Being chased by rainbows on State Route 247 while looking for alien spaceship crash site wreckage.

Goal: Santa Fe south on Highway 285 all the way down to Roswell.

Reality: Lost. Long trek in the wrong direction along I-25 EAST to the rinky dink State Route 3 crossing I-40 further on to Highway 285 into Roswell.

Goal for the return: Highway 285 all the way north back to Santa Fe.

Reality: Highway 285 north, west on State Route 247, north on Highway 54, north on State Route 3, north on Highway 285

Word to those in a rush: highway signs in New Mexico are not well posted - at least in any sense than an outsider could figure them out - to be prepared to miss your exit and reroute yourself!

Above: the newly resurfaced Interstate 25 EAST toward Las Vegas.  Las Vegas, New Mexico that is. . . NOT Las Vegas, Nevada which is WEST!

The lovely landscape of northern New Mexico mistakenly heading east along I-25.

Despite missing our exit, the ride east was quite scenic!

North-South San Ysidro?  Does that mean we're *in* San Ysidro?!?  Perhaps there should be a Welcome to San Ysidro sign instead?!

At least I-25 North is right there. . . even though we were driving on I-25 going EAST!

True Americana! 

Runty gas station in the middle of B.F.E. with a gain GAS sign propped up on telephone poles.

A&S U STORE IT ???

We ended up ditching our grainy, low resolution internet roadmaps and bought a real map at this gas station.

Heading south along State Route 3. . . with NO-ONE else around for miles and miles and miles.

More no-one than we could shake a stick at!

Pass WHOM with care?!?

Talk about excitement: the road turns left!  Still no passing though. . . not sure who we might run into if we did. . .

Remnants of a once-thriving human civilization now invaded and dominated by Bovine Gone Wild!

They even ate the roof off that poor building! 

Aliens 95 miles straight-a-thatta-way!

The lovely New Mexico flag right beside Old Glory

A little rest stop along Highway 285.  And a customer satisfaction survey opinion box?!  Now that's nice!

My dad and my step-monster, err, my step mother!  ;-}

(She signs her emails Step Monster herself, I swear!)

I'm always pleased to see art in the most unexpected of places.

In the deep future, people will probably think it was a temple to the God of Highways.

You might think you were driving down Highway 54 or State Route 48 judging by this artwork. . . but you'd be wrong.

Good thing we had our trusty gas station map!

Trickster New Mexican artists. . .

What better place to photograph myself?!

Now they tell us!

Good thing, too.  We might have accidentally took that dirt road straight ahead to the UFOs just over the horizon.

Highway 285 is both right and left. . . though you wouldn't believe it from the signage.

Four-legged Earthlings following the call of the aliens toward Roswell.

Traces of one-great human civilizations abound everywhere in central New Mexico. . . I just wonder where everyone went?

ABDUCTED BY ALIENS?!?

I think War of the Worlds happened RIGHT HERE!!!

I bet the alien invasion and subsequent enslavement and destruction of humanity in this poor little town must have been horrifying!

Apparently the aliens grew tired of this earthly paradise though because apparently they left, too!

The aliens will stop at no length to disguise their omnipresence.

What looks like a benign roadside diner is most likely an alien tracking device ingestion center!

We weren't fooled and didn't dare stop!

Heading south down Highway 285, finally back on track!

The view is quite American: long, wide open spaces with highways that meander on and on and on.  'Tis a big country!

More Americana

WE'VE MADE IT!!!  Aliens, come 'n' git us!!!

Now, I ask you: who do you think the real aliens are?  ;-}

The biggest employer of aliens in America: Wal-Mart

Roswellians are brazenly proud of their employment of aliens!!!

No wonder our borders are crumbling with unabashed welcomes like this!

And this is why we should keep the aliens out:  to protect our way of life. . . of selling discounted firearms as easily as alcohol and cigarettes.

Hmm. . .

And if two things shouldn't be sold on the same street it's guns and Jesus Christ.

As for the sign itself: from one Christian to another - a wee little excerpt from the New Testament (i.e. the Jesus part of the Bible) on what Jesus himself thought about  those who push religion into the public sphere. . .

New Testament: Matthew 6:6

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

And now back to the aliens!

UFO Museum and Research Center, straight ahead!

According to Wikipedia, Roswell was a location of military importance from 1946 until 1967 at which point a local Air Force base was decommissioned.  Despite that, there still appears to be a military presence and the city is quite a bit more than just UFO conventions and space aliens.

While these air craft may not be of alien origin, they're a lot more tangible than all these reported yet unseen spaceships in the area.

Above and below: an air show at the Roswell Airport

These air craft are quite impressive although not the easiest machines to pilot, I would imagine!

Flag of the once former enemy. . .

The rear end of a FedEx jet.  Imagine seeing that up close screaming by at 500mph - 800km/h!

I'm amazed these giant metal birds can fly at all!

Metal and sky, and somehow they seem to get along.

A not so small private jet

Roswell, here we come!!!

The welcome sign at the convention center says it all!

Me looking husky and unshaven at the Roswell UFO Festival

Judging by all the alien welcome signs, one might get the impression that aliens actually exist!

Entrance to the convention center is free

Dad and Ronda with photographic proof that they came to the UFO Festival in Roswell

I made sure to wear a T-Shirt with the most alien-like script I could find: Japanese

In the katakana syllabary/alphabet: "San Francisco"

(Also seen on my African webpage from the Sossusvlei Sand Dunes in Namibia)

Above and below: a mix of pictures from the convention center as well as the alien museum, both downtown.

I actually expected more visitors, but maybe crowds are larger on the weekend.  We were there on a Friday around noon.

The location of origin of most aliens to the museum.  it would seem that the UK, Ireland, Norway and Mexico are disproportionately obsessed with aliens?!

A news article about the crash as posted in the UFO Museum and Research Center.

Their website could use some sprucing up. . .

Apparently the Air Forces explanation for all UFOs is that they're really just weather balloons.

   Above: the UFO Museum from the street

Below: an alien standing on a street corner in tie-dye

What it looks like apparently when spaceships crash into rural America

The fake evidence put forth by the government after the Roswell crash.

Apparently the real wreckage is under wraps.

Alien art work

More alien art work

A Mayan work apparently supporting the existence of extraterrestrials?!

But where are they now?

Like the Klingon language, aliens apparently have a language which does not employ a writing stylus.

(Daniel Schereck in both of the Klingon scripts!)

Apparently Aliens prefer Coca-Cola!

New Mexico is also famous for the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons from 1941-1946.

Interestingly, aliens and nuclear weapons appeared on the scene at the same time.

More nuclear bomb explosions

A curious mix of patriotism, militarism and aliens.

A video presentation in one of the conference rooms

A well attended video presentation

Finally!  A REAL ALIEN ON DISPLAY!!!

Now I ask you: who looks like the real alien here?!!  Boowahahaha. . .

Little do they know. . . the real aliens walk among us!  ;-}

Alien signs abound around town

More alien signs

And yet more alien signs

Below: Roswell Cover-Up Café

In our spaceship discretely departing Roswell and heading back north toward Santa Fe

A junk box on display outside a restaurant we stopped at for sustenance before getting on the highway north.

  = Japan in Japanese

Back to Santa Fe!

On our way to Santa Fe, we decided to hook a left on State Route 247 and look for the rumored UFO crash site.

Odd that rain should be falling on the area of the crash site. . .

A welcome sign from the aliens?  An omen that we should turn back?!?

Is that a space ship cloaked in that dark bank of clouds descending toward us?!

Aliens watering the surrounding desert scape

Steel aliens marching across New Mexico

In the end, we found no alien wreckage but it would seem that the aliens sent us a rainbow as proof of their existence.

Those crazy aliens work in strange ways!

Two aliens standing in the middle of the road

I wonder if it's dangerous to crash into a rainbow at high speeds?!?

And just when you try to drive into a rainbow to test your hypotheses, the darned thing moves!

We didn't wanna take the car rental off road to investigate.

Back at our favorite little rest stop along Highway 285

A nice, sunlit shot of the American and New Mexican flags

This time, the aliens were much closer to the rest stop right beside the bordering fence!

One of the aliens keeping a sharp eye on the Earthling with the camera

Alien bovine

Alien and Earthling

Which is which?

Another random little New Mexico town that looks totally deserted

The old town bank?!

Somehow I'm thinking this building has been open for quite some time

Ronda, in real estate back in Texas, was most impressed with this fine piece of property!

One false move, and Ronda might not be in real estate any longer!  AAACK!

Of course, I needed to get a picture of me in front of it as well.

Note the shadowy alien in the lower left.  We're always being watched!

A beautiful bouquet of flowers growing along Highway 285

Grazing on the rolling expanses of New Mexico

The aliens are ALWAYS watching us!

And for those who don't want to believe in aliens, there are 49 other states in the US you can visit instead!  ;-}

Megalinks Homesite

Email me!