Southwestern Stuff

Day 20
Aaaaah, Arizona! I first fell in love with this state on my road trip last year, and this time we were fortunate enough to be able to travel through the Southern part of the state. We took a detour back to Oatman, a stop we missed on our first Rt. 66 journey last year (and a place we have since regretted not visiting). Let me say that Oatman is worth the trip. Wild burros roam the Main Street, waiting for you to give them a carrot or two. We prepared for this in advance and bought a huge 6-pound bag of carrots back in Nevada (for about $2). In Oatman, they sell INDIVIDUAL carrots for $1 a piece. See what I'm getting at here? Get your carrots elsewhere! The wild burros are very, very fat and very, very friendly. They'll follow you all around town if they see you still have food. Oatman is a special place and is a must-see for anyone travelling in the area.

The Mother Road is in bad shape here, but the scenery is great. Rt. 66 from Oatman winds through the foothills. This is probably one of the most scenic places on the old road. Here's a makeshift sign we saw on the side of the road near Oatman:

We got back on the Interstate (after our long detour) and drove through beautiful desolate landscapes, dotted only by the occasional cactus. Once we got closer to Phoenix, there were cacti everywhere, at every turn. I was in awe. In addition to these cool desert plants, we found that the highway was also home to zillions of billboards advertising "Retire in Sun City," with pertinent ads for hospitals, Dairy Queens and bingo parlors. It was truly a retirement haven.

All of the stories you've heard about Phoenix are true--it is H-O-T there! Whew! I'd hate to see my air conditioning bill if I lived there! The city looked nice enough, but we didn't stop to look around. This was mostly a day of driving and driving and driving. We spent the night outside of Tucson (we stopped early so we could wash clothes and go swimming) and prepared for our next fun-filled day of excitement.......


Day 21
We started out very early today, since we wanted to make it to New Mexico so we could see White Sands before our Golden Eagle passport expired. We zoomed through Tucson and took a little side trip to Oracle, the home of the famed failure Biosphere II. Biosphere II is in the middle of nowhere! We followed small signs until we reached the gate.

I don't know how to say this nicely, so I won't mince words. The people at Biosphere II are real jerks. They have purposely dug up hills and planted trees and built tall, nasty gates so you can't even get a PEEK at the center unless you pay the $16 admission fee. All we wanted to do was LOOK at it--we didn't want a tour (where I'm told that you don't even get close to the facility), but there was such a big fort built around it that you couldn't see anything. Everyone there was extremely nasty, arrogant and rude. I do not suggest a trip here at all, at least on principle. How tacky! I'm sorry the project didn't work out, but I refuse to pay for its failure.

Bummed, we left Oracle and drove to Tombstone, "The Town too Tough to Die". Tombstone is a special town. We walked Main Street and saw cowboys, bank robbers, and "fast" women. Everyone here is in costume, so if your kids (or girlfriends) like cowboys, they'll love this place! Small stores line the main streets and vintage "WANTED" posters hang in the windows. Tombstone's claim to fame is the O.K. Corral, which is, like most historical sites, much smaller than you'd think. Once you pay your $2 to get inside, you are treated to a "recreation" of the famous shootout, complete with cheezy wax dummies in cowboy garb. If you're interested in a "real" gunfight, hang around until high noon and you're bound to find several re-enactments.


We headed on, driving as fast as we could to reach the desert town of Cochise, and home of "The Thing?" The Thing? is a roadside bargain and marvel. The Thing? is a run down gas station/souvenir shop with a huge yellow sign on the roof. The parking lot was full, but we were the only ones interested in seeing "the museum." You just pay your 75 cents at the counter (the one where all the stuffed rattlesnakes and rattlesnake belt buckles and keychains are) and "follow the footprints" through a revolving door and outside into three sheds.

The first shed is filled with all sort of miscellany, from old cars and wagons to a Rolls Royce that a sign claims was used by Adolf Hitler (the sign also admits that this, of course, can't be proved). There's also a disturbing sculpture of people being tortured. Eeeew. We both just looked at each other and laughed. What a bizarre display of crap!

The second shed has even more crap, from some ridiculous looking prints (labeled "French 1800", though the sign should read "K-Mart, 1976") and an even more disturbing diorama of a tarantula eating a small bird. There are also typewriters and guns and all sorts of "good stuff," all displayed behind glass and cushioned with gold shag carpeting.

The third shed, though, is what you paid to see. The Thing? What exactly is it? Well, nobody really knows. It looks like a......oh, I can't tell you and spoil the surprise! But I will say this: it is definitely worth the 75 cents admission.

After The Thing?, the rest of the exhibit sucks. There's a bed, some cool animals made out of knotty wood, and yet another torture display (I think these folks have been out in the desert too long). We followed the footprints back into the gift shop.

We headed through the Pyramid Mountains and into New Mexico. If you've taken my first road trip, you probably know that I'm not a big fan of New Mexico. I didn't like it much when we drove through last year, and I still wasn't too keen on it this time around. We drove. And drove. And drove. We buzzed through Las Cruces and had an important decision to make: Did we want to go down to El Paso or see the Alamo in San Antonio and head into Mexico? Or did we want to explore the UFO city of Roswell and see White Sands? It was a hard decision, but we finally decided that Roswell was the route to take.

On the road to White Sands, there were tons of "Missile Range" signs along the road. I was impressed. The landscape was very barren, so it wasn't surprising that the government has bases around there. One part of the road is actually closed during the day due to missle testing. I would NOT want to live around here! I mean, power lines are one thing....but BOMBS and MISSILES? NO thanks! Notice how the sign "glows" in this photo that I took near the range:


It was starting to get dark, but we made it to White Sands barely an hour before closing. The sunset made for gorgeous scenery. As a result, the photos I took were very interesting. The light bouncing off the dunes made the sand look even more white than ever. And the sky turned out like a volcano--very deep reds and oranges. White Sands is probably my favorite National Park. You are free to run and play in the huge white sand dunes and, surprisingly, there's an abundance of interesting wildlife. I'd make White Sands a must-see stop on a road trip.

We spent an hour at White Sands and decided to try to make it to Roswell for the night. That turned out to be a mistake, because it was a lot further than we thought. Plus, there was a scary hail storm during the drive. Since only small roads go to Roswell, try to drive them in the day if possible. Of course, it didn't help that we were already freaked out about aliens. The storm just made it worse!

Along the way, we passed through Alamogordo, home of the Trinity Site (where the first atomic bomb was exploded). We were interested in touring the site but learned that the public is only allowed to visit it once a year, in October.

Further on down the road something caught my eye: a life-sized running horse sculpture near Ruidoso Downs. The sculpture is one of those great roadside "attractions" where you just have to stop and look. It's part of the Museum of the Horse, which was closed at that time of night, but I'd still recommend a nighttime visit to see the unique lighting at night. The lighting made the sculpture look sort of surreal. Very cool!

After an endless drive, we finally made it to Roswell. We had a really hard time finding a place to stay that wasn't outrageously priced. We settled on a motel whose sign read "crash here." Roswell isn't a very nice place, in my opinion. It's kinda dirty and the people there are icky. It's worth a visit, but only for the UFO museums.

Day 22
We got up early to start our day in Roswell, New Mexico. It was a Sunday, so we were afraid that the world-renowed International UFO Museum would be closed. Thankfully, it was open for business at 9 a.m. As a kid, I grew up fascinated with UFOs. My dad's dad swore that he had seen one when he was a pilot for the Air Force, so I would always read book and watch t.v. documentaries on the subject. To be honest, I expected the UFO Museum to be overrun with a bunch of weirdos, but it was the total opposite--its main visitors were just normal looking people, and a lot of fathers with preteen sons in tow.


The International UFO Museum and Research Center is located right in the middle of Main Street in Roswell. It boasts the "largest collection of UFO related gifts." And hey, after visiting their gift shop, I think they're probably right. The museum itself is located in an old movie theater with a flying saucer "crashing" into the roof. Inside, it resembles a school gymnasium with lots of bad student artwork hanging around. Of course, the artwork has only one subject: aliens!

The museum is free for visitors, but we gave them a $5 donation. They also request that you sign a register at the entrance desk so the museum to document the number of visitors (in order to get financial aid from various sources--to keep the place open)! And dont' forget to ask for a colored pushpin so you can mark your hometown on the huge USA map!

The museum is divided into several different exhibit areas, from "Crop Circles: Phenomenon or Hoax?" to "The Mystery of Cattle Mutilations." Believe it or not, the information presented in pretty much even-handed. I expected it to be very one-sided, but that's not the case. No sooner than when I was convinced that the Roswell incident was a government coverup, I found myself questioning the entire event. Did a UFO really crash? Naaah. Or wait a minute...maybe it DID! This self-questioning aspect is where the museum succeeds.

There are lots of "replicas" of the downed "weather balloon," tons of photographs, newspaper articles and more. There's even one of the prop aliens used in the Kyle McLachlan made-for-cable movie "Roswell" and a special area devoted to cracking the case of "Project Bluebook." My favorite exhibit was the alien abuduction section, where people from all over the world share their personal abduction experiences. If you've been taken captive by aliens, go ahead and add your stuff to the wall. It's really quite interesting.

You should allow about 2 hours to fully enjoy the museum. It's small, but they also show two UFO documentaries continuously, and you should try to catch them while you're there. (If you're in a hurry, though, surprise! They are available for purchase in the gift shop)!

We left Roswell with a couple of UFO postcards and a book about the Roswell crash (one book out of a 100-plus selection!) and headed on down the road to Carlsbad.

We were interested in visiting Carlsbad Caverns, but we decided to skip it on this trip (mainly because we were short on $$ and it's quite pricey just to get in the cave). But we wanted to at least look at the outside. The scenery around this area of New Mexico was disappointing: very much like the barren plains of Texas. One aspect of the road made the drive a little easier--White City's advertising billboards! I mean, there were probably 50 signs telling motorists to stop in their town. Of course, knowing us, we could NOT resist and pulled over at the Trading Post.

The Trading Post looks just like any other Native American roadside stand: a gravel parking lot, a couple of rotting cactus out front, a terrible paint job, bars on the windows, and a fake teepee and/or stagecoach out front. We strolled inside to check the place out, and were we GLAD that we did! This particular roadside stand had an entire back room filled with......SNAKES! Lots and lots and lots of 'em! We went through a makeshift curtain (what looked like an old bed sheet) and into a square room with snakes on all four walls. There were about 6 or 7 glass "cages" full of all sorts of desert snakes (and one particularly friendly iguana). In the middle of the room was a "Rattlesnake Pit," a big hole in the floor with about 30 rattlesnakes inside. There's a rusting "wishing well" at the bottom of the pit, but it was badly rusting and the snakes were covering it. Matt dropped in a penny and nothing happened. He accidentally hit one of the snakes on the head, but it just sat there. I gave it a try, and I hit one too. It didn't budge! The poor snakes looked far from happy, and it was kinda sad. The other rattlesnakes were quite active. We'd stand very still and they would stop rattling, but with just a slight move of a hand, they would begin rattling off a warning. Scary! You should stop here if you're near Carlsbad, just so you can interact with live desert rattlesnakes!

We left Carlsbad and drove South to Pecos, Texas. I have to admit that this road was boring! No trees, no houses, no passing cars.....nothing! The plains were starting to get boring, so we sang some tunes and hung our arms out the window to pass the time. There wasn't much to see, even in Pecos. The town is known for its yummy cataloupes, but we were passin' through at the wrong season. We did have time to stop and take a look at a replica of Judge Roy Bean's saloon and office, which wasn't that cool, but it is the best that Pecos had to offer. We hit I-20 and took it across Texas. Once again, there were no trees in Texas! Last year we drove through North Texas (on old Route 66), and I couldn't believe how barren the state was. Well, it's the same way in central Texas! After a tiring drive of seeing nothing, we made it to Sweetwater, Texas and stopped for the night.

Day 23
Sweetwater was a small town, but we wanted to look around anyway. Sweetwater's claim to fame is the Women Airforce Service Pilots marker, a small monument honoring the women who trained at Avenger Field during World War II. We left the town early and headed out to Dallas, Texas.

Dallas is a totally boring city! I don't think I'd ever want to go back there. It' s not that nice, and there's NOTHING TO DO! The only thing I really remember about it is that the city is flooded with religious billboards, telling everyone to drop to their knees and "pray every day" and stuff like that. Preachy, preachy preachy! We got outta Dallas FAST and cruised to Eastland.

Eastland is well-known (or at least it should be) as the home of Old Rip, the horned toad. Maybe you've seen the Bugs Bunny cartoon with Michigan J. Frog, which is loosely based on Old Rip's amazing story. Let me refresh your memory: In 1897, when the Eastland Courthouse was under construction, a small horned frog was sealed in a cornerstone that was also a time capsule. In 1928, the cornerstone time capsule was opened and Old Rip was found--alive! He died a year later, but concerned citizens had him embalmed and he is now resting in a glass-enclosed tiny casket and is on view at the county courthouse. (I'm not making this up). You can pay your respects to Old Rip 24 hours a day. There is also a tasteful little display next to his body (which has been very well preserved), including some photographs and a handmade horny toad pillow. If you only make one roadside stop, make it Eastland, Texas! We wholeheartedly recommend it.

We trucked on down the highway until we hit Louisiana. I really loved the road signs in the state--all the names were French, which was cool. And the native Cypress trees helped lend a little "Old South" flair. We had originally planned to spend a few days in New Orleans, but a huge convention was going on and every single hotel in town was full. It was terrible! As a result, we could only spend one day in New Orleans. We drove through the historic mansions in Natchitoches and stopped in Alexandria for the night.

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