Out of this World

The 1947 UFO Crash

After an awesome breakfast at The Red Onion, we set out to explore Roswell, New Mexico, in the daylight. (We got there too late and too tired and too hungry to do much exploring the night before. However, we did encounter an extra terrestrial missionary shouting out "Earthlings, Jesus loves you!" over a loudspeaker.)

The town is obsessed with UFOs and aliens -- or, more accurately, the town seems obsessed with getting people obsessed with UFOs and aliens in order to encourage them visit and spend money in Roswell.

The Roswell connection to UFOs and space aliens goes back to a UFO crash near Roswell in 1947. The US Air Force claims it was a weather balloon. Some prefer to believe it was something from another world. Conspiracy theories abound.

We wandered around downtown Roswell and its many shops selling everything alien -- but mostly t-shirts. Aliens visiting Roswell must like t-shirts. Or maybe the locals in Roswell just want to clothe the poor naked aliens who visit their town. The aliens are naked in most of the depictions I saw in Roswell.

Sophia poses with a naked alien

After having our fill of alien gift shops and alien book shops and alien art galleries, we visited the International UFO Museum and Research Center.





The museum primarily consists of photos and stories of UFOs. Due to a special event, the place was also filled with authors peddling books about their UFO research and personal close encounters. In speaking to a couple of these people, I found myself utterly ignorant of their world -- a world in which one is expected to know the stories and the processes for identifying and classifying UFOs and all the associated vocabulary. I quickly and unintentionally outed myself as one not in their community -- an alien.

Operating on an alien crash victim

An naked alien team standing around trying to decide where to go for lunch

I found the whole thing to be a bit cheesy -- a bit of cheesy fun.  After all, I have heard that Roswell is home to one of the largest Mozzarella factories on the planet. Perhaps extra terrestrials go there in search of cheese; not t-shirts.

Until someone convinces me otherwise, I'm going to believe that it was a weather balloon that crashed in New Mexico in 1947. Although, the writers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine do offer an interesting theory...

Having had enough of Roswell, we got back in the car and headed east towards Texas.

Just outside of Roswell, we picked up a couple hitchhikers.

The Red Onion

At the start of roadtrip day 2, we set out from our motel room in search of food.

The local Sonic was not in compliance with our "avoid chain restaurants" rule, plus it appeared that they might not be very friendly towards us earthlings. We kept on driving in search of a local human-friendly establishment.

We came upon what, at first glance, appeared to be a mostly-empty shopping center; except for a clump of cars on one end. I caught a glimpse of people walking from their car to one of the buildings as we passed. We turned around.  Cars in an otherwise-empty shopping center early in the morning before shops open suggests there might be a good restaurant there.

Sure enough, there was a restaurant there -- one I would not have recognized as a restaurant from the street.

Inside we found friendly people serving up tasty food.

Waiting for food

An inside-out omlette

A tasty steak and egg burro

If you ever find yourself in Roswell, New Mexico, I recommend you try breakfast at The Red Onion -- unless you're an alien. If you're an alien, go to Sonic.

Very Large Array

West of Socorro, New Mexico, we passed the Very Large Array -- a collection of radio telescopes operated by people waiting for E.T. to return their call.

Pie Town

In western New Mexico, a few miles west of where US Highway 60 crosses the continental divide, I had a vision -- a sign. This sign came n the form of a giant bird-like creature, and it demanded I stop for pie.







This sign stands in a town that appears to be miles from nowhere -- a town named Pie Town.

I stopped at Pie-O-Neer. It turns out that the find folks in Pie Town, New Mexico, have been serving up pie to travelers for nearly 100 years.

Try the blueberry.  

Our bellies filled with pie, we happily resumed our journey east.

Route 60