Arrived in Roswell, NM last night... saw a few aliens as we drove across town. Decided to swim in the very cold pool for an hour to burn off excess energy.
Today we are headed out to play with the aliens we saw last night. Should be fun.
Oh and Happy 17th Birthday to Melissa! What girl wouldn't want to spend her birthday with aliens? I think this definitely qualifies as the best present ever don't you?
Big Trip 2... Day 8... July 6, 2007… Friday
0700-ish Wake up and shower. I’m not sure what time it is because the clock in the room is gone and I don’t remember where I put my watch last night.
0740 Found my watch… head downstairs to get coffee.
0750 Back to the room. Ron wakes up and asks what I’m doing. Was I abducted by aliens last? I’m reported acting strangely.
0808 Open the curtains a little too wide and wake up Melissa. Oops. Um… Happy Birthday!!?!!
0817 Ron comes back with coffee and the newspaper. Kids have fun looking at all the aliens in the newspaper.
0830 Blogger hiccups and loses everything I just typed. GRRRR…. Guess I’ll have to wait until I get to Albuquerque to get more updates online.
0850 Try again. Get a couple sentences in then it’s time to go.
0920 Download Melissa’s pictures to the computer since her memory cards are both full. Input a new GPS route. Then wait for Melissa to finish getting ready.
1148 Done with our Alien tour of Roswell. I got a free magazine at the local Scrapbook store, Imagine That, because I am from out of town. This store was voted #1 in the nation in the Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine. I can see why – this place is awesome! We took lots of pictures with aliens around town. I was personally surprised by how much homemade stuff there was such as cards, bookmarks, self-published books, etc rather than the typical Made In China commercial stuff you see everywhere. Guess it really is a small town at heart that just happened to get a few alien visitors 60 years ago! Ron bought an autographed book written by an NPS graduate. The book is called The Second Ship and is set in Los Alamos. Ryan found a book about aliens that he bought with the rest of his money from Grandma D. Felisa bought a small stuffed alien with her money. I even bought some delicious alien wine for Shani!
Favorite Parts of our Alien Tour:
Felisa: Taking pictures (this answer was given under duress so I’m not sure how true it is!)
Ryan: Comics on the wall in the museum and seeing all the alien bodies
Bella: the end (guess the girls aren’t big alien fans!)
Melissa: all the testimonials in the museum
Ron: Meeting Richard Phillips, a fellow NPS grad and author
Sheila: the Roswell incident testimonials and the scrapbook store
1150 Sitting in the museum parking lot waiting for Ron to get a carne asada burrito from a trailer vendor. One of the gift shop workers recommended it.
1156 Ryan is reading his alien book Mythsolvers.
12:05 p.m. Sonic Drive-In without a drive-in part. It does have inside sitting and a drive-through which other Sonic’s don’t.
12:38 p.m. Ryan: “You can see for miles!”
12:50 p.m. Felisa is playing a game with the red hat fans we got at the museum in Pecos. “Hats for Sale” Ryan wants to buy all of them but Felisa says no, he can only have one. Ryan offers her a hundred million billion dollars but she isn’t swayed. One hat per person is her final offer. She also won’t take no for an answer – we must all have one. Then we have to give them back. Then she gives them back to us again. And so on and so forth for at least 5 rounds. What else is there to do in the NM desert anyway?
1:16 p.m. Movie time. Bella chooses Peter Pan.
1:33 p.m. Passing through Vaugh, NM. This place is like a ghost town… at least 20 boarded-up, deserted hotels along the road. They do have a nice new playground on the edge of town however. Why, I’m not sure. Maybe the ghost kids raised money to have it built.
1:35 p.m. Long freight train passing alongside.
2:11 p.m. Clines Corner, NM. On I-40 headed west to Albuquerque. 50 miles to Grandma and Grandpa R’s house.
2:19 p.m. See a horse pen at the rest stop. Definitely a feature of the Wild West!
2:26 p.m. Call Grandpa R to let him know we’re about 30 minutes away. Turns out he and Grandma are still in Los Alamos and won’t be in Albuquerque until 5:30
2:49 p.m. Kids are getting restless, Felisa especially. I think she probably needs to go potty.
2:52 p.m. Ryan: “Put in your New Mexico landscape memory file so we can see if we’re getting close.”
Bella: “Those sand dunes look familiar. I think we’re going the right way!”
2:55 p.m. Arrive. It’s like a home away from home. We just walk in and take over.
4:30 p.m. Kids want to swim. I don’t really want to take them but there’s nothing else to do since there is no cable or internet and the grandparents aren’t here yet.
4:45 p.m. Leaving for the pool. I forgot the pool key and have to go back to get it.
5:36 p.m. Leave the pool and head home to see if Grandma and Grandpa have arrived yet.
5:45 p.m. They’re here! Suddenly the kids are full of energy and go running up the sidewalk and into the house.
6:30 p.m. Ron and I are taking Melissa out for her birthday. She has chosen the top of the mountain restaurant. We can’t find the phone number in the phone book or on the GPS radar. Finally find restaurant at the bottom of the mountain so we call to get the number of the peak restaurant. It’s called High Finance. Of course. I don’t know why any of us didn’t guess it!
7:00 p.m. The only reservation time available was 8:30 so we head for Sandia Casino and do a little shopping while we kill time.
7:30 p.m. Headed up the tram for dinner.
Now, where to begin in our summary of our Mountaintop Birthday Dinner Experience? The tram ride was long... 15 minutes. If I remember correctly it is the 4th longest tramway in the world. Amazing views of the city and the mountain below. Distance above ground? Well I can't remember the distance in feet, but our tram operator did convert it into seconds for us. 7 seconds. As in, it would take 7 seconds to fall to the ground if the wire broke. Okay. Now I feel nervous!
Once we got to the top, we shivered our way out to the viewpoint and took a few pictures. Melissa had my jacket so I toughed it out in my tshirt. Pictures and shivering complete, we went inside and had an appetizer at the bar while we waited for our 8:30 reservation time. Melissa ordered a hot chocolate. The whipped cream was so good she asked for more whipped cream to be added to the cup. And of course talking about whipped cream had us laughing again at the Father's Day Incident of 2007.
The waiter was great. Very friendly. Melissa said he looks like the guy from the Oxi-Clean commercials but we decided we probably shouldn't mention that to him. He may be offended and what might happen to our food?! The food came at a leisurely pace which was good except for one small problem. There is no oxygen at 10,000 feet elevation. Okay, there's oxygen but not as much as there is at sea level. So by the end of our dinner, we were all feeling quite loopy and happy and giggly (well, Ron wasn't giggly but he was definitely happy!).
Time to go home. One little problem... it's dark now and there is lightning over the city. How are we going to get down? Well, the tram was still running of course. Apparently wind and lightning doesn't shut it down until it gets very bad. Great. I feel so comforted. Not! So anyway, we rode down in the dark and it really wasn't too bad except when we crossed over the two towers and started accelerating and swaying in mid-air! Yikes!
10:35 p.m. Made it back to the car.
10:51 p.m. Three cop cars have someone surrounded in the Smiths parking lot. The guy is on the ground and they have their guns drawn. Yikes!
11:00 p.m. Bedtime!
Today we are headed out to play with the aliens we saw last night. Should be fun.
Oh and Happy 17th Birthday to Melissa! What girl wouldn't want to spend her birthday with aliens? I think this definitely qualifies as the best present ever don't you?
**************************
Big Trip 2... Day 8... July 6, 2007… Friday
0700-ish Wake up and shower. I’m not sure what time it is because the clock in the room is gone and I don’t remember where I put my watch last night.
0740 Found my watch… head downstairs to get coffee.
0750 Back to the room. Ron wakes up and asks what I’m doing. Was I abducted by aliens last? I’m reported acting strangely.
0808 Open the curtains a little too wide and wake up Melissa. Oops. Um… Happy Birthday!!?!!
0817 Ron comes back with coffee and the newspaper. Kids have fun looking at all the aliens in the newspaper.
0830 Blogger hiccups and loses everything I just typed. GRRRR…. Guess I’ll have to wait until I get to Albuquerque to get more updates online.
0850 Try again. Get a couple sentences in then it’s time to go.
0920 Download Melissa’s pictures to the computer since her memory cards are both full. Input a new GPS route. Then wait for Melissa to finish getting ready.
1148 Done with our Alien tour of Roswell. I got a free magazine at the local Scrapbook store, Imagine That, because I am from out of town. This store was voted #1 in the nation in the Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine. I can see why – this place is awesome! We took lots of pictures with aliens around town. I was personally surprised by how much homemade stuff there was such as cards, bookmarks, self-published books, etc rather than the typical Made In China commercial stuff you see everywhere. Guess it really is a small town at heart that just happened to get a few alien visitors 60 years ago! Ron bought an autographed book written by an NPS graduate. The book is called The Second Ship and is set in Los Alamos. Ryan found a book about aliens that he bought with the rest of his money from Grandma D. Felisa bought a small stuffed alien with her money. I even bought some delicious alien wine for Shani!
Favorite Parts of our Alien Tour:
Felisa: Taking pictures (this answer was given under duress so I’m not sure how true it is!)
Ryan: Comics on the wall in the museum and seeing all the alien bodies
Bella: the end (guess the girls aren’t big alien fans!)
Melissa: all the testimonials in the museum
Ron: Meeting Richard Phillips, a fellow NPS grad and author
Sheila: the Roswell incident testimonials and the scrapbook store
1150 Sitting in the museum parking lot waiting for Ron to get a carne asada burrito from a trailer vendor. One of the gift shop workers recommended it.
1156 Ryan is reading his alien book Mythsolvers.
12:05 p.m. Sonic Drive-In without a drive-in part. It does have inside sitting and a drive-through which other Sonic’s don’t.
12:38 p.m. Ryan: “You can see for miles!”
12:50 p.m. Felisa is playing a game with the red hat fans we got at the museum in Pecos. “Hats for Sale” Ryan wants to buy all of them but Felisa says no, he can only have one. Ryan offers her a hundred million billion dollars but she isn’t swayed. One hat per person is her final offer. She also won’t take no for an answer – we must all have one. Then we have to give them back. Then she gives them back to us again. And so on and so forth for at least 5 rounds. What else is there to do in the NM desert anyway?
1:16 p.m. Movie time. Bella chooses Peter Pan.
1:33 p.m. Passing through Vaugh, NM. This place is like a ghost town… at least 20 boarded-up, deserted hotels along the road. They do have a nice new playground on the edge of town however. Why, I’m not sure. Maybe the ghost kids raised money to have it built.
1:35 p.m. Long freight train passing alongside.
2:11 p.m. Clines Corner, NM. On I-40 headed west to Albuquerque. 50 miles to Grandma and Grandpa R’s house.
2:19 p.m. See a horse pen at the rest stop. Definitely a feature of the Wild West!
2:26 p.m. Call Grandpa R to let him know we’re about 30 minutes away. Turns out he and Grandma are still in Los Alamos and won’t be in Albuquerque until 5:30
2:49 p.m. Kids are getting restless, Felisa especially. I think she probably needs to go potty.
2:52 p.m. Ryan: “Put in your New Mexico landscape memory file so we can see if we’re getting close.”
Bella: “Those sand dunes look familiar. I think we’re going the right way!”
2:55 p.m. Arrive. It’s like a home away from home. We just walk in and take over.
4:30 p.m. Kids want to swim. I don’t really want to take them but there’s nothing else to do since there is no cable or internet and the grandparents aren’t here yet.
4:45 p.m. Leaving for the pool. I forgot the pool key and have to go back to get it.
5:36 p.m. Leave the pool and head home to see if Grandma and Grandpa have arrived yet.
5:45 p.m. They’re here! Suddenly the kids are full of energy and go running up the sidewalk and into the house.
6:30 p.m. Ron and I are taking Melissa out for her birthday. She has chosen the top of the mountain restaurant. We can’t find the phone number in the phone book or on the GPS radar. Finally find restaurant at the bottom of the mountain so we call to get the number of the peak restaurant. It’s called High Finance. Of course. I don’t know why any of us didn’t guess it!
7:00 p.m. The only reservation time available was 8:30 so we head for Sandia Casino and do a little shopping while we kill time.
7:30 p.m. Headed up the tram for dinner.
Now, where to begin in our summary of our Mountaintop Birthday Dinner Experience? The tram ride was long... 15 minutes. If I remember correctly it is the 4th longest tramway in the world. Amazing views of the city and the mountain below. Distance above ground? Well I can't remember the distance in feet, but our tram operator did convert it into seconds for us. 7 seconds. As in, it would take 7 seconds to fall to the ground if the wire broke. Okay. Now I feel nervous!
Once we got to the top, we shivered our way out to the viewpoint and took a few pictures. Melissa had my jacket so I toughed it out in my tshirt. Pictures and shivering complete, we went inside and had an appetizer at the bar while we waited for our 8:30 reservation time. Melissa ordered a hot chocolate. The whipped cream was so good she asked for more whipped cream to be added to the cup. And of course talking about whipped cream had us laughing again at the Father's Day Incident of 2007.
The waiter was great. Very friendly. Melissa said he looks like the guy from the Oxi-Clean commercials but we decided we probably shouldn't mention that to him. He may be offended and what might happen to our food?! The food came at a leisurely pace which was good except for one small problem. There is no oxygen at 10,000 feet elevation. Okay, there's oxygen but not as much as there is at sea level. So by the end of our dinner, we were all feeling quite loopy and happy and giggly (well, Ron wasn't giggly but he was definitely happy!).
Time to go home. One little problem... it's dark now and there is lightning over the city. How are we going to get down? Well, the tram was still running of course. Apparently wind and lightning doesn't shut it down until it gets very bad. Great. I feel so comforted. Not! So anyway, we rode down in the dark and it really wasn't too bad except when we crossed over the two towers and started accelerating and swaying in mid-air! Yikes!
10:35 p.m. Made it back to the car.
10:51 p.m. Three cop cars have someone surrounded in the Smiths parking lot. The guy is on the ground and they have their guns drawn. Yikes!
11:00 p.m. Bedtime!
1 comment:
Well, not much of a report for 3 days!! Bella Beautiful's beautiful pix arrived today: Sweet. Oh how we miss her and also Fleabag and Flyin'. Bailey's helped me with yard and garden work and charmed the kittens. She's happy. Grass got mowed yesterday. 2005 in email is really 1995 in SA. How time flies. Look forward to more of family travel reports.
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