Today's theme in Roswell, NM is... Well, why don't you, the reader, have a wild stab in the dark!
Well, we are in Roswell, New Mexico, the alleged site for what is referred to as the "Roswell Incident" in 1947.
In summary, the incident started on the 4th July with a "loud noise, different from the thunder" and "descending flash". The following day, a rancher discovered debris over a wide area, debris of a type of material that was "unknown". And ever since, a multitude of theories and conspiracy theories and many more sightings...
Fast forward to today, and Roswell is milking the incident for all it is worth. There is an alien theme wherever you go in Roswell town, most of it not very serious.
For us, that meant a visit to two mandatory places. First place is the Roswell UFO Museum and UFO Research Centre.
There is a lot of text and photocopies and newspaper clips and photographs and alien models and what have you there. A bit too much in our view and a bit too serious.
It started off well enough, with a timeline of events starting from 4th of July.
There is an alien in the next picture. Or are there more than one...?
One of the walls had these fan posters with some text and autographs from the people depicted. And Malcolm McDowell aka Alex from A Clockwork Orange movie has paid the place a visit in the past.
We had a giggle when we saw this cartoon...
Our second mandatory place to visit was only a hundred meters or so up the road. We passed this empty lot and thought that the sign was funny. What the...?
Next stop was Alien Zone, a place we found via raving reviews on Tripadvisor. Alien Zone is essentially a t-shirt and souvenir shop, but they have an additional business at the back being a sort of alien museum with alien dummies, props, scenes and lots of scraps and you can pose with them.
If the UFO Museum was somewhat serious, Alien Zone is all tongue in cheek. One of the reviewers on Tripadvisor called it cheesy and fun. We couldn't agree more. It was a hoot!
The back area cost us $2 each to get into and is called Area 51 after a top secret part of Edward Air Force Base in Nevada. Who knows what kind of activities have taken place there in the past and even now, and what part of the Roswell incident had its origin from there. Speculations are fierce. The owner of Alien Zone had clearly made up his mind.
We had lots of fun socialising with the aliens. Hans is taking a beer with... ET?
Very friendly ... At first...
And then it got all serious with analysis and probing...
Aaarrrggghhh...
Time to turn the tables... Doctor Di on the job.
This guy was allowed his 1 phone call home! Not cheap...
Home town of the aliens... We think...
Alien Zone is hilarious and we giggled the whole time. A must for anybody passing through Roswell, NM.
Back in the car going north to check out this guy outside the Roswell Art Museum. Dr Robert H Goddard is a scientist who shot off a rocket back in 1927, almost 20 years before the Manhattan Project.
We just had to check out New Mexico Military Institute or NMMI for short. They occupy a whole (very large) block on Main St in Roswell and their buildings are very classy. NMMI's motto is "Duty - Achievement - Honor" and that motto is replicated everywhere.
The grounds and buildings are very nice indeed and in between them there are statues and sculptures of past NMMI graduates on big open spaces.
The McBride Museum occupies one of the buildings of the NMMI campus and covers NMMI history. It is all free and we chatted to the civilian English bloke who welcomes us. It is all very friendly and open and we are invited to various things just by rocking up there. We even find ourselves shaking hands and introducing ourselves to a uniformed very senior looking military man (a graduate himself in 1972).
We are wearing backpacks, but no security concerns whatsoever. It feels a bit strange in this post 9/11 climate, but maybe our innocent looking faces give us a free ride...
This is the centre of the McBride museum, with most of the exhibition upstairs.
This particular Harley Davidson motorcycle was allegedly used by the US motorcycle soldiers some 100 years ago to capture Pancho Villa, a legendary Mexican bandit.
Drumroll, please...
After a quick lunch at Wendy's (quite good baked potatoes) we head to another unexpectedly nice part of Roswell - the Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge.
On the way we find ourselves following the local school bus so we stop a few times (it is the law in America - all traffic stops when the bus stops, regardless of the direction you are travelling in).
Bitter Lake is a well managed wildlife refuge, managed by the US Fish and Wildlife with forms part of Department of Interior. They seem to have a plan for each season, to control water levels, back burning, etc. They do a lot of work to ensure all local and visiting species have the right environment year round. As a result more species are showing up at Bitter Lake.
The refuge is primarily for birds - it is on the main North America "flyway" for migration and for some birds this is the final destination. So end of winter and end of autumn are the busy times.
The visitors centre explains all this with displays and videos. Very well done and presented and it's all free!
This is a view back to the visitors centre from the 8 mile driving loop they have in place, which you travel at max 15 mph and stop a lot (it took us about an hour).
At this time 28000+ geese are visiting the refuge and heaps of ducks and some cranes. How do we know? They regularly count them and we were shown a bird tally from 6th of February, I.e. from one week ago.
There are a few good observation points, some high like this one at "Goose Hill" and all the white you see in the background are geese!
We also saw a lovely red tailed hawk, which Hans dubbed "Bob" after a former Australian prime minister...
But for us the best viewing was at the south end of the lakes when the road heads east. You get quite close to some of the 28000 odd geese.
And the geese really do fly in V formation. Photographic evidence below.
In winter they keep the water levels high in the lames but in summer they let it dry out to a shallow depth that suits dragonfly, wading birds and frogs. The lake levels are managed by these sluices and a fed from underwater springs with run off from western mountains. The birds and fish apparently just love it.
We found out the Bitter Lake name came because the lakes get quite Alkaline when shallow but they flush them out in late autumn. This is a bird hide surrounded by some salt crust of a currently dry section.
Even if you're not a "twitcher" you can't help but be interested by all the bird life. They say they register 350 species here each year and are also now attracting coyote and other wildlife. A side note to Di's mum and Alan - you would love this place.
It's after 4pm and getting cool - we head back to the motel for research on our next leg and a cuppa.
Dinner is microwave sludge version 5. Chicken, vegies and tomato. Cheap and tasty. Wine to wash it all down.
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