In an effort to catch up on the blog (I’m 3 cities behind) I will review in this one post our journey through two more stops in New Mexico which is turning out to be quite a surprise package.
Our first stop after Alamagordo was Roswell, the Alien Capital of the World. What happened here in 1947 still raises debate about secret government coverups and the question of whether we are alone in this universe.
But before I get into the city photos, as usual you’ll see some roadside shots taken by Shane as we roll along the highway on our USA tour. It is unfortunate that the camera diminishes the majesty of the landscapes we have come across as we just keep repeating to each other “it can’t get better than this” but it does. So forgive our indulgence if the photos look less than impressive but in real life they are inspiring. Even ‘the Big Pistachio’ raised our eyebrows.
We had a quick peek at the town after we’d settled in to our RV park. Roswell has an impressive Town Hall looked over by Sam Chisum a famous settler/cattle rancher but here even the street lights look at you. We then ducked over to the airport where we were told there was a small museum to see. Small is the operative word. It does have some interesting history but the best part was Roswell Airport itself. The panorama photo of a series of aircraft mightn’t look much but in that photo alone we post count at about 60 plus jets. Why is this interesting? Well, they are all mothballed just sitting there for goodness knows why and that photo only covers a small part of the airport. If you have Google Earth on your PC try looking at Roswell Airport. (Despite the image there being 5 years old you can still zoom in to see aircraft all over the place.) There are also yards about the place with partly disassembled jets where obviously the planes have been cannibalised by airlines needing cheap parts. We have no idea what the fighter jet was doing in the paddock next door but there it was.
Back in town we headed for the world famous UFO Museum. ‘Bob’ let us know that “Dunkin’ Donuts” is in town and that the Alien Invasion means that he is everywhere. “Bob” is the name of the resident town alien mascot. Anyway inside the UFO Museum you can have hours of fun. It is set up in a way that whether you’re a believer in aliens or not they have heaps of information to help persuade you that they are here (or have at least been here). Personally I found the large timber Mayan carving known as The Palenque Astronaut (see the 3 photos connected with this) pretty convincing. I remembered seeing this first time in the 1970’s when Erich Von Daniken released his book (and later a movie) “Chariot of the Gods”. Von Daniken put forward some very resounding theories backed with lots of ‘evidence’ that in this vast unknown universe we are NOT alone. Besides the serious references the Museum is mostly fun right down to the recreated alien bodies and the bottles of “Outer Space Vodka” (Yep. Vodka can send you to outer space. That’s why I lose a day or so after a big night out.)
The remaining pics in the gallery are from a trip to the (free) city zoo. There are lots of these in the USA as animal ownership here is an easier task than at home in Australia. Who hasn’t heard of city people being mauled by their pet tiger they’ve owned since it was a cub here in America? Again it wasn’t very big but it is set up as a nice family day out and has a wide variety of animals from domestic cattle like the Texas Longhorn to birds and native animals. On the way out of Roswell we waved Bob a final goodbye as we passed him beside the roadway.
Moving on from Roswell we set off northbound to the State Capital of Albuquerque or as Bugs Bunny used to say Al-ba-koi-kee. As in the past I’ll just say to use your imagination when looking at the pics from the car as the camera doesn’t do the landscapes justice. Part of this journey was on Route 66 which we hope to do fully in the future. The further north we got the more concern we felt as snow capped mountains were becoming more common. As beautiful as they are we’d suffered enough from the cold when we returned to Wichita after Xmas.
As we entered 300 year old Abq (that’s the official abbreviation for Albuquerque) and crossed the Rio Grande (again) Shane snapped a range of expensive houses sitting in a prime position high above the river’s edge overlooking the city. Next day we went for a walk into the ‘Old Town’ which is just fantastic. This part of the city is dominated by Adobe houses in the Pueblo style (modern versions are known as Pueblo Revival). These have flat roofs with round log-like projections (called vigas) sticking out from the top of thick (traditionally adobe mud brick) walls. The vigas support the second and third floors which are terraced. The walls are rendered and given rounded edges in the pueblo style. (In the next blog you’ll see pictures we took during a visit to the world heritage listed Taos Pueblo showing one thousand year old pueblo buildings.)
In the traditional style of town plan the ‘Old Town’ is set about a plaza and the main feature of the plaza is San Felipe de Neri Church. Gifts, souvenirs, art galleries and the occasional food bar surround the public gardens. From here we went on a visit to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which houses many artefacts of cultural significance from the Native people of the South West region. The art, pottery and exhibits were overwhelming and it is a great way to familiarise yourself with the native culture. Our timing was again off as being off peak period there were no live dances being held on this day.
On Monday 15th April, we rose early to go and see the Petroglyph National Monument. This is similar to the ones at Hueco Tanks (see El Paso blog) but when I say these are close to the city I mean very, very close as you can see in some pictures. The rangers had sent us off to Boca Negra Canyon and even at the start of the trail petroglyphs are found quite easily as you can see by the one on the rock behind Shane. Despite the winds Shane decided she wasn’t going to miss this place so we took off up the trail and over the rocks towards the top of the hill. Just look at Shane’s hair almost getting blown away as we look back down at the neighbourhood at the bottom. I was a bit worried I might have to call in a helicopter to get her down but she fought back the fear (which considering the way the wind literally blew her off her feet at Alamagordo was a terrific show of inner strength) and we scrambled back after inspecting some of the reported 3500+ petroglyphs in this park alone. Not all the petroglyphs required mountain goat style climbing. Many were down at ground level with the trail passing between the decorated rocks.
Abq has so much more to offer. We had neither the time or resources to see the many museums and attractions of this region. Being so old and historically important Abq and New Mexico could take us months to see if we wanted to take it all in.
I’ll leave you to look at the petroglyphs as I start to work on our next blog on magnificent Santa Fe. This is such a small part of what there is here but we just can’t fit everything in and occasionally cities like Abq sneak up on us and shock us with all they have to offer.
Cheers for now
Garry & Shane.