Roswell is where in 1947 an Unidentified Flying Object crash landed in a farmer’s field. The cleanup of the site was performed by the US Army and the whole event was covered in the local newspapers. Word is that the UFO remains are housed in Area 51, at the local Air Force Base. Part of what makes it interesting is that the US Government has shifted positions on the subject. At one point they denied anything happened, now they claim that it was a weather balloon that crashed. Then there’s the disappearance of people who were in the know. However you want to interpret it, the event has turned the town of Roswell extraterrestrial-wacked. They even have almond-shaped alien eyes glued on their street lamps! We visited downtown’s International UFO Museum and Research Center which provides a contemplative look at the event. I’m still not sure what to believe. As we drove on, Art Bell came on the radio interviewing a Brigadoon General who shot down a UFO…

I’ve seen photos of Carlsbad Caverns and seemed to think they looked borderline-gaudy, but in person they’re nothing of the sort. They’re absolutely beautiful. You enter the cave at ground level and keep walking sharply downhill until you’re something like 900 feet down. The size of the caverns is remarkable, but it’s the decoration that takes your breath away. Thousands of stalactites, soda straws, draperies and columns can be seen on all sides of you. At times it looks lunar, other times it appears glacial or undersea. In the summer thousands and thousands of bats call this place home and you can watch their nightly mass exodus into the dusky sky. We were disappointed to be about a month too early for that.

When we entered the mountain ski town of Ruidoso it was sunny and in the 50s, but the weather took a rude downturn after we set up camp. More than three days of subfreezing high temperatures turned us and our holding tanks into big ice cubes. Then the snow began to fall. It was irresistible to not take part in the snow, so we traveled up the mountain and went tubing. The chutes were moderately fast and the ice shavings cold as we bombed down. After getting several runs under our belts, some lady tubed into a dude and took him down like a pin in Skittle Bowl. Although we overheard a worker dismissively refer to the accident as “somebody sat on someone,” it closed down the run for a significant amount of time as they waited for the ambulance and neck brace. We got antsy so we packed it up and went home.

It was a kick getting to Albuquerque and seeing how much it’s changed since we lived there. As soon as we dropped the camper off, we drove around town revisiting apartments we lived in and places we worked at. Our exchange at this point went pretty much like this: “Hey, that’s new.” “Hey, that’s new.” “Hey…” The next day we caught up with old friends Stan and Vicki for a nice little New Mexican lunch and then with KK (sans Adam) for a Dion’s pizza dinner. The following day we were served a no-holds-barred dinner by gourmands Brian and Heidi at their house. Wow! Succulent braised short ribs with polenta and wild mushroom soup (best we’ve tasted). Continuing with the trend of pairing food and friends, we also got to have dinner with Susan, Jeff, Collins and some kid that worked at the restaurant. (Long story.)

Another day we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque to experience a bit of their ethnicity. There we witnessed genuine Native American dancing, learned how San Indelfonso black pottery is produced, ate Pueblo tacos at their restaurant and paged through a racy Rez Swimsuit Calendar in the gift shop. “Rez” is the way some Native Americans refer to themselves, slang for “reservation.” Then we spent a whole lot more time hanging out at KK’s house. KK is crazy fun to hang out with and she has countless stories of curious folks she comes into contact with. It was enjoyable having a taste of a “normal life” again as we walked the dogs, baked cookies, watched the Oscars and generally hung out in a real house.