FTJ, Entry 76: UFOs and the Treacherous Guadalupe Mountains

Beau always teases me that I was dropped here by aliens. So it seemed appropriate we visit Roswell, New Mexico, home of UFO experiences and the mysterious Area 51. Was a bit of a disappointment, in that we saw no aliens ourselves, other than the tourist trap lures that Roswell has perfected. Every store seems to carry a UFO theme, with flying saucers sticking out of buildings and inflatable green men beckoning us to visit kitschy souvenir shops.  

LOVED IT!

UFO Museum

Note the saucer in the building wall.

Beau says this is one of my relatives.

Him, too.

Portraits of my ancestors?

Joyce was a good sport about the Roswell visit.

The fast food places get into the act -- above,  Arbys welcomes "ET," and
down the street, McDonald's is shaped like a saucer. (Apparently, aliens enjoy beef products.)

Note the resemblance.

Believe it or not, the guys just happened to wear the same shirts from Key West's Schooner Wharf Bar.
Once they realized it, they donned their hats and the rest is silly history.

The Thrill Ride that Is the Guadalupe Mountains

Okay, it was bad enough we had to go south and back through Texas to then go north to get to Las Cruces, New Mexico. But making it worse were the VERY high winds and a scary highway with sharp turns and challenging grades.

It was one of the most frightening rides yet, with Beau having to concentrate every second to ensure we did not get blown off the road, and me freaking out about our going 50 mph down a twisty mountain road with the wind buffeting us to the point I thought we would end up on two wheels. Or no wheels.

At one point, a tandem tractor trailer nearly pushed our RV off the road/hit us, coming within a foot (or less) of our side mirror.

Still, the views were spectacular, so I tried to take photos to get my mind off my terror. But by the time we got to Las Cruces, Beau was super stressed and we were barely speaking (I kept yelling at him to slow down, which he did not appreciate!)

These roads were MUCH more frightening than they look. I was too scared to take photos of the worst sections.

This road looks harmless -- but it's NOT!

Damned Guadalupe Mountains -- stark, harsh, beautiful, dangerous.

Beau during the stressful trip to Las Cruces.

At least the trip was broken up a bit by a surprise border patrol check. We thought for sure they would pull us over (the RV could have been filled with illegals!), but they just waved us through.

He's REALLY Retired!

I happened to notice Beau's bluetooth, covered with dust. He has no need for it these days!

 

I will end this entry with photos of other weird stuff we have seen lately.

And this odd image:

Wow - what a long blog. Sorry, but I am trying to catch up. I still need to post something on Las Cruces and then on the gorgeous Santa Fe (where we are now).

If only these gale force winds would abate. Tomorrow we are expecting another typhoon.

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 75: Canyons, Caves, and Caverns

I wanted to post a gazillion more images, in that it seems we are seeing SO many beautiful views and amazing wonders of nature. I will try to control myself.

A note about the previous blog on Artesia, NM, and the cowboy statues there. One of my favorite novels of ALL time is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. In a weird coincidence, The Trail Boss bronze statue in Artesia had a plaque explaining that although the novel is fiction, it is highly likely that McMurtry based his characters Augustus McCrae  and Woodrow Call on the real-life cowboys Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, who forged the Goodnight-Loving trail that goes through the area here. Not only that, but the fate of character Augustus McCrae in the book is the actual fate of Loving. In 1867, on the third Goodnight-Loving cattle drive, Loving and another cowboy were ambushed by Comanche Indians. Loving was wounded and sent his companion to bring Goodnight, who was about 70 miles further down the Pecos River, for rescue. Goodnight could not find his friend, but later encountered him at Fort Sumner, further upriver. Unfortunately, Loving died due to complications from surgery -- but before that, made Goodnight promise to take his body back to his beloved Texas for burial.

For those of you who know the book, it is nearly the exact plot! How cool is that? (Well, I think it is cool -- and it was so serendipitous finding this very personal connection on our travels.)

We also learned that the "chuck wagon" was invented and named for Charles Goodnight! More education for us.

Some additional views of the sites here in New Mexico are below.

Us at Indian shelters (caves) along the route to Carlsbad Caverns.

We learned that from prehistoric times to the end of the 19th century, Indians lived off this harsh land. They used shelters such as the one above, eating the game they could kill, as well as prickly pear cactus and many other native plants that would make most of us gag. I did try some fruit thing they refer to as a native walnut, but spit it out. (Dave, ever the medical professional, waited to see if I went into seizures afterward.)

The Wonders of Carlsbad Caverns

It is difficult to portray the enormity and mind-blowing spectacle of Carlsbad Caverns, but imagine going 750 feet below the earth and finding a cavern room -- the largest natural limestone chamber in the Western hemisphere -- with floor space estimated at 600,000 square feet, or 14 football fields.  There is a self-guided walking tour through and around the Big Room (none of us wanted to do the "natural" tour, which is in a different area, and much longer and more strenuous), where we saw enormous stalagmites and stalactites (some which started forming 500,000 years ago), strange bottomless pits, and evidence of the courage of the original cavern explorer, Jim White. He discovered the caverns as a youngster in 1898 after seeing hundreds of bats come out of a hole in the ground. In the 1920s, he led expeditions there.

Most of the photos (which are not great due to the low lighting) give you just a small impression of the enormity of this natural wonder. Wish we could have captured the HUGENESS of it all.

Beau descends into the abyss...

Hmm...wonder why the guys are so fascinated with this formation.

Next time, a chronicle of the horror of the trip from Carlsbad back down through friggin' Texas, and north to Las Cruces, NM during the continuing typhoon.

I am now a victim of post-traumatic stress. Maybe I can get disability from Social Security?

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 74: In the Land of Enchantment, West of the Pecos

The trip from Kerrville to Ft. Stockton, TX, and then to Carlsbad, New Mexico was astounding. Beau kept noting that any complaints of overpopulation seem ridiculous once you see these vistas.

After one night in Fort Stockton, we set off again in hopes of getting the heck out of Texas. Eventually, we reached the New Mexico border and we all cheered!

Just one note of frustration from Beau, about our Brake Buddy system, which links the RV braking system to that of our tow car. The stupid thing has been a nightmare the past week or so, with all kinds of issues. A few times we just disconnected it and towed the car "commando" -- ha!  Beau finally got in touch with Roadmaster, the manufacturer, and they reprogrammed the unit. Still, we are not sure the damn thing is working. Aaargh!

So, about New Mexico...it is strangely different from Texas, and you understand that almost immediately. After crossing the border, the terrain looks less flat, with rounded hills like waves on the ocean. (Or was it my imagination...?)

Still, the same sense of endless land here -- and dry, dry, dry conditions with dust that blows into your face and eyes and mouth and nose nearly all the time. I love the desert, but the others in our party are less than enchanted with the Land of Enchantment's climate thus far. 

But its stark and savage beauty is undeniable.

And so is the poverty. The drive to our KOA campground, which is a bit north of Carlsbad, revealed little smatterings of houses in the middle of nowhere, many of which were abandoned, wrecked, or otherwise in teardown condition. When a truck or car stops running here, it is left in the yard. So are washers, tractors, farm tools, and any other kind of junk. 

 

And the severe drought has made the landscape a dry, dusty ocean of hardscrabble and prickly sage bushes. Some scorched patches show where wildfires have ravaged the land as well.

Check out the dead palms:

As for the Pecos River, well, it is a mere trickle in places now.

Our KOA campground is very nice -- we have had great luck with sites so far!

Our campground entrance.

Surprisingly, there are plenty of oil rigs here in southern New Mexico. Out in the middle of nothing, you see them on the side of the road or far off, dotting the horizon. Some are active, some not.

We found out more about New Mexico's oil industry, as well as its cowboy history, via a drive through Artesia, just north of our campground.

Below, the statue in the middle of town called The Derrick Floor. It honors the key men and one woman responsible for much of the state's oil production. 

Martin Yates was impressed by incidental oil finds in the artesian water wells in the state, and he was determined to find oil himself. Over time, his family's exploration efforts led to the development of Yates Petroleum Corp., Yates Drilling Co., and Abo Petroleum Corp.

His wife Mary was a gal of privilege but came as Martin's bride to homestead near the Pecos River. She was instrumental in finding wells using her "intuition." That intuition is memorialized in this statue, where she is pointing to a place where her husband should drill.

Martin and Mary Yates, along with their son.

The oil roughnecks are depicted in the main bronze statue, shown below. 

Dave is wearing the same magnet bracelet as one of the figures in the bronze statue in the Derrick Floor.

The first commercial well in New Mexico was Illinois State #3, drilled in 1924. Over the years, Southeast New Mexico has produced approximately 3.9 billion barrels of oil and 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas out of tens of thousands of wells. Who knew??

Also on Main Street in Artesia, we saw two (out of a series of three) beautiful bronzes celebrating the area's cowboy heritage. Below, The Vaquero, depicting a cowboy alerting his Trail Boss to rustlers on the cattle drive. Below him, The Trail Boss, a bronze showing the cattle drive boss reacting to the shot fired by the Vaquero.  Just gorgeous works of art.

The Vaquero

The Trail Boss -- these statues are huge, much larger than life.

Who are these good looking people?

In a Cavern in a Canyon..

Today we went to Sitting Bull Falls. The drought has reduced the falls to a mere trickle, but the canyon and the drive to the canyon were breathtaking. We picnicked with sandwiches, grapes, wine, and lemon cookies.  What a great experience.

Sitting Bull Falls -- tough to see, but there is some water flowing over the rocks, starting way up at the top.

The picnic area at Sitting Bull Falls.

 

 Tex Beaudry and his buddy, Buddy

 

 The falls are in a real-life box canyon, just like we used to see on TV westerns .

This internet connection was SOOOO slow -- we will post more/better photos over the weekend, of the canyon and its surroundings, as well as Carlsbad Caverns (we are going tomorrow).

Happy Easter and Passover, everyone!

A gorgeous New Mexico sunset...

Tanks, Panky