The Laredo has landed in Area 51

There was no doubt that we had arrived in Roswell, New Mexico this afternoon as we were greeted by a number of little green men along our route into town. Many businesses have alien creatures waving to you as you drive along Main Street.

Our campsite

It certainly appears that Roswell has continued to embrace its history as the supposed crash landing spot of a mysterious craft containing aliens.

The day started with a little bit of a snag as we went to pick up our trailer at the storage lot in south Amarillo. In November when we left the trailer I took the battery home and kept it on a charger until we packed it for the trip back south.

When I installed it back on the trailer there was plenty of spark so I knew the battery was still good. When I tried to raise and lower the trailer with the automatic jack, I got bupkis.  (I know there is a rather foul translation of that word, but I mean it in the sense of “absolutely nothing”).

After trying a number of different things, I finally gave up and went and got one of the employees from the RV Center who discovered one of the wires was slightly loose. The folks were very nice and didn’t charge me for the 15 minutes they had to work on the trailer so we were very appreciative.

Then it was off to Roswell. Today’s trip (after the little electric “snafu” – which also has a rather foul translation) was one of the easiest of our four years of RVing. The winds were relatively calm (they are never calm in Amarillo) and what wind there was came from behind us. The tailwind allowed me to make the trip from Amarillo to Roswell without a stop.



The aliens were waiting for us at Walmart

Even more amazing than not having to stop for gas was not having to find a rest room for Joan. She set some kind of record for herself today for distance without needing a restroom. Yeah Joan!

On the way through the west end of Texas we drove through a county that Joan said was appropriately named for me – “Deaf Smith County.”   There’s an interesting story on how the county got its name on Wikipedia.  Originally, it was pronounced “Deef Smith County” but over the years the more proper pronunciation has been used.

The county also proudly proclaims itself as the “Beef Capital of the World” and we wouldn’t argue as there are places where it looks like you could walk for miles over the top of them without having to hit the ground.

We saw cows and bulls that were feeders and a few others called breeders. From my perspective I think the breeders have the better deal. We passed a number of big name companies and then drove through Friona, which bills itself as the “Biggest Small Town in Texas.”

Sightseeing along these out of the way places is the kind of thing we dreamed about when we planned on spending our retirement traveling.

It’s the kind of country where you could imagine seeing John Wayne or any number of cowboys galloping across the plains. There were times on US 70, which is not a minor road, where we might go five or ten minutes without being passed or seeing a car coming in the other direction.

We checked into our park, which is very nice, and then headed back the way we came to shop at a local Walmart we saw on the way in.

Our "alien" welcome

One thing we are not going to do is de-winterize the trailer as temperatures are expected to fall into the teens tonight and I would just as soon arrive in Tucson with my plumbing intact. We will use bottled water and paper and plastic dinnerware until we get to Tucson. We bought food that doesn’t need cooking or water.

The restrooms and showers here are nice so we won’t gross anyone out by not keeping clean. By the way the temperature when we left Amarillo was 28 degrees and 38 degrees when we arrived in Roswell. We understand that it is considerably warmer back home in Lapeer. Go figure. We spent the rest of the day setting up the trailer and watching NFL playoff football.

Tomorrow we will investigate the alien stories and report back.

Mileage out: 37102

Time out: 9:51 a.m. (Central Standard Time)

Mileage in: 37311

Time in: 12:55 p.m. (Mountain Standard Time)