After a challenging week dealing with the aftermath of our heater breaking, we decided to add in a fun stop during our short road trip to Alamogordo/White Sands. John is a die hard sci-fi fan and over the years he has convinced me to read and watch supernatural content. Fortunately, we all have our feet firmly on the ground and just enjoy the fantastical.
We prepared for our stop by listening to theme songs from some of the best alien themed shows, including X-files, Twilight zone and Roswell. A very kind RV park host allowed us to leave our trailer on their property while we explored the town. The air was thick with the overpowering smell of cow dung and we noticed several cattle farms several minutes outside the heart of the city.
I’m not sure if it was the excitement from inside our car or alien artifacts delivering undetectable messages, but I felt a strange and happy vibration driving into town.
The entire town has been overtaken by tiny green men. There are literally statues of green aliens EVERYWHERE. I think the thing I appreciated the most about Roswell is how the locals embrace their heritage. Most businesses celebrate aliens. There were hotels with photo ops, a bbq joint with a flying saucer on its roof, and even an alien face in a fence. Riley took advantage of a photo op with an alien in Ace Hardware (where we were picking up space heaters while we wait for our new furnace), McDonald’s had little silver aliens and a spaceship out front, and Dominoes had a huge alien outside their door. Our favorite chain display was the giant alien holding up the Dunkin’ Donuts sign. America runs on … weird.
As you walk down the street, you will find alien footprints on the sidewalk and alien faces staring down at you from the lampposts. The storefront of the local barbershop shows aliens and humans working side by side to provide hair care to both races. Aliens are really rather accepting of all creatures. There was even an alien hanging out in a bed in the display window of a furniture store!
While we missed the annual extraterrestrial convention, we did visit one of the museums in town. Inside, we were greeted by a huge spaceship replica from a movie, countless stories about the government coverup and even Egyptian replicas of early art indicating alien presence. There was an exhibit dedicated to detection of signals from telescopes and other worldly signals. At the end, there was a fun simulation of the alien crash. The museum theorized that aliens were headed towards White Sands to check out their nuclear testing site. The floor shook as the spacecraft crashed. In the gift shop, we found a shirt with an alien saying, “maybe we don’t believe in you.”
The whole town was welcoming and pet friendly. Ginny was allowed in almost all of the shops with us and enjoyed sitting with us in the Interstellar Cafe, a themed coffee shop where we enjoyed our lunch.
One of our favorite stops was the candy store full of novelties. Riley chose Yeti Poo (cotton candy) while Kaeli enjoyed a delicious scorpion lollipop. We all shared a prickly pear soda and found it delicious.
Alien encounter stories seem to center around probing and livestock. Kind of a weird combination if you ask me. We sampled some Abduction beef jerky. The bags of jerky have a cute little picture of aliens abducting a cow. The thriving beef jerky business, clearly secretly operated by aliens, explains the obsession with cow abductions. While the company offers several unique flavors, we really found the Cowboy Flavor to be scrumptious. We wondered if the aliens felt the same way. 😉
As we drove back to pick up our camper, the Roswell Aroma permeated our nostrils and made us wonder if the smell was related to alien cow probing.