New Mexico to Texas (Day 11)

Post Office Box, Roswell

I would never have imagined waking up this morning that I would shortly find myself being interviewed on a Chinese TV series about America.

Nicole and I check in to the International UFO Museum and begin a walk through each of the bays that illustrate the various perspectives of what happened in Roswell, 1947. The first thing I will say is, standing in the museum, reading all of these eyewitness accounts from U.S. soldiers and Roswell residents, that it's pretty hard to refute that something very sketchy happened here in 1947. Especially creepy is the transcript from an unaired radio interview that shows the discoverer of the crashed ship talking about the non-human bodies found there. 

Museum from outside.

Every month they clear this board so the next month's visitors can mark where they've come from.

I'm not saying that it was definitely an alien ship that crashed here, but I challenge anyone to come to this museum and walk away believing the official story of a weather balloon crashing. 

Crash!

This clock is made from rattlesnake bones, turquoise, and glass created in the desert sand by atomic bomb testing.

We've come to give your town meaning!

About halfway through our tour, I notice a Chinese film crew moving about the museum from the opposite direction. I take a few sneaky snaps and then think nothing more of it.

An American couple come over to me and ask if I can take their picture in front of the big flying saucer in the centre of the museum. As always in these situations, I defer to Nicole and her superior photography skills. The American couple then introduce themselves as Gary and Michelle. Gary is an astronomer who has travelled all the way here in his RV from New Jersey in just three days. 

Then, BAM. The producer of the Chinese TV show comes over and asks if they can interview all four of us for their documentary series. 

TV crew in action

So there we are, standing on either side of a presenter as he speaks very fast in a language none of us understand. The producer then translates for us. They want to know if we've seen any UFOs. Gary launches into several stories regarding UFOs that he has sighted in his time as an astronomer. Nicole and I, struggling to think of anything that would be relevant, talk about the weird lighthouse we saw back in Area 51. They seem very interested but Gary is easily the star of the show, his emphatic anecdotes about UFOs draw their attention further and they speak to him at great length. 

Nicole and I try to edge away from the interview, sensing (and hoping) that we're no longer required. 

But the producer pulls us back in! I think she just likes the look of having four of us standing in front of the camera. The presenter shakes each of our hands and says "Oh my god" in English when Gary gives him what must be quite a firm handshake. The Chinese presenter strikes a big muscly pose after the handshake to illustrate the strength of it, but Nicole suspects he might be mimicking our ballooning American waistlines. Either way, it's a very surreal situation.  

Gary talks to us some more after the TV crew move on. He tells us that he and his girlfriend are headed to Chaco Canyon next and up through the Extra-Terrestrial Highway. It's like they're doing our journey in reverse. We bid them farewell and continue our look around the museum.

Gary and Michelle are in the middle. The lady on the left is Tammy Fang, a local guide for the Chinese TV crew, and on the far right is her husband.

Artist's representation of U.S. soldiers discovering a Nazi flying saucer in WWII.

Props from the film Roswell

The UFO museum is obviously the only real reason that tourists come to Roswell. It's a busy place, and the displays are impressive and legitimately interesting. And, much to my amusement, every time the sceptic in me voices a thought, Nicole touches her ear and listens to an imaginary transmission before telling me in an official voice that I have to leave. 

By the time we get out of the museum it's midday and we decide to divert a little ways south to see one more attraction in New Mexico before we move on to the next state; the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Carlsbad. 

Another fun store in Roswell is Nifty 50s, which is easily sighted from the road when you notice this car.

Nifty 50s in Roswell

Great photo op inside the store.

Friendly staff too!

Living Desert Zoo and Gardens entrance just outside Carlsbad.

It's a fairly short drive of about an hour, and the zoo is really well set out. Being Tuesday, we almost have the place to ourselves, so it's nice to stroll through the zoo's replications of the various habitats from the Chihuahuan Desert. The gardens are beautiful, and we see tiny lizards run across our path into the cacti. Better yet is when we suddenly freeze at the realisation that the large bugs buzzing nearby are hummingbirds. I had no idea they were that small! 

The zoo features a walk-in aviary where you can watch roadrunners as they dart back and forth with their heads held low.

The Javelina is also known as the Collared Peccary and is found throughout south-western America. Although they look a lot like pigs, they are actually only distantly related.

Inside the nocturnal house with forced facial expression.

Finally got to see a Gila Monster. It was surprisingly animated, and kept opening its mouth while slinking around its enclosure. The Gila Monster is one of only two venomous lizards in the world.

These Prairie Dogs were rad too. They can live in colonies of up to 1000 individuals. The zoo's group is a rather conservative 30 or so individuals.

The zoo also has some Pronghorns. This skull illustrates how the Pronghorn differs from deer and antelopes. Its antlers are made of bone and have a sheath that can be shed. The Pronghorn is the only living remnant of an ancient and otherwise extinct family of hoofed animals.

The zoo feels like a real desert at several points, especially as we bake in the very real heat. Nicole is more than ready to beat a quick retreat to the air conditioning of the car once we're done.

We don't really have a set destination today so we decide to just head east and get as close to Dallas as we can before it gets dark. As we drive through Carlsbad, Nicole keeps the car stationary well after a light has turned green. I notice that she's admiring her new turquoise bracelet from the Zuni Reservation. I subtly remind her to drive on before the car behinds us gets friendly with his horn.

The offending piece.

The drive to Texas is a lonely one. I get a little nervous after a while that we might run out of gas... the roads we've picked don't seem to go through any towns. Slowly but surely, the farmlands around us segue into oil fields - self-operating machinery dots the landscape around us and the air has a dirty haze to it. 

I feel tense for a while that we aren't going to make it to a gas station but don't let on to Nicole that I'm worried. After nearly 2 hours of driving through the big, industrialised nowhere of south-eastern New Mexico, we arrive at the town of Eunice. After such a hazy, eerie trip through the scattered oil fields, Eunice feels like the ends of the earth to me. We fill up on gas and drive on towards Texas. Before we leave I notice a kid playing with a large pile of sand-like dirt outside an abandoned store. I think to myself, that's nice - that kid is making sand castles. However, my opinion changes when he ducks behind the huge dirt pile and then re-emerges with a big earthy clump that he throws at the traffic just behind us. Boredom breeds brats.

Day 11, State 6

Oil fields

The view west, behind us

America - land of capitalism and long signs without adequate spacing.

For one last time we time travel into another time zone as we finally reach the state line for Texas, losing an hour as the sun sets behind us. The oil fields intensify as we drive past Andrews and Odessa, and I notice one that has been set alight in the distance - a huge plume of bright orange flame visible on the horizon. I wonder why it's been lit, if it's an accident or something they do on purpose, and it's something I don't think I'll ever know. That makes me a bit sad.

Nicole had this spud for dinner from McAlister's Deli. She tells me it was good.

Around 7:30 pm we reach the city of Midlands and work our way through three hotel receptions before finding one that's A) available, and B) cheap enough to cater to our Australian dollar.