The Land of Aliens: Roswell, New Mexico Part Two

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!! Patrick was a real guy in the 9th Century, who was taken away from his Roman Britain at age 16 by thieves and then was a slave and shepherd, guided by his faith. After going and becoming a priest he returned back to Ireland, making churches and monasteries right and left. Then, he supposedly banished the Devil and the snakes, whacking a stick so hard that it went to the port of Dublin and told all other snakes not to come to Ireland. Supposedly. Most likely that didn't happen, but who knows? God, and St. Patrick, unless he hit his head on a rock and can't remember anything. But nowadays people just wear green, do shamrocks-oh and shamrocks came from Patrick talking to some pagans, and they didn't understand the whole trinity thing, and so he said it was like a shamrock, three in one!- eat cabbage, potatoes, and steak, try to stay away from leprechauns, and go to church and I even read fast facts about the man, and the wonderful country. Hope you have a good remainder of the day and wear green, or you'll be green in the face by how many pinches people give you because of you not wearing the sacred color. Irish people generally are either chatty or totally mean and gruff. Your pick. But top of the mornin' to ya, and celebrate the pride and soul of the Irish people. Now to the blog!(bagpipes in the background.)

(SEE "THE LAND OF ALIENS: ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO PART ONE" FIRST BEFORE READING THIS PART.)

I wanted to go to a cool alien shop, where there were cool things I could purchase and act like I was an alien. Mom and Rebecca were hungry, having not read at the McDonald's in which we had stopped at earlier. We walked down the cobblestone sidewalks, away from our car, and looked at all the signs saying to go to a State Park. We were confused, because how could there be a state park in this town. Crossing the small street with the foreclosed businesses, we walked along and took pictures of The International UFO Museum, and Dad went into a seed store, claiming he had never been in one before. Disgusted with the smell, we quickly went out again. There was an alleyway saying that there was a State Park. Well, we didn't see one, just a large back alley and then some buildings behind that, oh, and desert. That's pretty much all we had seen in New Mexico, was desert. Well, we decided that we would look it up on our GPS, and then thought that it must be a long way off, in the desert somewhere. They called it Bottomless Lake. Well, I didn't see any lake anywhere, but that was either just me or there was no lake. Like I said, it could be a long way away. But every lake had to have a bottom, right? Or so I thought.

We went back across the street and didn't find many open shops for aliens, I mean there were some, but were inappropriate and nightclubs. Like Zone 2, the place we had seen yesterday. There was this one place on a corner, not very big, that we looked around in. Rebecca got a green baseball and Mom purchased a green skin around a cup, a couzi? I don't know how to spell it and I'm not sure that's what it is. The man in there was behind a counter, and was pretty old, but still lived with his mother. Nerd, but kind of nice. He has been abducted before, he told us. I got a little glossy card that said AREA 51, that I could gain access. It's fake though, I doubt I could get in, with all the hand scans and butt scans.(yeah, they do that.) Okay, so this shop wasn't just a little trinket shop for aliens. They had an artistic thing through some curtains, where there were all these paintings and cool sculptures of aliens. Rebecca and I peaked through when the man wasn't looking. It cost money, so we didn't go in there. A lot of money. Like $30 per person or something uneconomical. The man told us also that they have a great parade thing in July, and that that is there bustling time for tourists. Hungry as ever, he gave us some food choices, in response to our inquiries.

We got back to the car after a long walk. Guitarsmellslikedirtguywhowasabeggar still played on the ledge, by that pole where you push the thing and then you walk across? Sorry, I don't know what anything is supposed to be called nowadays.

In the jeep, we followed numerous signs, all leading to this supposed State Park. We went through that alley from around, came out of the small town of Roswell, and then into the desert with all the shrub and dirt. Man was I ready to see some grass or something of the like! I know I had only been in this desert area for a week at the most now, but dang was it dreary, like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe poem, or Robert Frost. But I did like seeing the desert, as this was the place I had been dreaming of. We munched and chomped on gold fish out of a huge container Rebecca hogged, and we ended up not going to a restaurant of any kind that day. I wished that I would see an alien so that I could add myself to those people that have seen them, but we weren't that lucky, so far.... I wished I wouldn't get abducted, that would be dangerous, but maybe a "close encounter of the first kind" would be satisfactory. Needing to go to the restroom, we drove up to a mound of dirt, and I released the water from my bladder into a snake hole, with only a few cars passing by. Cars pointed us into the direction that we were going to go to, Bottomless Lake. There was actually a National Park there too, Bitter Lake. Or you could combine the two, a bitter lake that doesn't care who dies in it, and people die all the time, and come to their death. Bitter.

More signs, going down a small hill. We pulled around, seeing these small little ponds shallow in the ground, long and with mud on the bottom, the rays from the sun coming down on them and ripples in the clear water. With shrubs on the sides. Were these the BOTTOMLESS lakes? I saw the bottom of them, of course, they were smaller than 2 ft deep. Was this a play on words maybe, or some kind of ironic joke? Our long drive's puzzlements would be settled at a small building with slate buildings and a State Park sign, plus a little U-turn area where a post was, with some mail slots and papers underneath a glass plate. We pulled a thing which asked for us to pay, putting the money in there. Rebecca and I went into the building to ask for some information, seeing a small counter in the middle of a small lobby with a door to a little room with science displays and artifacts, all animal stuff and how the bottomless lakes formed. To my left was a small office with two middle aged men. One, who had grey hair and glasses, a khaki vest and a baseball cap, came out of the spinny chair with a creak, and got out of the room with it's desks and computers. Sitting down at the counter, he told us there were like four lakes and to go up the walk and stop the car, things like that and to take this envelope (and he gave it to us), to tear it in half and put one with the money in the pouch. Then he did it.

Taking out a paper mnewspaper thing, a frog that was really good, and then showed us a few others before we left, thanking the funny man. Outside we told all the info to Mom and Dad, jumped in the car, and ate more goldfish. So far the day had been really great, and fun to see all the UFO stuff, whether we believed in it or not. Now we were going to go to Bottomless Lake, a state Park where supposedly the lake had no bottom. I mean, it doesn't have a head or arms, so why would it have a bottom? Okay, bad joke. Anyway, we went along the flats a little longer, on the left side, before coming up to dirt and a little of trees, with a small hill that you trek up to. Parking the car, we went up to this, our long awaited Bottomless Lake. There was an old man and also a little tan boy, who was large also, kind of like the kid on that show that my dad like's a little too much, Modern Family. We'd be reading and it be all quiet, with Dad on his hulu on the computer, and then the next second you hear great outbursts of laughing like being tickled with some device organized for the one job, and maybe the funniest thing combined with a clown. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....GEE, THAT'S FUNNY! UHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE! (cough, cough) But I'm getting off the subject. Point is, he laughs at that show and the kid kind of looked like that actor.

The fisherman was large also, with some coolers by him and a fishing rod by his side, with facial hair, beard, like a wolf. Then I saw it. There was dirt and rock all over the sides of this small circular canyon, pretty dark blue water, with no end in sight, no dirt or bottom seen. Such calmness I never saw in a body of water before, no flow, but flow, no wind, but still wind, as if in a dream. If I jumped in I could of sworn I had felt an energetic charge or some kind of everlasting piece, despite the cold it would present. I bet that if I jumped in it would be like a gel that just made me come right back up, gelatin that was thick and smooth at the same time. The wind blew, making an unlucky rock stumble off into the lake, and the slight splash, and the slow sink. Rebecca and I leaned forward to witness the spectacle. The spell was broken! It wasn't really gel or jello or anything of the sort, but real water, H2O, clear, tasteless liquid! Oh but I still dream. I took out my video camera, seeing all the shrub and flat small wide cactuses all in a bunch, and all the dirt with the rocks! There was a steep viewing area all around the almost perfectly circular lake. The mountains glowed in the afternoon sun, way out in the distance. A picture fit...for a post card.

There was a young couple that were seated in a small alcove in the rock surrounding it, literally their feet hanging off into nothingness. They were below us, and I wondered how hard that trip would be, all the prickly plants and the big height, with no good path. They were only right below us, but still... well, Mom, Rebecca and I, while Dad talked to the fisherman, went up on the right side of the big lake, crawling and crouching and going on steep little climbs with all the prickly briar patch kind of stuff every where, mostly cacti. (Cacti: plural of cactus that nobody says but is nonetheless the plural. A general misconception that the plural is cactuses, which is in the dictionary but is actually incorrect. This has been "Dictionary time with Andrew.") It was hard, but we made it over the steep, by going easier ways, still hard but easier. We came up to a really high point, and made some very good pictures, as we looked straight down, trying to be safe and not fall in. Coming back down, Mom got pricked by a small cactus in her foot, and we helped her to the car and got her in, and Dad said goodbye to the people there. We went onto other lakes, with Mom bravely taking the splinters out, no more than a wince or two. Strong woman.

Alright so I made a story about our fake adventures in Roswell New Mexico, being abducted by aliens and saving the world. It started at Bottomless Lake, and that was where it began and it's a spinoff. You can find it on Andrew's Inventive Adventures, which is a brother blog of BBT (Bourne's Big Trip), made for my creative stories that I should put on the web and see if I get discovered. If you want to read a funny and entertaining story with some historical info, please go ahead and read it at http://andrewsinventiveadventures.blogspot.com. You have to do the http:// part of it or else it will not work. But I hope you enjoy! :)

We went to a few others, yes we did, but these weren't near as circular and high up, and more of an oval shape. Rebecca and I went out together, really able to touch the water and the little clear sand. It was right on us. We had gone down a little pebbly and dirt path though to get down. Not too much. Rebecca and I talked about her Smells Like Dog book, in which I had been reading for a long time. It was a good book, and then and there I admitted that info to Rebecca. We walked over to where another lake was, cut off by a path of smooth rocks, in which we jumped off and on, finding stable and shaky of the long untouched stones. We got to the other end and then turned back, seeing little marine oddities. Back in the car, we came up to a few more, but not as great as that wonderful first in which our minds were mesmerized by the enchanting water. Now, we set up to go to Bitter Lake, which we hoped would be even better than the previous delight. But if it was BITTER, would it be bad and not worth it? Or should we stop asking ourselves questions and just let the lake flow--sorry if that was too literal---no pun intended.

Across the street, in an actual big parking lot now with some trees and other things. Dad and I dropped off Rebecca and Mom, who needed to go to the restroom, and then just sat in the car at the end of the parking lot. I read some of Smells Like Dog, a little guilty about not reading the book I had started on one of the first day's of Texas, more than three weeks from now. But I needed a break, I supposed. I didn't really want to go in; the last one wasn't as great. I reflected over going to the restroom in the State Park place, and looking at some of the info in the right room. Supposedly the old man had come out and told Mom and Dad that both Rebecca and I were very well mannered, and Rebecca was a witness t0 it, telling me the info as soon as I came out. But then my day-dreamings were brought back to sheer reality. Mom and Rebecca waved and so we came back over. They both told us to park the car and come in, that it was a really cool National Park and totally worth it, having a lot of animals. ANIMALS? We parked right away and walked on in, to a great lobby with sky roof and high ceiling, with displays everywhere and a gift shop to the left. There were stuffed birds that looked like they were really springing, and fish of all kinds.

There were nice people in there, brown haired couple that were pretty young, and the man was named Greg. They showed us to a movie, after we had gotten all these things and were going to get birds for Jason and Joan (dealership employees) that were enchanted by them (but we didn't because they had ordered some and there was no reason to do it) and it was in a dark room with good chairs in which we sat. They told us why it was bitter, the whole environment and habitats of all the animals, with videos right down there, where the fish swam, the birds flew, and the moles burrowed in the dirt. It was interesting to learn all the different kinds, and amazing to see the bugs and worms in the holes, pink in form but having brown clusters of dirt on it's oily skin. I'm really glad we watched it. On our way out of the very nice place, Greg and his wife told us about that they were part time campers, doing this one half of the year in a trailer, not getting paid but not having to pay for all the facilities, and all the other places that they had worked at. We got some binoculars for siting all the birds that they said it was impossible NOT to see, that we might see in bonus a mammal or reptile. Thanking them, I stepped outside on the threshold.

Greg stopped me, saying that there was a document hot off the press from the local high school, North Junior High, that was written that day and that it told about the history of Roswell, New Mexico. That's where I got all that information from in the beginning of the first blog post of this two part serial. I thanked him, and have read the 6 page document of paper and photographs at least four times, maybe more. The first time I read it was like that the next day or the day after, but that's another story for another time. You can look at the document and read it, and it was written by a Scotty Moore, at, http://scottymoore.net/roswell.html We went out into some reads and saw not many things, before pulling over. There were several little seagulls, or a species close to it, that were by the water of the lake. Dad had come off a dirt road and now stopped, parking. He told us to get our cameras ready, as he did something that was so unexpected yet so cool. Earlier in December he had gotten a little PA under the wheel of the car, and it made all these funny noises. He put some of the loud stuff on, and then all the birds started to shift uneasily. The cool day, that had featured a weird McDonald's, a cool UFO Museum, although kind of nerdy, a few bottomless lakes, and now this. And the next part of the blog will tell you what THIS is.

It was thousands and thousands of birds, white and broad and small. taking off like the Exodous, all swirling in the sky like commuters of a L.A. traffic chase, all going left and right, nearly no spots where a bird was not occupying. It was amazing, transfixing, splendid, and complete. The pictures can do it more justice, but I do wish that some of my readers see as many birds like that alone someday, it is really cool. I can't find words to describe it. All the white, you would think it was a kite in the sky from a long distance, and all the noises of the creaks and mating calls, all into one everlasting choir---that song in church had rung true, the "HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD!" And didn't those birds. It would bring tears to an old man and sure delight from a small child. I must sound like Henry David Thoreau, but I really loved all those birds coming around, all the planning that you thought must go into it, how simple and easy those birds made it look. It's times like those that you just drop all your worries and thoughts of the day, needing to blog or personal trifles, and just look to the sky, glad that you are alive in a world and country so great and so privileged. I can't even begin to describe that beauty......

We had a few other moments like this, looking up at the sky and spotting them with our binoculars. We were on a small hill when we looked at them on the shores, and that one was even larger than all the ones that came before it. Long story short, we went back in as the lights were off and they were closing off, and went to the restroom after handing them the borrowed binoculars. Very nice people. We came home and had a very good meal at home. Roswell is a cool city, not near as cool as the one in Georgia, which is my opinion, but pretty cool. The aliens seem to like it. But, little town though it may be, Roswell will always be known as the town of the aliens, for better or for worse. It's changed forever, the mark of UFO's, E.T.'s, and a lot of other abbreviations will always stay in the hearts and souls of those who visit. Whether your a nerdy boy who likes star trek, a bird watcher, a deep lake diver, or fisherman, or a person who likes planes and pilots(they have a base, center, and museum) Roswell, New Mexico is a really fun and interesting road-stop pleasure. In a nutshell, I think that Roswell...well, it's Roswell. And that's all I have for tonight. Goodbye for now.

Alien: TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!

Mayor of Roswell, New Mexico: Our liters of water in Bottomless Lakes?

Alien: No your leader! Like person in charge!

Mayor: Oh that would be me.

Alien: Then you will be assimilated. Die!

Mayor: I'm not the mayor! I'm really just Joe the plumb...AHHH!----

Andrew.

The Land of Aliens: Roswell, New Mexico Part One

Julius Caesar was murdered by the Senate, after doing several laws, like giving land to his soldiers and making a calendar, and being a dictator for the Roman Empire. He was stabbed 23 times to death. Beware the Ides of March! He was murdered today, in 44 B.C.

In the late 1800's a trading post for horses and cattle, in the Southeast of the state of Texas, was renamed Roswell by a professional gambler (Van C. Smith) who staked a claim in the place, honoring the town after his father, Roswell Smith. In 1890, a big water supply was discovered in this desert, and a newspaper that would be the ones to provide the insight of the "Roswell Incident" the Roswell Dispatch, began in 1891. Also in 1891, a Goss Military Institute was made, later changed into the New Mexico Military Institute. Also, Dr. Robbert Goddard from MA did many of his tests with rocket propulsion there, and combustion engines, the whole deal. He actually paved the way for what we now know as the Space Age. And it happened in Roswell. They made another military school there, the Roswell Army Air Field. A serviceman assigned as the 91st Airbase Squadron as a Control Tower Operator from 1943 to 1945, was Deforest Kelly. You probably know him more as Dr. Bones McCoy, from Star Trek movies and T.V. shows. And he worked at Roswell.

They made a prisoner of war camp in at Orchard Park, holding as many as 4,800 Germans and Italians. In 1948 the Air Force and the Army divorced (there's no other word I can say you'll understand) or broke away, and so the base was renamed Walker Air Force Base. Okay, so now we're in History where you want to be, reader. It was the summer of 1947, July, and a creepy crash occurred on a ranch 75 miles (about) north of Roswell, near Corona. Farmer Mac Brazel said he saw the things and they crashed down. Marcel, a Major Intelligence Officer, told all the radio and newspapers it was some kind of disk. Then after some hours the press release was retracted and the government tried to convince them it was a weather balloon, and a mistake on their part that it fell on the ranch, all this other deal. It was then moved to Fort Worth Texas, and then to Ohio. People soon forgot this strange incident, because I guess people trusted the government more back then and weren't very suspicious of them. It was literally forgotten...until....

In the 70's they closed the base and the population of Roswell decreased by 50 percent. Years later the witnesses from the crash came forward about what really happened, and Roswell received the world's attention. The government had a lot of denials to go through now. Yeah we got you, buckos! Roswell then became a meeting place, a mecca, for people who wanted to go more, and nerds and space maniacs who want to see aliens. Thousands visit annually and their tourism industry has had a lot of boost, with a lot of hotels and even one of the seven themed park McDonald's right there in New Mexico. Even if you don't believe in aliens, you still have to admit Roswell has a lot of cool and interesting history.

Roswell for us is in Roswell, GA, named after Roswell King, which is about as common a last name as Smith. Not a very common first name, however. But as we were on the trip, when we said Roswell and were finishing a breath, many people assumed that we were from Roswell, New Mexico. Like I said, a lot of people know something about Roswell, New Mexico, but not many kids knows anything more than that there are aliens there. Well, I hope I've educated you so far. Now, our adventure in Roswell, New Mexico, began on the 10th of February, waking up and walking the dogs, trying to find a good place to go to the restroom, other than dirt and gravel, which we thought was all New Mexico had in it's plants. Dad opened the back engine, putting the green liquid in. I wanted to make a second Stuck in Space, and I thought of the green goo of Dr. Alexander Goo, who had goo all over him, green in color. We put some of it on a stump. Well, we were going to go into the town of Roswell that day and see what there was to see, about aliens, and where Area 51 was. Mom read there was a National Park somewhere around, so we might see that also. The beginning of a great day began....with a McDonald's, if you'll believe it.

I was hungrier than a bear that morning, and Mom and Dad didn't feed me up until the point of going into the car, Smells Like Dog in hand. My stomach grumbled, and I was like him, I didn't want this to happen either. Stomach and I were both mad about not being fed, especially Stomach. He tells that story to waist and knee, saying that it was worse than slavery, ranting and raving about and so. Mom went to a little post office around the doctor area where some shopping villages, as they call them, were, and we stayed outside across some sketchy trailers and saw a green car pass us. It could be an alien! Off to the races! But I really doubt it. Mom got back in and then we came up to it. The McDonald's. I wanted to get a breakfast burrito in the weirdest McDonald's I had ever seen. It had a white room, going down and a circle, with a top and to the left a large slanting glass auditorium, where the playground was in. Dad, Rebecca, and I all walked in, and Mom stayed inside the jeep, where the parking lot was. The part we entered looked like any fast food restaurant, island with all the silver ware, concession stand, counter with menu on wall and guy by computer with microphone, and chairs all around. A McDonald's.

They had stopped serving breakfast, so it was lunch I received, a little burger. Two, actually. Dad got the same, and I got some milk as we went to sit down in the playground part. I was really weirded out that the McDonald was like this; I had never seen one quite like this before. I was a little bummed I could get no burrito, but oh well. We sat down at a little table, seeing a big playground with slides, little rooms with glass overlooking everything, and all the foam and nets and poles that hold up the other stuff. Rebecca hadn't got anything so she went and went up the thing, as I finished my stuff and spoke to Dad about his Dad's business and how he got into the auto paint industry. Then I took off my shoes, and went up a square tower with leather seats, and played with Rebecca who met a large girl her age named Ashley. They showed me some chambers with the whole steering wheel and graffiti penciled and such, and we went down the slide and into a white place, playing all along. Ashley liked living in such a famous town. When Dad told Rebecca to come down I played with a small Indian kid, and we pretended that aliens were trying to get us. All of this was very fun. It was cool, to be there. I think it's my favorite McDonald's I've ever set foot in. Yeah, totally. There were a whole lot of little kids there. We guessed there was some kind of holiday we didn't know about, perhaps.Or maybe double sessions. Who knows?

Yesterday we had looked at a International UFO Museum and some shops about that, so we were gonna mosie around that area for a while before doing something else. Well, it might take all day; we didn't know. We parked on Main Street, which had some storefronts and brick buildings, all of old 20th Century style. We left the jeep parked on the road, and crossed some intersections, seeing an old hobo with a grey black beard and ski hat, gloves with naked fingers and a big brown jacket, singing for his livelihood with a guitar, sitting on a ledge on a corner of the sidewalk, with his guitar on the ground, money in it. Very gruff voice and annoying tune. Wasn't worth the money. We looked through several empty and out of business shops, with some aliens on computers and little UFO's. It was dark in there. Taking some things with my video, we then walked further on, closer to a large building that looked like a theatre, in a way. It had a large vertical block with the words in faded yellow in a background of blue, :International UFO Museum and Research Center, with some horizontal blocks the exact same way down by the roofed entrance. It was of a grey color, right on the street. We looked at some of the cool posters underneath there, Rebecca and I, before walking in. The day was about to get really weird.

It was a fairly large lobby, with to my left a grey alien, named R.A.L.F., or Roswell Alien Life Form, for short, which a kid devised. Then there was a small UFO above that, and then further on some glass doors to a gift shop. To my right, some benches, a T.V., many pictures of people, and a door down into another room, where many shelves of books were, all filed of course. That was the research area, complete with computers and audio tapes. Then further on to the right was a long counter with desks behind and people who worked there, uniforms worn, and a map with all the cities and many pins. This was in the back of the large high ceiling room, away from us. Mom and Dad were over there, and we walked towards them, video taping all the way. The lady said, in answer to my question, if she believed aliens, that of course she did. Mom rolled her eyes, trying to be polite. We got glossy brochures, of which I got the info from and the picture on the front, as my memory isn't so clear. Not all the history stuff though, I'll tell you where I got that info later in the blog or in another one. The brochure stated that at the end of each month they took off all the pins, documenting it. Then more people come. In 20o1 they recorded their 1,000,000 visitor. They average 150,000 people a year. They pleaded us to sign their guest book.

There was more of a hallway with pictures and newspaper clippings, and little amateur museum panels, white sheets of paper with hard plastic mounts on a peg board sections and aisles, walls. Not a very professional museum, but good as museums go that we have seen on the trip. They told us the admission and we payed, going in. It talked about the air force and I listened to a radio thing and radar pictures of a pilot that heard sounds and saw something on the Doppler Radar. I looked at an old typewriter and some other things. I knew that some of these "sightings" might not be true, or "abductions" but it was cool to speculate. Rebecca and Mom didn't take long in the museum, going around. I didn't see them after some minutes, going into another cubicle along the left wall, on the right, seeing bits and pieces of a "weather balloon" and the report of the guy on the ranch seeing the aliens. There was a radio that I listened to, hearing all the reports. It wasn't the best museum I had been in so far, sure, but it was okay as museums go. I read about the other sightings and how the government shut them up, and all the people who believed them and those that didn't, with all the different bases closing and opening, and also a timeline before and after the first sighting. I left this area for a while. "I don't understand any of this," Mom remarked. Then....I saw it.

IT happened to be a giant UFO on one side of the room, to the left of me, in this big room, kind of square with a medium sized ceiling and all of the museum stuff. The UFO had lights coming out, like the police man's, out of the side, and looked like a saucer. Prior in the museum the guy who saw the alien on his radar, had said that the ship looked like a stone or saucer flying, but it wasn't the architecture of a saucer. But forever the face of a UFO will be a saucer. Beneath this one was rocky terrain, and grey kind of tall Martians, who had no peepeees or butts, really, and had long skinny figures and fingers, huge round heads and those eyes that you always see. I took a lot of pictures, texting also, and then videotaped. It said it was done not by a company, but by an individual. The rest of the museum would be more popular belief and such, paintings and culture of aliens, and the people in 1979 reflecting on the experiences in the late 40's. Then on the news and around the world Roswell,New Mexico, a little Air Force and Army town, got the attention of the Earth. It was just a small town. Was just a small town. Just a small town. A small town. Small town. Town. And then...ALIENS!!!! They must of thought it a good place to land, even though it was a small town and had state parks, national parks, and military bases close by.

At this time, annoyed at having to carry the brochure, I folded it up and put it in my back pocket. It still has those creases to this day. The rest of the museum, to my right, had some paintings and even a cylinder full of liquid with a little alien, white and forsaken. I feel bad for all the R.A.L.F.'s that got captured and were inspected, I mean, who did they harm? Then further on were some comics, and two restrooms at the back. Over a display was some small UFO's. There was a lot of paintings and such of the sort, with not many historical information from this point on. I mean there was prior, but not at the moment. I crossed over to the other side, which had reports of alien abduction from all over the world, and paintings of what the "victims" saw, from everything to saucers to triangle looking ones. Dad was talking to Rebecca on a bench, trying to convince her that aliens had come to the Earth and helped out ancient civilizations, the crop circles that could only come from the sky, there has to be some other life forms out in this huge universe. The pyramids couldn't of been done alone, nor the Easter Island Heads. Dad isn't the abduction nerdy alien guy, but he believes there are other life forms in the universe.

There were a few panels about "Close Encounters" with aliens, and separating them into three kinds. For instance, the 1st kind was seeing an aerial object in the sky, or flying saucer, that had odd lights or some alien technology. There were some reports, plus pictures and everything, of that. The second kind are physical effects of a UFO, like heat, radiation, crop circles, and animals getting scared. I saw a few pictures of that kind of stuff, with more repots and some weird little paintings, abstract, of abductions. Most of the people just want to get famous, I guess, and fake the whole thing out, going away for days on end and then appearing in a weird place, doing the crop circles themselves. I mean, why do the aliens want to look at us and why would they let us go? Whatever, believe what you want. But the third close encounter is seeing "animate beings" or aliens, if you think that is better. I then moved on further along the left side, taking more pictures with the UFO and then going onto the ancient cultures part of the whole alien spectrum, which I read a little about. Then, I saw it. Dad had sat there with Rebecca and tried to hug her, and she ran around, and now I saw it. I had saved this inspection for last.

It was a huge square brown engraving that took up one whole wall of a cubicle, facing me. It had numerous inscriptions and a piece of paper by it telling about it. Some of the figures pointed toward being extraterrestrials, but nobody knew for sure. Then I saw the stuff in Peru that could only be done by "the Gods" or could've been done by the aliens. I had seen a T.V. show on History Channel called Ancient Aliens. I looked at this for a few minutes, and looked to the left also, where there were some things speaking about Area 51, a supposed air force base, and all the people that worked there; how they talked about all the hush-hush that arose. It's in Nevada, nowhere close to Southeast Rowell or New Mexico. I moved along where I came into a kind of corridor, with my parents already by all the acting stuff, which consisted of movie posters involving aliens and T.V. shows also. Then, to the front and right was a surgeon with a mask and gloves performing over an alien on a gurney, that was pale-pink white tissue coming out. Well, the museum basically ended, and even though I didn't see all of it I had read a great deal and now knew what the whole alien thing was about. I went into the gift shop, and saw some books, but none of them would tell a lot more than anything I had seen in the museum, and would probably present some point or be opinionated.

We left. It was a good time there, and even though some of the stuff was nerdy and it wasn't the best museum, it was still pretty interesting to have a source of information into all the Roswell Incident material. I learned a lot from the UFO Museum. Finding Rebecca and Dad on a bench by all those pictures, the hall of fame, we stepped into the sunlight of a mid afternoon day. The rest of the time in Roswell would be a time to remember. Would we see aliens? UFO'S? The rest of the day would be truly exciting. I could only wait....

TO BE CONTINUED...(SEE "THE LAND OF ALIENS: ROSWELL NEW MEXICO PART TWO" FOR THE END.)

Cadillac Ranch and the Drive to Roswell, New Mexico!

Blogger's note: Sorry I didn't write for a few days (besides Mom editing the "Drive to Amarillo, Texas"), our Internet connection just completely shut down on us, plus I was playing with all the kids at the R.V. Park! (KIDS AGAIN! YAY!) But, the Internet should be good now, hopefully.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COUSIN MAY! YOU ARE SO SPUNKY AND FUNNY AND NICE, AND SHINE LIKE THE SUN IN THE MONTH OF MAY!

In the 60's, a millionaire of Texas named Stanley Marsh 3 (literally, he was called 3 because he thought III was too proper and kingly) acquired some land and asked, or encouraged, the artist group Ant Farm (no not the popular Disney Channel show) to help him out with this work of art. Buying ten Cadillacs ranging from the late 40's to the early 60's editions, they used cranes and the like to put them down into the ground. Okay, so people from around the world graffitied the place, taking away their banana yellow, gold, sky blue, and turquoise colors, which I suppose is a bad thing. Not for Marsh though, he still says, "It's looks better every year" even though vandals took away the radios, stereos, chrome, and some of the doors. They welded the wheels to stay unto the axles though, so no more theft really happens. They moved it in 1997 to another location, putting all the trash and stuff and burying it around. Marsh says that people who come can do what ever they want there, and can put paint on it and the like, which will no doubt be painted over by another person. Long story short, in 2002 they painted them black in recognition of a founding member of the Ant Farm group dying. Funny story, I guess: Marsh captured a 15 year old for taking a part of one of his signs, another folky landmark he produced the money for, and is, opposite of his stand on the Cadillacs, concerned if you touch his signs or do anything to him. Eccentric guy.

Millionaire

Alive

Red faced (seriously, you can look on Google on images and type his name in)

Seriously concerned about his precious signs

Heavy (what can I say I had no other adjective!)

Our experience at Amarillo would be worth the visit. Dad said we needed to go very early, because it was going to both get windier and rain later, and to beat the crowd and have our own special time, you know, for sentimental reasons, I suppose. Putting on two shirts, a tee and a long sleeve, I then put on a blue jacket, and then the black leather jacket I had gotten the day after Christmas. Warm clothes. I then had jeans on and tied shoes, also a black ski hat. I took my video camera over a bag that my mom gave me, because I had lost it at Christmas time. Dad had a cap and a lot of clothes on also, and Rebecca had her big puffy pink jacket and a colorful ski hat. Mom had a ski hat two, with her big green jacket. Okay, so all ready together, I took that Smells Like Dog book at the last minute, as we got out of the R.V. I needed to read the Tramp book, I mean I hadn't even arrived at the tenth chapter of it yet and now I was starting another one? The problem with that book was that it was very boring at parts and the paragraphs were very large and lengthy, I mean it was funny, but it kind of lost you. I read about the young fencers in the different Corps at the universities of Germany with some interest, but that was lost later when he described a mountain like describing the whole world, taking the longest time. You can't even imagine...

This Smells like Dogs book was funny and really good descriptions, and I was very and I was very crazed that Rebecca was reading this, even though it was about adventurers and a boy and a dog, but I guess sometimes she is a tom boy. I didn't want to admit that to Rebecca though, because I sometimes, and I admit, that I read one of her books, because of her age, you know. So for the time I read it until much later I did not really admit that I liked the book. But anyway, the day still unfolding itself, we came up to a brown field of dirt, with rows and rows of humps, and a cylinder metal gate, all filled with different colors and an amateur sign on the top saying: "Ron Paul 4 President." There was a lot of Ron Paul for President signs that we had seen in Texas and then would later see in different parts of the Southwest. I guess that makes sense, because he is from Texas and the Southwest. He must of done a lot of things for the benefit of the state of Texas. Also was a white sign on a post with a little sketch of the Cadillacs, goodly done, and it said that Graffiting was....LEGAL!

The wind swayed as it does on a boat, as Dad got out of the back of the car some spray colored cans Seymore, pronounced SEEMORE. They were in a brown bag. I hated all this wind, it felt like Jack Frost and his whole family at a reunion taking a picture, their backs to me. BRRRRR.... Dad had parked, our side facing the Ranch, as I'll call it from now on. Now we closed the door, as I turned on the video camera, and Dad locked the car. We walked through a swinging door that was hard to open, as the wind faced it. We went right through a small gate on two sides, like an outdoor corridor. I looked at the Cadillacs, all the rainbow colors on there, everywhere from red to blue to yellow to green to black to white to beige to brown to...okay hold on I'm out of breath. So many colors, all around. We walked more on through the big field, barely able to have our hats on, tucking them so tight we could barely see. Mom brought up the rear, because she had gotten some of the cameras. I was next in line. Dad and Rebecca were the first. I caught up with them, talking to the camera and showing the Cadillacs that slowly but surely took up all of our vision. The only bad part of this was... the freezing cold.

We came up to the ten Cadillacs, with all the doors gone and the wheels not looking natural, detached. There were signs, symbols, stripes, and all different colors. We went around and through them, and the ground was almost totally littered with spray cans, bags, trash, and different drink bottles and parts of McDonald's and the like. Sad. But they allow it, for some odd reason. The animals avoid the place anyway. But still. I got into one, which had no steering wheel, and looked up through the broken window, as it was half buried. Sure, the place wasn't as we had expected, (we thought there would be a lot more and a museum) but I thought it was worth the trip, to put our name there and it not be illegal, and everything. My ears turned red though, and even to this day I can still feel the stiffness and the numbness of my hands, as they tried to hold onto my video camera. Dad took out a white cylinder spray can from the brown bag, hitting the top onto one of the cars and making the top come out, with some powdered color to follow. Impressive.He said he would make the top of the roof of the car, which we were facing and was standing straight up, white, or some of it. He said to get really close and for everyone else to back up, as he pressed down hard, erasing the name of Jamie in purple. Sorry Jamie, but it's the way of life. This was to be Rebecca's car roof. She did R.B. 2012 in red, fairly big, and it was hard to do it.

On another car top Dad did the whole white thing and then did the same process of taking the top off with the blue spray can. I got up close to it, my fingers shaking, and pressed down, as the wind blew some of the powder and my family got away. The wet gas and liquid came down eventually. It was hard, as I said earlier. I wrote in blue: "BlueMan 2012" and found another one, doing a cross and having, as you know since it is perpendicular, A in the left corner, B in the right top, 20 in the bottom left, and 12 in the bottom right. Done with the making now, we took some more pictures, did some other things, and I videotaped, before we walked back, more kind of running though too, because of the coldness. But that only made it more cold, because of the wind hitting us as we did so. We got to the car, and there was a sedan behind us. As we got in and tried to warm up, I came to the realization that I probably wouldn't be able to move until like way later. We told the old couple coming out that we had left the spray cans, because we would never use it again, and sadly it was a waste, and that they could try 818 359 7590 to find them, in the brown bag. 


They said they were just there to look at it, because I think that they thought it was illegal and we didn't know that. But we did. And it was legal. We got in the jeep, which wasn't even street legal. Dad remarked, as we got into the car, "I'm glad we're gone; that place was as cold as a witch's titty." Sorry I had to mention it, but he said it.

We stopped at a truck stop diner, with a gift shop and gas station, and had pretty good hot breakfast that certainly filled our stomachs. We looked at the things a little, and then left, with some R.V. liquid. It had frozen and we needed to replace it. I had a good time at The Cadillac Ranch, putting my mark on history and seeing such a work of art. So what if my part on it will be no doubt painted over by another person's art? I had a fun time, minus the cold, and stuff.

Dad went into a repair shop, as I read a little of Smells Like Dog and then relaxed for a while on my seat. He got this green liquid in a white big gas bottle called Anti-Freeze that the other one broke, and so he wanted to put it in the engine. 


We came back to the R.V. park, and sadly went about our duties in the cold, the whole process. We left in a hurry, and saw some more little towns and oil wells, a lot of shrub and desert. We were finally in the Southwest, the newest part of the country, per say, away from the big cities and skyscrapers, in the good ole West. The next few blogs will be not much museums or history stuff, but more of the scenic and National Park kind of things. But the next blog would be more interesting, with some cool wildlife from this world and some things supposedly from another. Texas was a great state. There was the battleship and the war monument in San Jacinto, The Alamo and the Riverwalk, Austin and Dallas, and recently the Amarillo Cadillac Ranch. There is a whole lot of history, presidential libraries, and just cool little things. Very interesting, exciting and fun. I'll never forget Texas. I thought that this was the best place on our trip so far, in stuff to do and all the things we saw. Would the next states be better and more exciting? 


Read on, my friend.

In a small town we took a picture by a big sign with the Welcome to New Mexico logo, with some red beans, or jalapenos, or whatever they are called. New Mexico, along with California, Arizona, and parts of Utah and Colorado, were all under Mexico, but we bought them for a lot of money, securing the promise of Manifest Destiny. Not the best part of our history, really. We came into north New Mexico, by the "city" of Roswell. Not actually city-like. There were some brick buildings, of older style, and a lot of closed shops, all full of alien costumes, and some that said Zone 2, Aliens only welcome, and even a large International UFO Museum, that I will describe in full later. It was sad, how deprived the town was. We passed by a weird McDonald's, and then into the more residential and commercial area, some stores that we had seen earlier on the trip of the Southwest. 


I wish that Roswell, New Mexico had built the town around something else then aliens...well, I'll talk about that in the next blog.

There were aliens everywhere, well...fake ones. I texted many people, mentioning that I was in Roswell, New Mexico and things of the nature. In New Mexico, for some reason, I did a lot of texting and keeping in touch with people, however in Arizona my friends were more quieter in their responses. But anyway, I took pictures of the green little creatures with big heads, which probably aren't how they really look. Rebecca and Mom said that they didn't like being in this place, because aliens weren't real and all that was here were geeks. Dad and I, on the other hand, totally believed in aliens, that they had to be out there, because the universe was so big and that we couldn't be the only people out there, that the ancients were helped by aliens, and the crop circles and all. We would settle that debate later. For now, we got into the R.V. park, with a big nice rock sign, and came into the gravel place, with some good amount of R.V.'s. 


Going up to a flat roofed little building with blue wood and...weirdly, signs everywhere, a porch and walkway, and a pathway to the pools and all the other stuff, we saw this office. It was dark and locked inside, as we got a form from a box on the door, those things at the post office. We only saw something or somebody moving around, and all the signs saying that it was closed and to take the form and put the money in. Somebody in there was trying to go unnoticed, but it might of been a cat or something. Or an alien.

We had parked the R.V. at the entrance, on a long road, and were in the jeep. We parked at a site, and spent the evening as the sun came down between setting up, with Mom (we had to use a second cord to reach the outlet) helping us out and me texting my friends. A lot of friends. We heard a sound, like a bird but sounding alien...I can't really describe it. Would we see aliens? Well, that was only a question on the morrow. There was some trees, but the rule said no peeing dogs on the grass. What grass? We were in the desert. The T.V. didn't work too, and there were huge trashcans at the back of all the sites, not dumpsters but plastic trashcans. A large mountain, that had ripples, brown and gullies, overlooked us. It was a quiet evening of eating in, because there wasn't many good restaurants in the sad town. The next day would bring alienated birds, lakes that looked like aliens, National and State Parks, and shocking info that would turn the tides of History, ALIENS ALSO! Goodbye for now.

Can I park my UFO here?,

Andrew.

Drive to Amarillo, Texas

The sickly oaks in the Buffalo Springs National Park blew in the morning crispy air, as the Bourne family was utterly alone, with only two other residents in the whole park. They were alone, and the night had brought coldness, with Mom putting on the temperature and everyone holding tight to their blankets like they were our greatest treasures. The day marked as Wednesday, February 8th, as Dad informed us not to go to the restroom or take a shower until further notice. We went outside, with large coats and jeans on, and I was so crazed that it was this freezing even though only a while ago in San Antonio and different places in Texas it had been as hot as the sun...or mild, I guess. Dad told me that during the night the pipes from the city water had frozen in the night, and so we couldn't get water to our R.V, and there wasn't a place where we could actually feed the water in. Our only choice, would be to leave this Gosh-forsaken place and go to another R.V. park, where we would fill up on water. The only bad side to that would be this: we would have no water for peeing, pooping, or taking a shower. No shower wasn't too bad but no going to the restroom? Dad said we COULD go to the restroom, just no flushing. Okay, great. (sarcastic). We would have that odor in our R.V. for the rest of the drive. This would be an interesting day.

Mom and Rebecca blamed me, because if we weren't going to Amarillo we would have gone to the west of Texas, and into New Mexico, where it would probably be a lot hotter. I was pretty much the only reason we were going to go to Amarillo, to see Cadillac Ranch that a lifeguard in Virgina at Camp Beth Page Campground had said he visited with his Mom, that it was really cool. I wanted to see this Wacky West Wonder, but I hoped it wouldn't be as bad as a Witch, or maybe there's a War going on. Too much? Yeah, I thought so. I'm funning out of funny material....

But before going to Amarillo to see the Cadillacs, there was something needing to pay attention to. Mom and Dad rode off in the jeep when Rebecca and I were still asleep, and they went to get the sunrise on the top of the Buffalo Lake thing. They remembered that there was a National Park called Palo Duro Canyon, informally known as the "Texas Grand Canyon" that was in the area. So, we got in the jeep, got on great clothing that made us really warm inside, and went out. I was very glad now that we were in what I had been waiting for at our entire trip at Texas, cowboy country, shrub, open plains, oil, desert. We had gotten industrial and boats and barges at San Jacinto, Skyscrapers and buildings in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, and now we were here! I was so glad. Also, I had started reading a book that Rebecca was still reading at the same time, called Smells Like Dog. Rebecca had been reading it since June and really liked the book, saying it was about an adventurer who finds a dog left behind by his late uncle, and that she wanted me to read it. I did, and the weird thing was I was reading it while she was finishing it, if that makes sense. But I read a little bit of it, as we came up to the canyon.

We went through a gatehouse, where the people told us that there were hunters hunting deer here, as we talked to the man. He told us to try to be careful. I was a little scared when I heard him say that. There were deer to the right of us on a patch of grass. We went around and parked at the back of another small grey brick building, and we went in.(it was the restroom.) We were in a small threshold, and went our separate ways. I was the last out, and read a sign that said that the building was made by the CCC as a storm shelter. I then left and we got in the car, going down into the canyon. It was beautiful. All of the red hard rock, with the brown mixture, and the shrub lowering over a blue sky. I loved all the different colors, and we came down after a long time of driving around, and saw some more deer. There was a house with barbed wire fence saying to not come this way and not going down the private entrance to the National Park building. When we got down to that, we parked at the tiny parking lot and went in, seeing it locked. It was beneath a dirt staircase, the entrance from the owners of the other place. It wasn't nice for them to not allow us to go down that way...mean people. Oh well. But we took some pictures. Then... I saw it.

Two women, Latino short ladies, who were talking about stuff in a different language. I guessed they worked there. I later took their picture in front of the stone wall that overlooked a great spot in the canyon. Rebecca and I later took pictures there too. It was a splendid view, really. All of the shrub and dirts down there, reflecting off of the rock. I loved it. It was really cool. We left back to the R.V. park, leaving in like an hour and a half, without any water besides like 25%. We put our stuff inside, the electric and sewer, and drove a while to Amarillo, Texas. I blogged about a real country rodeo in Mississippi, amazingly behind. It was bad. And still is. But the only bad part about the drive was holding in an urge to pee, drinking water and not being able to go to the restroom, and not washing my hands after touching the trashcan or picking something off the ground. That doesn't seem too bad, until, you break it down and see what you are doing and all the germs your spreading. Especially when your a clean freak like me, and always washes their hands, in shock about this sudden barrier made of the world of water and soap. But then we came to Oasis R.V. Park, around the pretty okay town of Amarillo. The start of Cadillac Ranch had begun.

There was a fairly big sized office that we went in, with a counter to the right and to the front, and a store with some things, to the left. Kind of congested. In the front left was a shelf of books I spotted, and among them were some science textbooks, from a college, which is kind of weird. They gave us the site for the thing, and everything like that, as we came on the asphalt outside. They had also mentioned a few restaurants in the area we could do. There was a black cat on the porch to the place, that I looked at. Did this mean our time at Cadillac Ranch wasn't going to be good? Was something bad going to happen? The wind blew harshly, and I think it was the coldest place on the second half of our trip so far...at that time. Man, I hoped it would not be as windy and crispy as it was today when we were looking at the Cadillacs. Then, I saw it. It was a beige small R.V. sticking out of the ground, right in front of me, that I hadn't seen earlier for some reason that Dad was talking about that the people who made the R.V. park did that! Wow, it was crazy, all the concrete around it and just saying Oasis R.V. Park. But, this was only the tip of the iceberg, the cream of the crop, the lace to the shoe, whatever. Tomorrow or today we would see the Cadillacs!

We parked the R.V., and I needed to go to the restroom: #2, so I walked over, in all the wind blowing me this way and that and the sand puffing up in my eyes, my vision blinded for the moment, seeing virtually nothing, or if I could having it blinded out by gravel and dust. I put the hoodie on and felt my way in this storm of a lifetime. Later I would be in an even worse one, in a lot of blogs from now. I went into a silent public restroom, all white and damp, and then came back out, and helped them set up in this cold. BURRR. Mom said that she saw the Cadillacs and that they were only like ten of them, jokingly stating that it probably wouldn't be worth it. Would it be worth it?

All we did that night was look around the little town of Amarillo, that had some chain restaurants and some farms, stuff like that. Passing by a dirt field, we saw a metal cylinder fence and a sign saying it was LEGAL to Graffiti the place. Then I saw all the painted cars up, sticking out of the ground, my first look at the famous Cadillac Ranch. We passed by and parked at a log house looking place, with a cow in front, a steakhouse or something of the sort. Really good food there, and a good waiter, blonde and skinny and nice though. His name was JP, which stood for something I don't remember.John Parker? Joe Patrick? Oh well, something you readers don't NEED to know to succeed in life. But anyway, it was a good meal, with the steak and the ribeyes we had, and then after that we went home and spent time indoors, afraid of the wind. We actually took showers, and I guess that wasn't a stupid idea, but we would have to do it again in the morning. Oh well. Well, there was no cable so we didn't know of the storm approaching us on the 'morrow. And wouldn't that be something. The next day would bring everything from painted cars, red eared children, gangsters who paint Cadillacs, good breakfasts, R.V. repairs, and ALIENS!!!! THIS IS A BLOG POST YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS!

Goodbye for now.

Does good luck happen if you see a white cat?,

Andrew.

Drive to Buffalo Springs Lake R.V. Park

Dogs are funny, how they roll around like that. It's almost 6 in the morning, and my dogs are doing just that. Having nothing better to say, uh, it's International Women's day, so... I guess we're glad women are here? I'm sorry, I'm twelve and I just don't understand the whole feminism thing. Okay, this is awkward. To the blog, I suppose!

It was on a cold day on February 7th, and we were going to leave Dallas! (it doesn't sound like an Arabic storyteller, does it?) and it was my cousin's Sophie's birthday. We would call her later on. So, anyway, in Virgina... okay I'm losing my marbles...it's 6 in the morning. I'm tired.

What do you think the Fiddler on the Roof is about?

Okay, okay, I got to focus on the blog now. Did you know that a rooster and dog and cat were the first animals up in a hot air balloon?

BACK TO THE BLOG!

Okay, anyway, in Virgina, at a campground called Camp Beth Page that was one of the first we saw, a lifeguard named Clark told us about all the cool places he had gone with his Mom in the west, and he told us many things, but one of them stayed in my mind the longest. It was that Clark had said that in Northern Texas, there were Cadillacs standing out of the ground. I wanted to see that so much, and I asked Mom and Dad, with the dream in mind, if we could drive there and see it. Googling it we found out that it was a town called Amarillo- don't you love armadillo's?- and that it was in the very North part of Texas. Clark had said there were a host of other weird things in Northern Texas, so we would try to see those too. I was glad we were going though, none the less. On the way there, we would stop at Buffalo Springs Lake R.V. Park, in Lubbock, Texas. Hey, guess what? I haven't realized this until now...my friend Lauren, do you remember her from a few blogs back? Well her parent's home town is in Lubbock, she told me in a text and pictures. I didn't even know that until now. Huh. I wish I had told her when we were there. Well, I guess you live and learn, as the phrase goes. Live and learn, learn and live, and live learn, and learn live. live learn and. It's 6 in the morning.

But, wait! We could not pull out and drive, because for the last few days and even now, the shower wasn't working! Nope, thankfully it wasn't that hot water heater thing. So many professionals had said they'd fix it and then it broke again, but the Cajun Rednecks in Scott, LA, surprisingly were the ones that fixed it. Anyway, on February 7th we had trouble with actually turning the valve, you know, it wouldn't push and produce water. So, we called up one of those usuallylatesmellsbadsarcastic mechanics that we always get (maybe all mechanics are like that) and spent the morning unwashed. I, on the other hand (why do people say that, is it really on the other hand?) wanted to take a shower before the mechanic got her, and was all stuffed up in my head with snot (sorry for the gross words) so I got all my materials together and walked on the gravel with flip-flops and went to the shower and restroom building, a small one on a small hill a little away from us. You know, I have used the R.V. park's shower a few times, but weirdly no times on the first part of the trip. Also, we've had so many problems in this half of the trip then we had in the entire first half. Bike stolen, hot water heater, camera broke, coat forgotten, Mom sick, the list could go on and on. And now a still-born valve!

I got on the left side and looked through doors to a reception hall, or rec as they call them these days. Passing a green door that went to a laundry room, I entered the thing by that green wooden thing in front and went in. Not very large, with two showers on one end and a toilet, with no stall doors or anything. Gross. I tried to lock the door, and put my stuff on the sink which was on the right past the toilets. The first shower read OUT OF ORDER so I didn't go in it. When they say out of order do they mean that it's supposed to be first but is really last? Sorry, it's 6 in the morning. It won't be when Mom edits and publishes it, but it is now. I couldn't get any water except a stiff cold spray, like something a superhero with water powers would shoot out, so I left. Dad actually came back with me and got it hot, and then I did a fine hot water, with nothing important to tell you. Upon my return, to my amazement, the mechanic wasn't here yet. I changed out of my white t shirt and shorts, and got sensible clothing, as we waited some more. Dad actually left to do something, I don't really remember what it was. It's 6 in the morning right now, just if you didn't know. Then the dirty truck arrived in the place the Jeep should be. This would be interesting.

The dude was skinny, with a black little beard, and those dirty hands and mud in the fingernails that resembles a London Chimney Sweep, or a hobo in New York. He smelled like a skunk thrown into a pool of rotten eggs and then taken to the planet of bad smelling people and living there for years and years and years, and being swallowed and then barfed up by a monster, and then coming here. Yeah, and he smelled of smoke. It took a long time for that toxic waste of a smell to go away. While he worked in the back and got tools, coming back and forth, we left the door open, hoping against hope the odor would decrease, and most of our efforts were in vain. I blogged a little and read A Tramp Abroad, and I have to say that it was funny at parts but also boring, about rafting down the Nectar in the Rhine Valley and such. Finally, it worked and Dad paid the man, scared of touching his hands. Then, everyone got ready, and we went through the whole process which if you have already read some of my blogs then you know what I mean. Electric cord in, running, spitting from the gas of the generator, running to tell them to turn off the water pum...I can't go on. It's 6 in the morning.

We drove a long time, 4 to 5 hours. The scenery was more than our expectations. It was actually the thing I had been waiting for the whole time we had been in Texas: cowboy country. We saw oil wells, and I was up with Dad most of the time, and he told me a few funny stories and we chatted about some things. There were dirt piles by the dozens, and flat hills and valleys, like the places the cowboys walked on in my Deadwood Jones book. There was that known shrub plant, the green small bush rooted to the ground. The grand wild old west of Texas! Oh, it was so great. In Lubbock now, we entered off the highway and into less populated regions, still with the deserty background. I called Maddie Jordan to tell Sophie happy b-day. No answer. Voice Message. Same thing for Aunt Tammy, that Rebecca called and Uncle Jeff that I called. I don't think they've called us since, really. Weird. But the wind was rolling in a tempest out there in the desert, and we were pushed right and left from the incoming breeze power. I couldn't believe all of those particles swishing us right and left. It was like a whale hitting us; yeah that's how strong it was. We went through a gatehouse where some people told us that the place was the Buffalo Springs Lake. Dad didn't know exactly where we were and what site we were going to get, and there was no sign of any R.V. sites or even R.V.'s, just a big beautiful lake canyon, with trees and a lake at the bottom. He stopped the R.V., and we then stayed inside, and Dad went in the jeep to investigate.

He came back, and said that we were in A or B of the park. We went down into the park, through a twisty road and we looked around at dirt sites, all vacant. It was like a ghost town, nobody there except us and maybe a few others. On the trip before then we've seen some pretty desolate places, the tumbleweeds always present. I guess they like places where other people aren't. But anyway, we went down with some trees on our sides, and I was in the front seat, Mom in the jeep and Dad in the front seat, with Rebecca playing with her barbies. It was hard to get down there, the R.V. moving this and that. We parked by an abandoned area for restrooms, up on a small hill. We were by a pretty big lake, the evening sun coming down and putting her red and orange colors glistening off the blue water, and the mixture of red and blue, like Superman or a Smurf with blood on his hands, with an orange police vest that the housewives see in traffic when dropping off their children. Can you have a guilty Smurf who's also a police man? That's crazy. But anyway, Mom and Dad set up the R.V., and I came out, in the screaming cold. It was like being hit with an ice cube rainstorm or something. Only cold because of the wind. I put on some jackets, and went out. So cold. I ran around, for exercise.

We had no satellite or cable, so we read and talked a little, having a hot spaghetti and a warm night. Because of the place being kind of sketchy, Dad stayed up in the front with the bed in, and I went to sleep soundly. The next day would bring the Grand Canyon of Texas, R.V.'s sticking out of the ground, dirty hands on the Bourne family, and frozen pipes both in the R.V. and ourselves, because of the cold. Please read it. You'll be glad you did. Goodbye for now.

International Women's Day...Why don't they have a day for us manly men?,

Andrew.

Just a few days earlier it was 80*!

I bet this place is hopping in the summertime

We were ALONE!