle with the concept that the meal we ordered is intended for 1 person, not 2!

Tomorrow we eat healthier... Promises, promises.

 

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