Leaving Albuquerque, it’s pretty ordinary weather. Snow, wind, cloud/fog over the pass, so despite Charlotte’s newly balanced shoes, it’s a hairy drive.
There’s not much traffic on the road, I spend a good few hours with only a few headlights to be seen in either direction.
Roswell, NM itself is under a fair bit of snow – I learn that the weekend before they’d had a blizzard down this way, dumping 10 inches of snow.
That’s still pretty evident, though it’s been ploughed to the sides of the road, where it has started to turn a pretty distasteful grey/black with the pollution of everyday city life.
I’d always thought of Roswell as a very small town, but it’s got a population just under 50,000 which makes it the same size as Port Macquarie back home.
Despite housing 50,00 souls, Roswell is a narrow city – it only extends a block or so in any direction left or right of the main highway.
I’ve arrived just before dinner time, so I head to one of the recommendations given to me by Jason back in Tiscon – Billy Ray’s. Billy Ray’s is a bit of a dive bar, but is home to the, according to Jason and his work colleagues (see here), delicious “Relleno stuffed ribeye”.
When I get there, the place is practically empty – the only patrons are 4 grey haired locals sitting at the bar.
I grab a seat and in a flash the barmaid is out to grab my order. I opt for a beer and the famous Ribeye.
About 20 mins later out comes this mammoth ribeye, cut open to insert a Relleno, then sealed back up and cooked over a grill. Red and green chilli sauces, rice, refried beans and a side salad complete a meal big enough for two or three normal people.
Shit. I’m hungry and despite having an Australian sized stomach, this is going to be a stretch.
As it proves.
I manage about 80% of the ribeye, some salad, but the beans and rice are beyond me. Still the waitress is relatively impressed when she comes back to grab my plate – apparently I’ve made a pretty good effort.
It was pretty tasty, and a new way for me to eat steak, but I think I prefer a beautifully marbled wagu, cooked Heston’s way.
Dinner over, I check to see what’s on in Roswell on a Wednesday night.
You guessed it – not much, so it’s off to find a spot to park and kip.
Next morning, having not been abducted and probed (at least to my knowledge) it’s time to check out Roswell’s main attractions – the Roswell UFO museum.
Entry is only $5, and they give you an orange sticker that let’s you leave and come back any time the whole day.
Is this a sign of the museum’s quality?
3 hours it’s a resounding NO.
The place is housed in what looks and feels like an old time cinema, and is divided into a library, where UFO afficianados and researchers can come and study, and the museum itself.
The library gets 5 mins to be honest – it’s just row and rows of well filed books and magazines. The halls between rooms are studded with cartoons – they are more interesting to be honest.
The museum itself is pretty interesting.
It tells the story of the Roswell incident, with literally hundreds or newspaper clippings and affadavits from people involved. There are artefacts and displays , but the majority of the museum is devoted to having you read as many different versions of the story, the cover up, the investigations, and other UFO sightings
It’s a LOT of reading, so bring your glasses and be prepared to shuffle from station to station slowly.
Whilst the plethora of information is mostly factual, there is an inbuilt “conspiracy theory” slant overall. To be honest I can see why people believe that aliens did land back in 1947, and were sighted numerous times in the years afterwards.
Do I believe?
Probably not, simply for the fact that keeping this whole thing a secret presumes that the aliens wanted and still want to keep their existence secret too.
But there is enough to make you at least ask the question of what happened back in the day.
With Roswell’s main attraction ticked off, there’s little else to hold me here and it’s off down the road south towards Carlsbad Caverns, home of one of the largest cave systems and bat colonies in the US.
Till next time
