The Road to Roswell

I woke up early in Santa Fe. We have put a lot of strain on our poor little Toyota Corolla. As we were navigating through the unknown terrain of New Mexico yesterday, we noticed that our little craft, while smoothly speeding along as if at light speed, was having a problem. The brakes would make a strange alien noise.

Our greatest fear was leaving United States territory, crossing the neutral zone, and breaking down in Northern Mexico, which is now just a couple days away. Our car has been carrying a tremendous amount of cargo and has traveled for what seemed like light-years. We thought we better allow it to dock in Santa Fe for the morning for repairs.

For this reason I found myself standing at the entrance to a small brake shop in Santa Fe at 7:30am in the morning.

I thought that no one else could feel as disgruntled and bent out of shape at being up at this early, that is - until I met the man behind the counter at this brake shop. I'm not sure what sort of Monday evening he had, but he certainly was having a tough morning.

We both drank many cups of waiting room coffee and silently tried to keep our eyes occupied, in my case by magazines, in his case with paperwork.

I finally got the bad news: the rear brakes need to be replaced plus an oil change. Total cost - $150.00. I just had the front brakes replaced and I thought there was a bit more life left to the rear brakes. But this car was taking a one-way trip to Mexico. At least it wasn't a hull breach, but as captain of this vessel, I thought I better play it safe.

Oddly enough, the Check Engine light turned off after the car was serviced. Strange, but I'm not complaining.

Back on the Road
We headed south from Santa Fe towards Roswell. Being a total science-fiction geek, this was an exciting day for me. I was actually going to visit Roswell today. Full speed ahead. Punch it Chewy. Warp Factor 10. Engage.

We have had great weather nearly the entire trip, but the road to Roswell was a strange one weather-wise. Things were not looking good. Lots of menacing clouds. BILLions and BILLions of clouds.

Clines Corners
We spent hours driving through desolate landscape. There was nothing for miles. Suddenly before us was a strange outpost miles away from anything else. It was called Clines Corners. It consisted of a cylindrical object, a few mobile homes, and a general store.

The store was like a cantina full of interesting things and characters. It appeared to be from another time and place. More specifically - the '60s.

But after our voyage through strange weather and endless barren wasteland, we felt as excited as crewmen who were granted shore leave. This was a good opportunity to fuel up the tank and pick up a few rations. As we exited our vehicle, it felt good to resist the constant pull of gravity as we walked and stretched our legs.

The Drive to Roswell
We left Clines Corners and continued south to Roswell. Soon we were assaulted by something translucent and non-carbon based - rain. But it didn't seem like normal rain. Each droplet we encountered appeared to be part of some greater collective conscious. Fortunately the rain did not breach the crew compartment and we remained dry.

We were nearly an hour from Roswell. Then something eerie happened. A cloud hovered over the road in the shape of the Starship Enterprise. Was I just seeing things? I felt like visiting sick bay.

You make the call. Check out these two pictures. It is the real picture. Is that the Enterprise or what?

Then things got weirder. The Starship Enterprise left and it was replaced by the MOON! This was the middle of the day, but the moon hovered over our road. It bore an eerie resemblance to a death star.

You may need to click into this picture to see the moon.

It was as if someone, or something, was trying to reach us, trying to communicate using imagery that we both could recognize. Perhaps it was Roswell's indirect way of saying welcome.

But Roswell also had more direct ways of saying welcome.

Investigating Roswell
Well, now that we were here, we thought we better see what sort of life-readings we could find in this town.

The town seemed pretty class M, but then we found a couple of aliens secretly having tea in a closed business. It appears they were collaborating on writing a book called How to Serve Man. Wow, how benevolent, how gentle, how thoughtful. Unless....wait....It's a cookbook! This can't be true! I shall be burdened with this secret forever! (Please don't sue me Rod Serling)

We finally snuck inside an abandoned warehouse and found a group of aliens. The cost of living must be pretty high in Roswell, because these aliens seemed a little cramped in their living quarters. Do these aliens have a decorator's eye or what? They must feel like they are really back home.

They seemed a bit upset so I tried to appease them with the universal gesture of peace: offering them my iced Starbucks coffee. That seemed to work.

While I was befriending aliens, Nicki was going for something a little more edgy. I found her assisting in an alien autopsy. Why? I just gave up my coffee making friends with these guys.

I told her to tell the doctor to sew that alien up. Yes, make it sew.

In the end, we discovered that the aliens own a chain of restaurants where they were making hamburgers from something called Soilent McGreen. Once we knew the truth, we stood outside their headquarters. It's PEOPLE! It's PEOPLE!

Conclusion
Ok, time to come back down to earth. We had a lot of fun in Roswell.

We had time to investigate the whole Roswell / alien thing and to be quite honest, there really doesn't appear to be much evidence. That is my personal conclusion after weighing everything I learned.

But what REALLY happened to us while we were in Roswell? This blog article certainly didn't cover everything. Can we account for every minute we spent here?

How do you really know what we actually discovered here? What truths did we really unearth? Is it possible that we are covering up something? I did seem a little quick to become a skeptic....

Perhaps you'll never know.

The Road to Santa Fe

Leaving Taos
It was difficult to leave Taos. Our stay here was way too brief. I figured out exactly what Taos was for New Mexicans. It was the place you drive to for vacation that is a few hours from your home. The place where you can do virtually any sort of outdoor activity in an environment that is different enough that you sort of forget about things back home. For Washingtonians you could call it a Leavenworth or Winthrop.

But in another way, Taos was pretty unique. We were happy to experience it. Soon we were back on the road.

An Ancient City
We had to drop in and visit something extremely ancient. It was a now-populated city, considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the USA. We had to check this place out.

Parking
As we approached the ancient city, we were directed to park. I was astonished at where I was told to park my car.

Let's take a good look at that sign by my parking spot...

It's not every day that I am mistaken for a warchief. But you know, I do walk tall and exude that sort of body language where I could see that people might mistake me for a warchief.

I think if I lived in New Mexico, people would probably confuse me with warchiefs all the time.

Looking around
As I said before, people still live here. They are very strict about cameras and will not allow you to take pictures of them. But fortunately we could take pictures of their places of dwelling...if we paid a fee....

I accidentally took a picture of a guy who popped his head out of a door just as my camera-clicking finger twitched and pressed the button. It was an irreversible act. I didn't know what sort of trouble I was in. After all, there is a warchief somewhere around here. Fortunately, he sort of just sunk further back into the shadows of the doorframe.

In some areas we found stores that were open. We would occasionally enter to check out the merch.

It was a fascinating place to visit. No running water. No indoor plumbing. No electricity. And yet people still live in these buildings.

Back on the Road
Soon we were once again driving south, this time weaving our way through the mountains of New Mexico towards Santa Fe.

There were a few times where we were driving over 8500 feet in elevation. The air was still rather warm, and it was very scenic.

Santa Fe
We finally arrived at our destination: Santa Fe. Wow, what a town!

Dinner
We ate dinner at this place called the Blue Corn Cafe.

We couldn't think of a better place or way to eat in Santa Fe. This place really hit the spot. We split some Nachos and soaked in the Santa Fe atmosphere.

Strange Dreams
Not sure what was in those Nachos, but that night we had some pretty strange dreams. I dreamt that everyone else in the hotel disappeared, and as I fled the hotel the only thing in the parking lot was a second copy of my car.

Nicki had a strange dream that she was visiting the Santa Fe park. It was.....weird.

Things will likely get even more strange tomorrow. The road will take us to Roswell New Mexico.

The Road to Taos

Leaving Four Corners
We left that silly place called Four Corners and made our way east deeper into New Mexico. The landscape became less desert and more mountainous and green.

The drive east through New Mexico was very scenic and peaceful. We found a quiet place to sit and soak in the views of the hills, mountains and lakes of New Mexico.

The Rio Grande
We were pretty excited about seeing the Rio Grande.

I mean, who hasn't heard of the Rio Grande? In Spanish the name means "Large River". Visions of this mighty river filled my head. I could't wait to stand on it's majestic banks and watch the turbulent waters rush past. Maybe just put my feet in the water and imagine the days of old when cowboys and early settlers depended so much on this oasis of vitality in such a parched land.

When we found the Rio Grande visitors center, I knew it was only a matter of time until I saw the Rio Grande with my own eyes! The actual Rio Grande - wow!

And there is was! The Rio Grande...hey, wait a second. Look at this thing?

THIS is the Rio Grande?

I could cross this thing and probably not even get my ankles wet.

THIS is the Rio Grande?

To be fair, we are way up in northern New Mexico, near the source of the Rio Grande. As the Rio Grande travels south, more and more water is contributed to it, resulting in the mighty river that we hear about.

Well, even the most famous and powerful people were once helpless infants. We watched the water slowly and innocently drifted by, oblivious to its infamous future.


Taos
We finally arrived in the town of Taos, nestled in the mountains of Northern Mexico. This is the sort of place that you want to spend several days enjoying. Unfortunately we don't have that kind of time.

You don't want to come to Taos if you are hungry for cake. A large portion of the buildings are made of adobe and look a bit edible. They are not though. Not even with a little chocolate syrup and whip cream. Trust me, I know. It's also difficult to explain what you are doing to an inquisitive policeman. Trust me, I know.

We enjoyed exploring Taos. Although a bit touristy, it appeared to be also a bit laid back. Taos is a springboard for lots of mountain adventures. Definitely an enjoyable and unique town and area.

Chiles and Enchiladas
The food here is incredibly good. Do you remember the welcome sign for New Mexico? It also showed a picture of a red and green chile pepper? We are now realizing that there is a connection between enchantment and chiles.

Incidentally, if the chiles are too spicy, you may experience post-enchantment disenchantment, but we won't get into that.

So we found a nice little place in Taos to try out New Mexico's renown chile sauces.

We were first handed a savory bowl of chips, salsa and guacamole. Notice the bottle of Cholula sauce? We will be living about 10 minutes away from the city of Cholula from which this sauce is named.

New Mexico is known for it's enchiladas smothered in chile sauce. You can get the chile sauce in either red or green, or both. I ordered enchiladas with both (the middle one has green sauce).

It came with beans and pozole. Where we will be living in Mexico, pozole is more of a soup, but far to the north, here in New Mexico, pozole has evolved into mostly the core ingredient of pozole soup - whole hominy kernels. The entire dish was extremely good.

Nicki chose something similar. It was layered shrimp enchiladas. You can see that she wanted to experience the same things however, the addictive flavors of the red and green chile sauces, beans, and pozole.

If you look closely in this picture, you can also see evidence of how long the guacamole lasted once it was placed on the table.

Conclusion
We've always wanted to explore the Taos area of New Mexico. It was definitely worth it. A very unique and interesting place. Interesting sites, interesting tastes.

It is rather....um, oh what is the right word....nice....no wait....good....no that's not it....
I got it.......enchanting.

Tomorrow the road leads to Santa Fe...