All great adventures have a well-defined beginning and end. This was a great adventure but not the end of the trip and definitely not the last adventure of this trip.
We spent the early morning watching Joy and Larry get ready to roll. This was not their first rodeo. A well-practiced dance got the rig buttoned up and secured, the Jeep attached, and final check of lights, navigation, Cheyenne and Louie settled, and we all headed north and eventually met up in Roswell, NM.
However, before we left Whites City, Joni and I were approached by a young Hispanic gentleman with little to no English who needed gas at the Whites City gas station. It is unattended a significant amount of each day, particularly on a Sunday morning so only the credit card option was available. Alas, all he had was cash. Seemed like a classic scheme to shed some dubious currency, so I was a little skeptical. Joni looked things over and volunteered to swap some credit card gas for cash. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the credit card machine on the pumps was also not working so we parted ways understanding that our newfound acquaintance thought he could make it to the next closest gas station.
Roswell, NM — a town making the best of notoriety. In addition to the advertised alien landing and reported eventual dissection, I believe that this town boasts the greatest number and variety of different fast-food joints that I have ever seen. At least one of all the majors and a vast majority of the minor players are here and in some cases at two locations, one on the north side of town and one on the south side of town (in case you change your mind).
In addition, there is the International UFO Museum & Research Center, founded by Walter Haut, who had been public information officer at Roswell Army Airfield in 1947. Walter either believed in the alien theory, believed in the ability to support his retirement on the backs of the now deceased aliens (maybe – maybe not) and government destroyed spaceships or that a sucker is born every minute. Whichever one of those you want to believe in, I have to say that a stop at the museum was well worth the $5 senior admission charge to the exhibits in the old Roswell movie theater. The exhibits were well put together and interesting. The audio-visuals were well done, the history of the event was very well documented and it was all arranged to keep your attention and interest. There were some hoaky things and disturbing things (mostly the diorama of the alien dissection as you entered the rest room) but all in all a worthwhile five bucks.
We finished our Roswell visit with a stop at a barbecue place that Larry found in Yelp. He was a little concerned that it would be a bust when we saw that it was a repurposed old A&W or Sonic Burger. We forged ahead and were very excited that the food was good, and the place had been redone nicely. Take a look at the picture below. One of the aprons on the wall was a bit of a surprise based on being in Roswell, at a barbecue place and with the sentiments on the other two aprons — you decide.
We shot north out of Roswell on US 285 and interestingly, the trip north did not seem as boring as the trip south. We settled in at Casa de Pat and then went to dine at the Kaktus Brewing Company in Bernalillo, NM next to where Joy and Larry were camping. The admonishment to not judge the place by the outside turned out to be entirely true as the interior atmosphere was eclectic but comfortable including patrons dogs on the patio and the beer and pizzas were delicious. The outside reminded me of some of the establishments in Turtle Bay, Baja California.
Let the New Mexico Adventure part 2 begin!