Day 3: Roswell and drive to Alamogordo, NM
/I woke up around 9:30am, not because I had an alarm go off but because it sounded like someone was banging on my walls. I soon realized, looking out the window, that in fact that someone was 40mph winds. My window looked out onto a mostly dirt with sparsely overgrown weeds field, and it was like a series of mini sand tornadoes. This must have been what the Dust Bowl looked like.
Even walking to my car was a bit of a challenge as my face was slapped with painful sand every other minute -- but that wasn't going to stop me from seeing some aliens. I was on a mission.
Roswell, NM is located in the eastern quarter of New Mexico and while not on a direct route to popular state destinations like Albuquerque/Santa Fe, Alamogordo, or Carlsbad, it's only a short detour from either. In fact, this city sitting at just under 50,000 people, is the fifth largest city in New Mexico. Roswell apparently has a very healthy farming economy, but it's mostly known for a UFO crash that many believe happened on the outskirts of town in 1947. Famously, the government proclaimed the incident was the result of a weather balloon crash and not an alien spaceship, but as Foxy Mulder would say (I added the "y" there), "The truth is out there".
I began my day at the International UFO Museum and Research Center located on Main street about three miles from my hotel. As you get closer to the museum, the alien theme becomes more pronounced. The streetlights are covered in cute alien heads and many businesses are embracing little green men. Most notably, the Mcdonalds is shaped like a UFO. Love it.
The museum building almost looks like an old movie theater on the outside. There are a number of adorable alien sculptures around it and as I entered, two other couples (all looking around my age and probably also on road trips) were entering the museum. There were a healthy number of people there, something you wouldn't have guessed looking out onto the sleepy streets just out front.
When I walked in, I was immediately greeted by a woman up front. She was very serious, and clearly took this mission of exposing "the truth" to heart. There were alien statues all over the front desk. My ticket cost $5. They said proceeds go towards museum maintenance and research. Seems legit.
The entire museum is mostly just printed out articles and facts taped to the walls. If you go to this museum, you have to genuinely be interested in the incident because it's just a bunch of reading with the exception of a few photo ops with alien statues. There was one couple in front of me, again my age or younger, that were in serious discussion about the event and after reading a note on the wall would turn to each other and debate the "truth". I think in this relationship he was the skeptic and she was the believer.
The whole museum took around 40 minutes while reading 75% of the displays. At the end, I was not persuaded either way. Maybe that was the purpose - conspiracies are the only reason an alien museum can exist.
Afterwards, I walked around to the few shops that were on the block. Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed that there weren't as many stores around the museum as I had read about online. There were a total of four shops selling alien fandom. Talking to one of the sales associates at the first store, I learned that about a decade ago they had almost a dozen stores on the block, but as time went on the stores slowly closed. I guess that makes sense. Alien subculture was huge in pop culture (TV shows, movies, books) in the 1990's and early 2000's. All the stores had the same things -- t-shirts with kitschy alien slogans, shot glasses with UFOs, and books proclaiming to reveal the truth with cheesy covers that look like they were edited on Microsoft paint. This was fun.
At this point it was around noon and I went to lunch. I wanted to go to this place that is locally famous called Big D's -- a burger joint that is highly recommended by all. Unfortunately, being Sunday, it was closed. So instead I googled for the next best thing and settled on a restaurant just a few blocks up called Cowboy Cafe. The restaurant was absolutely adorable. It looked like a dolled up shack and was decorated on every inch inside and out in cowboy flare. When I got inside, I saw that this place hopping! Almost every table was full, even the small bar area. The customers at the tables were even full-on cowboys. How fitting.
The menu was simple -- mostly breakfast and burgers. I went for a New Mexican classic, green chile cheeseburger. I hadn't experienced the famous chile's yet on this trip and knew this was the perfect opportunity. It only took about ten minutes for my meal to arrive and wow, was this a burger. It was huge. I dug in and it was DELICIOUS! Honestly one of the best burgers I've ever had. 10/10 would eat again. The only downside was how hot the peppers were. I had no idea that green chile was the equivalent of lighting your head on fire. But it was so good, I persisted. Elizabeth Warren would be proud.
Afterwards, I went back to Main street to visit my last Roswell spectacle -- a store called Area 51. It's a famous gift boutique that has a backroom filled with alien "scenes" you can interact with and take photos. I was the only one there and it was a hell of a fun ten minutes of photo shoots. They did a great job with the store to counteract the seriousness of the museum just up the street.
I had to check out of my hotel by 1pm, so I went and picked up Brody. In minutes, we were off to our next destination -- Alamogordo, NM a city famous for being the testing spot of the Atomic Bomb as well as the entrance to White Sands National Monument.
Roswell was great for a few hours of fun. I'm glad I went as it's something I've always wanted to do. I wouldn't go again though, unless I happened to be in New Mexico during the annual UFO Convention which apparently attracts a few thousand visitors globally, some in full costume, to the small town each summer. That would be a spectacle worth another quick drive by.
Leaving Roswell for Alamogordo takes you on the 380W/70 the entire way. It's a simple drive. I did no research on this journey since it was so short - just over two hours, so I didn't know what to expect. When you first leave Roswell you are immediately back in the New Mexican plains. Oddly enough there seemed to be no wind just a few miles outside of town and the sun was high and bright. This was a nice change for the day. I made it about 30 minutes outside of town before I noticed I had less than a quarter tank of gas left and used google maps "find gas stations on my route" to learn that the closest gas station was an hour away. Once again I'm reminded that unless you have a full tank, any time you're leaving a town in the West, fill up. I flipped around, went back to town and refueled. Again, Brody and I were back on the road.
The first hour of the drive is all plains and then suddenly hills start to appear. Unlike any of the mountain ranges I'd seen so far, these were vibrant with vegetation - still mostly brown and yellow given the season, but clearly full of life. The further down the road I went the larger the tree's got. Along the road there were these tall skinny trees that followed the highway, I imagine they're the result of high winds in this area. They stood out compared to the ground level grasses that surrounded them.
This area is called the Hondo Valley and began appearing around the time I entered the village of Picacho. The highway takes you through a series of small towns -- so small that there were signs along the road announcing where the local post office was of each village. One town, seemingly of less than a dozen buildings, had only two restaurants and one of them was a Chinese buffet. Given how small this place was I bet that food is amazing and the result of a Chinese family settling in the region generations ago and never leaving.
As you get further along the highway you gain elevation and suddenly, out of nowhere, you are in the thickest, most beautiful forest of pine trees you'll ever see. At this point, I am in awe of this drive as I had no idea how dynamic and beautiful this short route from town to town would be in Southern New Mexico. The forrest goes on forever. I've never driven through such a long expanse of trees before. This forest is called Lincoln National Forrest and is located on Apache land.
As I get closer to Ruidoso I started to see more "tourist" stops, so this must be a popular destination (obviously with a forest like that!). I stopped at a fruit stand that had cute homemade fruit juice in giant jars.
Then a few minutes later, further up the road, I was met with the glorious roadside attraction of Fox Cave. They have these cheesy statues out front that are seemingly random -- dinosaurs, aliens, giant hands and more. The statues were just on the front lawn, but the actual Fox Cave was a gift and gem store situated in a small cave off the road. This is exactly the type of store I love to visit while traveling!
They had all the same whimsy of decor inside and had rows and rows of gems, rocks, and crystals. I had too much fun at this place. If you've ever been to my apartment you know I'm a bit obsessed with natural stones, so of course, I bought a few. I bought two stones local to New Mexico.
Back on the road, I made it to Ruidoso, which is a destination within itself. It's the most popular town to visit on this route as it hosts a series of a Native American Casinos and Resorts. It's also the hub for anyone visiting the forest. They have the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway (with a mini-museum in the Visitors Center) that is apparently top shelf. For anyone that doesn't know, Billy the Kid is a famous western gunfighter who's a bit of an icon in Wild West folklore. He was a resident of Ruidoso and his name and face are plastered on postcards in every gift shop anywhere in New Mexico. I didn't have time to visit the area/museum, but I am so intrigued by this area, I'd love to come back sometime to camp and hike. Maybe gamble a little, because why not?
Eventually, I passed the forest into the plains of Tularosa and was a bit sad to lose the scenery. Alamogordo was only about 30 minutes away, so I didn't expect to see much left on the road.
Bust as I should know by now, yet again, I was given a pleasant surprise -- the worlds largest pistachio. I've now officially seen the worlds largest ball of twine, and the worlds largest Van Gough painting (not a real Van Gogh), so of course I had to add this to my list. This is clearly the day of kitschy roadside attractions. This Pistachio was located on a giant pistachio farm called McGinn's Pistachioland. It's actually a really nice store with a giant room of flavored local pistachios. They had a tasting table -- the lime and BBQ flavors were the best. I bought a bag for the road. They do tours of the pistachio farm as well, which I saw a number of people waiting for.
Next door to Pistachioland was a grape farm and winery. I learned after talking to the attendant at Pistachioland that New Mexico has a notable wine industry. Googling it later, I learned that wine has a long history in the state due to its Spanish occupation in the 1600's. Interestingly, wine was a huge industry here more than 140 years before wine was ever produced in California. Today it's more of a niche market comparatively, but it's growing exponentially each year. I love wine, so that's cool with me.
Less than thirty minutes later I was in Alamogordo. I'm staying at the Quality Inn which had good reviews online. So far I've been pleased with my hotel choices and am glad I decided to pre-book all my stays instead of just booking the "day of" like I've done with past trips. It's just less stressful when you know where to end up each day in advance -- gives me time to do weird things like Fox Cave and Pistachioland at my leisure.
At this point, it was getting towards dinner time. I settled in Brody at the hotel, but he was really hyper and needed a walk. We strolled around the hotel area a bit until sunset. That actually had the opposite effect of making him more hyper so I had to play fetch with him in the room for thirty minutes until he gave up and just ripped the ball apart on his own. He never did figure out that the point of fetch was the bring the ball back and release. Oh well.
Alamogordo has a lot in common with Carlsbad when it comes to evening food options. I was also there on a Sunday which made it even more difficult. The only places open were fast food, large chains (Buffalo Wild Wings) and one Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda. I'm not here to eat Pizza Hut so I went with the Mexican place that was just up the road.
It was okay. Not the best, but good enough. I got enchiladas again (If you can't tell already, it's my favorite). I also got Sopapilla's for dessert which I learned about on my last road trip through the Southwest. These are basically the best thing ever. Sopapilla's are fried puff pastries that are served plain, and when they arrive hot and fresh, you can bite off a corner and squeeze honey into the hollow bread and eat it. It's delicious and unique to the region.
After that, I just went back to my hotel for bed. Tomorrow is White Sands National Monument and the New Mexico Museum of Space History which I have to go to because both of my parents in separate conversations mentioned their fond memories of visiting this place. Both of them lived large portions of their lives in New Mexico (with my mom living here her whole childhood), and it's kind of cool knowing I'm experiencing many of the same things they did when being in this state. I like that connection to home and place.
Culture Trip Pairings:
Music...
Books...
"Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride" by Michael Wallis
"The Apache Wars" by Paul Andrew Hutton
"The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells
Movies/TV...