White Sands National Monument to Roswell

Track. Pan American - Hank Williams.

"What most people dont understand is that UFOs are on a cosmic tourist route. Thats why theyre always seen in Arizona, Scotland and New Mexico. Another thing to consider is that all 3 of those destinations are good places to play golf. So theres possibly some connection between aliens and golf." Alice Cooper.

Day 25.

  We woke up early and decided to head off without too much messing about. We arrived in White Sands National Monument mid morning and it was really warm. The drive had been uneventful other than another border inspection road block, this time slightly more thorough including digging out our passports and some minor interigation. We had the impression we were a bit of a novelty

. The visitors centre had a good educational area about the large expanse of gypsum sands and their history as the National Parks always seem to do. We picked up a sledge from the gift shop and we went to the dunes. The sand was truly dazzlingly bright and strangely cold to touch as it doesnt absorb any light. We set up our shade - a small square tent thing, and had fun with the sledge. The heat made the slidey climbs back up the hills all the more interesting and it wasnt long until we were all back in the RV with the air conditioning on having some lunch.

We had been the only ones in our car park approximately 6 miles into the dunes until a large New Mexican man complete with Lawrence of Arabia style head gear turned up with his Camel. We watched him unload Matilda from the Trailer and then Pete and Dylan went for a pat and a few stories.

  After selling our sledge back to the visitors centre (they arent able to hire them out due to the threat of litigation) we headed on to Oliver Lee State Park

. It was only about 12 miles south of Las Cruces but felt like it was in the middle of no-where. For 10 bucks we had an electric plug in, dump station and lovely shower block with an amazing view looking across the plains with the mountains behind us and nothing but the sound of crickets to be heard. The tranquility broken when a gust of wind disturbed the playing cards and when we sustained a few more injuries. Becs lanced her leg on a cactus and dylan fell and grazed his knee but there were no cougars or rattlesnakes and we had a bit of a campfire and enjoyed another beautiful sunset.

  Day 26.  

We left Oliver Lee and chose a route through the mountains past Ruidoso and Capitan, where we spent a couple of hours in the Smokey Bear Museum. Smokey was in fact a real baby bear rescued during the Los Tablos blaze in the Lincoln National Forest in May 1950. The fires destroyed 17, 000 acres of forest and men were nearly killed trying to control it in the strong winds. He became part of campaign against forest fires and recieved so much mail that they gave him his own zipcode

. After a wzlk through the buterfly garden and a play on the playpark we drove on. The next area of mountains were famous for being the hang out of Billy the Kid. In the tiny town of Lincoln where everything was closed we stopped for some photos by the courthouse where he shot himself free during one of several jail breaks.

 We arrived in Roswell mid afternoon which was a surprisingly large town, set out on the u1sual grid system.

We went out for a late lunch in a spot called Farleys. It was a large industrial space with lots of memorabilia hanging down from the ceiling and huge portions and drinks

. The alien museum was was quite understated but very good and thought-provoking. After reading all the evidence and accounts we are still undecided as to what really happened that May back in 1948. The truth is out there thats for sure! The shops were a little disappointing (we are experts in the field of gift shops) and reminded us of some of the shops in Trecco bay but we found few keepsakes.

 Found an RV park for the night and hit the swimming pool to cool off. It was cold in the water but we were all glad of the dip and the people who worked there were clearly impressed brought us over some umbrellas.We went into town for some food and panic parked outside Arbys, a bit like a desolate service station burger king . They had an offer on the fish fillet burger so we opted for that. Finished the day off by watching the film 'Roswell' on youtube..