Waiting for the weather ball... er... mother ship

So Roswell was a fake alien infested wind hole. It was pretty cool to look at and spend the day driving around but I’ll never go back. The first excellent thing that happened was meeting Mr. Smith the old cowboy who was staying in the room next to mine. As I was packing up the truck we started talking. He told me about route 246 and the fact that it’s mighty purty up that way if you have the time. Oh do I have the time. Since I totally missed it and went 380 I only caught the ass end, but he was totally right. I’m going to start talking to the old cowboys from now on. They so know where it’s at. (I’m going to have to get past the fact that they support rodeos if I am going to get good information out of them, so each to their own from here on out.) I’ll get back to my driving route later. First Roswell. We went and visited The UFO Museum and Research, which was very informative, and dog friendly to boot. So basically a weather balloon crashed in Roswell and they hyped it up as a UFO to help bring money in. At least that’s what I got out of it. Jimmy however got a stuffed alien from the woman stocking shelves in the gift shop. She thought he was just the cutest thing and had the nicest face. Uh, yeah, maybe that’s why he’s a model? Hello?

Just in case aliens do frequent the area, I wrapped my note in a bright blue baggie (for visibility, is it my fault dog poop bags are the most visible plastic bag I could find?) and left it just outside of town. Cross your fingers. We’ll be doing it again in area 51 in Nevada for sure. We were going to visit the Bottomless Lakes but they are not bottomless and don’t sound very exciting. I stopped asking the lady at the front desk any questions about what to do when she replied, “Honey, even if you lived here without a dog there’s nothing to do”. And we’re done. Killjoy. Wait wait! Don’t! I take it back! The people in Roswell aren’t the cheeriest of folk and that’s too bad but hey, I’m not staying, so whatever.

I headed out of Roswell on route 285 north as it connects with route 246 west. I missed route 246 and went 380 west instead. That was a very long, very boring route through cows. The only one close to the fence was this huge bull beating furiously at the ground with his front hooves so I kept going. I’m not messing with bulls no matter how much I want a picture. Once I hit the town of Captain I knew I was lost. It was a cute little town but there wasn’t much to it. After conferring with my trusty road map (thank you Rand McNally!!) I decided 40 south was my most scenic option. Boy was I right. Awesome mountain views. Just breathtaking and all that. I ended up going through the town of Ruidoso and it was a super neat hopping town. There were these huge houses built right into the side of the mountain. They had stilts holding up the backs of them. Wild. And the town itself was packed full of people milling about. It had a Starbucks so you know it’s a good place to be. It also had a tiny water park. The cows were replaced with horses and once you got out of rich I live right next to the ski resort it turned into you stole my land but that’s cool because I still live here and have more horses than you do. Indian folk everywhere. I could see living there except it clearly snows. And we all know how I feel about snow. Tularosa had a sick view of the mountains but it was just another town. Alamogordo was a trash heap. I have never in my life seen so many pissed off people or junk yards in one place. I got out to get a coffee and wished I hadn’t by the time I got to the register. Run down people in a run down town. It’s a shame really considering everywhere you looked you saw natural beauty. How can people be so pissed off looking at that everyday?? How do you let a town with so much charm turn into such a vile disaster? Thirteen miles out of Alamogordo was the White Sands. It looks totally out of place, like someone put it all there. I have to look into this. It was a great contrast with the mountains though.

The drive (after 380 that should have been 246 damn it!) went up into the mountains, dipped into valleys and then climbing back up again so the temperature fluctuated like mad. One minute the windows are down and it’s comfortable, the next they’re up and the AC is on while you drive through the heat waves that roll over the land and make the blacktop look all wet until you are right up on it. Since it’s monsoon season the mountains are thick with wet. They smell marvelous and today it created a colossal rainbow. After cutting through Las Cruces (ho hum) I went 10 west and over to Deming. Once on 10 I hit another storm (not nearly as large as the last one but still impressive) right before seeing signs warning me to take EXTREME caution due to the dust storms that leave you with ZERO VISIBILITY. How bummed was I that it had just rained?? Maybe next time. I booked a room for the night in Deming. I cannot wait to take a shower in the morning as I hear their water is the best ever. The internet here is shit so I am going to have to wait to post this but that’s okay as I am tired and going to bed early sounds fabulous.