Go West Young Man 8 - (UFO's, Aliens and Toasted Buns)

     We are in the great city of Roswell NM. The day started out with a bike ride at Spring River Bike and Hike trail. Here are some links to points of interest; http://www.roswellmysteries.com/index.aspx?pk=2, http://www.cleananpress.com/roswell/spring.htm  . This was a great way to begin the day. After the ride we went to the post office to mail some cards and see what else was in store. Then it was time to visit the "Area 51" / "Alien" museum.

THIS IS THE UFO and ALIEN PART

Not being a great fan of Science Fiction I kind of dreaded this museum visit but actually found it interesting. There were recordings of the original radio broadcasts on local radio, the front pages of the local newspapers, and all sorts of things to look at, to read and to listen to. The most interesting was the UFO identification chart. All things were determined by the US Government to be weather balloons.
Below are some links that may be of interest and a few of  the photos we took at that museum as well as a street scene or two. here are links to crash site information; http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11159, http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11160

A model of the impact of the UFO into what is now known as Area 51

 Here are a couple of links to the historical data on this incident;
First from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
Then the Roswell UFO Museum http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/
An alien autopsy, sounds spooky or should one say spacy? http://theshadowlands.net/alien.htm

Poor alien, being prodded and probed.

Perhaps we should include what is claimed to be the comments of someone once important;
http://www.crystalinks.com/roswell.html

What we have here is a fantastic specimen -
the question is whether the "spook" or G-man on the left or the doctor on the right is the proper specimen.

Where would we be without including a link to the FBI's vault of old cases; http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fbi-vault-reveals-ufo-roswell-files/story?id=13347754

As you can see they are really small fellows and appear rather friendly.

The flying skills of the aliens obviously leave much to be desired.
Here is a UFO that crashed into front of the museum.
According to the US Air Force it is actually an "untethered weather balloon".

A FEW OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

    Roswell's claim to fame is not limited to the Alien crash and all the "hoopla" associated with this. Roswell was at one time an important city on the Chisum Trail. The link here has a nice piece of audio attached so when you hit it, pause the player on this blog; http://deestory.homestead.com/chisum.html

and here is another good link to some of the history of the Old West http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/People/JohnChisum-CattleKingofth.html.

     We did of course take a picture of John Chisum's statue located in Roswell

This is obviously a true Texas Longhorn, although not made out of hide.

     The next photo is almost a study in contrast, as it is a photo of the mighty Pecos River as it flows just East of Roswell.

It is hard to believe this muddy stream is actually the mighty Pecos.

For contrast see photo below.

This is what everyone expects the Pecos River to look like.

THIS IS THE TOASTED BUNS PART



    On our bicycles we have some rather comfortable seats with gel pads for cushioning of the lower regions. As this is being written, 6 years after the trip in question, these gel pads have seen better days, and on one of the bike seats they are completely gone. This is what the remaining seat pads look like today and as can be seen the pads are missing on the adjacent seat;

     One of the attractions of the Roswell area is a New Mexico State Park named "Bottomless Lakes", the name apparently being coined by the cowboys of bygone years. Folklore has it that the cowboys would drop ropes down into the lakes trying to see how deep they were, but it appears that the ropes never reached bottom. What the good old cow pokes did not realise was that the lakes are in fact the visible portion of an underground river with a fairly strong current and the ropes were being carried horizontally by the current not too far below the surface.

     Norma and I went to visit these lakes and parked the car in the designated parking area as we were going to bike the trail around the lakes - good idea, good exercise, good for the heart, fresh air and so on.

     As our bikes were being carried in a rack on the back of the car the seats were of course exposed to the New Mexico sun which can be brutal. We got the bikes off, dusted them off and after making sure we had sufficient water, mounted the bikes for a good ride - SIZZLE - SIZZLE - OUCH - YIKES - OH (@%A$&*)STUFF . Much to our very unpleasant surprise, the gel pads acted as sponges for the heat of the sun.

The remedy was to cool the seats of with a bit of water, refill the water containers and then do our biking. Here are a few photos from the area;

      Here are some links to Bottomless Lakes State Park; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottomless_Lakes_State_Park, http://newmexico.org/explore/state_parks/bottomless.php,

http://www.stateparks.com/bottomless_lakes.html and those that are so inclined can get a lot more information just by "googling" Bottomless Lakes New Mexico.

      Thus ended a fine day, looking forward for a cool place to sit.