Roswell to White Sands

Up this morning and heading north (mostly). First stop after leaving Carlsbad ... Roswell, a close cousin to Area 51 in Nevada. If you don't believe in UFOs, skip down a couple paragraphs. If you are slightly interested, stick with me.

As the story goes, in about 1947, a UFO crashed outside of Roswell. A rancher collected some of the debris but was not able to get to town for a couple days. When he finally made it to town and showed the sheriff his booty, the sheriff called the military. Initially, the military issued a statement that there was a crash of some sort and that wreckage had been collected. Shortly afterwards, the story was recinded and it was reported that a weather baloon had come down. By the time acquaintances of the rancher returned to the site, the Air Force had it cordoned off and nobody was getting in while they cleaned it up. In the process they apparently discovered a couple green men. No, I am not making this up.

Flying saucers, little green men and all disappeared into the black hole of the Air Force. If nothing else, it created a great tourism base for Roswell which has very little else going for it. Check out the other Roswell highlights!

From Roswell I head east through Billy the Kid country. Initially, he was simply a cowboy working in the area until he joined one of the feuding sides (similar to the Hatfields & McCoys). He gained fame killing folks in the feud and hiding out in the hills. Kind of a grimey looking low life if you ask me. In time he took the pointy end of a bullet and had a highway named after him.

Final stretch is to Alamogordo and White Sands National Monument. The dunes are made of gypsum, a.k.a. sheetrock, and are a very light dusty "sand". While it is sort of a one trick pony, a drive in and walk in the dunes for sunset, is an interesting experince. Problem...

How does one find their way out of a horizon to horizon totally white vista, after the sun has set, and it is dark? Oh yea, remember that at the bottom of some of those dunes are lakes to get stuck in.

But the scenery and sunset were marvelous. Click here for some pictures of White Sands.

By the way that is a self portrait.