Surprising Roswell!

Aliens on the wall, standing and sitting!

Mexican Aliens!

And even Dunkin' aliens - where's Ben and Matt?

 OK there were aliens! Everywhere! But there was a whole lot more. There were two excellent museums besides the expected International UFO Museum and Research Center. I should put "Research Center" in a questionable category. And an interesting State park nearby, the Bottomless Lakes State Park. I was also impressed by the civic beautification efforts - lots of parks, benches, and sports venues. There is also the very handsome campus of the New Mexico Military Institute, a high school and junior college private school. 

At the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, many of the works are enormous - the studios must be very generously sized. I loved this work in the entrance. Fun life in the Southwest - a coyote is making off with their cat in the bottom corner. 

I loved this painting - great, probably
not, but I'd love to hang it in my 
home!

Two works by Donald Anderson - they reminded
me of my entry doors to Siena in the dining room.

There were many whimsical sculptures and works!

We visited the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art our first afternoon. The reviews were so positive and they were all right. What a collection and a very beautiful facility. The museum was founded in 1994 as an offshoot of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program. The RAIR Foundation was initiated by Donald Anderson in 1967 and has brought artists to live and work in Roswell for one year, all subsidized. Up to five artists are chosen every year and over 300 have been part of the program. When they leave, at least one of their works is donated to the museum. Donald Anderson was the founder and President of the Anderson Oil Company and was an artist himself. 

This "space leisure" suit was worn by
Harrison Schmitt on the Apollo 17
mission.  This was in the Roswell
Museum as are the others in this
section.

Now we're at the Roswell Museum. Goddard's workshop
 has been moved here lock, stock and barrel.
There are also many of his rockets from all time periods.

One of the many cases with Native American and
 Southwest settler items.

I loved the juxtaposition of these two very 
different paintings of a group of men around a
campfire!

This illustrates the breadth of the art of display.

The second excellent museum, the Roswell Museum and Goddard Planetarium is a combination of several elements: a Planetarium, Western Memorabilia, an Art Collection and the workshop and rockets of Robert H. Goddard, one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry. He moved to Roswell in 1930 as a perfect place for his experiments and also his health, as he suffered from tuberculosis. I found his life and work fascinating and highly recommend reading the Wikipedia article about him. Scott was of course much more familiar with him! We saw the show at Planetarium and although the visuals and music were fun, they have lost the narration. A script and narrator is credited but the staff we talked to denied it's existence or at least, their having it. It makes for a confusing film. But the rest of the museum was excellent and very large - two visits would be necessary!

We of course went to the International UFO Museum and it's a theme park (for me at least - does anyone take this seriously???) The Roswell incident is a collection of events and myths surrounding the 1947 crash of a Air Force balloon. These "facts" are extensively mined through interviews with most of the residents of Roswell. I was rather horrified to hear parents discussing this stuff with their kids as if it was history! 

Ever wonder what the aliens look like - well you probably have already seen a few images!

There was actually a small section of
real information about the space 
program including this real space suit!

My favorite section was the film and TV features.

Love that surgeon is suit and mask about to 
operate - in what world???

Our last afternoon we drove out to the Bottomless Lakes State Park and explored. This was the first State Park in Arizona, instituted in 1933. It gets its name for the nine small deep lakes along the escarpment of the Pecos River Valley.  The largest lake has swimming, boat rentals and picnic areas. The smaller lakes are linked by trails and have good fishing. Unfortunately the sky was overcast and it's still the end of winter here so it was rather bleak. People must be desperate because some few were swimming. Of course it was Easter so there were a few family groups picnicking by the biggest of the lakes, where there is a beach. But it must be lovely later in the season. 

One of the nine lakes at the Bottomless Lake 
State Park

Next we're heading for Amarillo, TX where we will spend another 2 nights - that's the next post. 

The "marina", beach and facilities at the 
largest of the lakes - not a great weather day!

We had a short hike exploring the different lakes.
They aren't far apart.

Another one.

Three more photos from the Anderson Museum - this fantasy painting took up one large wall!

The "sharks" hanging from the ceiling are made from golf bags!

Really handsome furniture is featured throughout the museum in living room groups, conference tables and in one case a "Bar" which looks totally functional but is a work of art. 

Back in Las Cruces

We did the Dripping Springs Trail in Organ Mountain National Monument and this is taken at the beginning of the trail.

About a mile up we reached a level plateau. Then it started climb again.

 Our next stop was 3 nights in Las Cruces - two at Sunny Acres RV Park and one night returning to the Rio Grande Winery. We couldn't get reservations near Mesilla which we really love due to the holiday but Sunny Acres was fine. This is our 4th stay at the Rio Grande, a Harvest Host member and now a real favorite for us. Wine, food, great view and live music - who could ask for more! 

Further up the trail, our destination is in the canyon just up and to the left of the photo center.

The first of several buildings

Most of Van Patten's Hotel is in ruins, just the 
stone foundations are still there.  

And the weather was wonderful - warm and sunny. Our first full day we did our longest hike yet on the  Dripping Springs Trail - 3 miles. Now that doesn't sound like much and just 3 years ago it would have been nothing. But recently we've slowed down and this was 1.5 miles steadily uphill (1,500 ft) and then very gratefully down. And at enough elevation to cause us to take a number of breaks. But the day was gorgeous and the hike not only scenic but lots of interesting history. This was in the Dripping Springs Natural Area, part of the Organ Mountains National Monument. 

The end of the trail.

One wall remains of the residential buildings

There are three clusters of ruins at the end of the trail, high up on the mountain in a narrow canyon. They date from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The first was the Butterfield stagecoach stop and livery station. People took a 17 mile stagecoach ride to arrive there on the way to the next set of buildings, Van Patten's Mountain Camp. It opened in 1895 and had 15 guest rooms, a dining hall, a concert hall, a gazebo and a roller-skating rink! But it fell on hard times in WWI and was sold in 1917 to Dr. Boyd who tried to run it as a sanitarium. It was only 3 years before he gave up and sold it to another doctor, Dr. Sexton, who only operated it for few years before closing it down. This was at a period that people thought tuberculosis could be helped by the thin dry air of the Southwest. 

Mesilla Park along the Rio Grande where we had a nice walk our second day. Last year we bicycled along this same walk.

Our second day we did a series of much needed chores - shopping, laundry and a move over to Rio Grande Winery. We did have a nice short walk along the Rio Grande river nearby too. That night we enjoyed an excellent band, some delicious wine and a charcuterie board, all while enjoying the view over to the mountains. 

Looking from our table at the Rio Grande Winery
down to the Band.

And then out from our table to the terrace and 
the mountains beyond.

Scott waits for our wine. We got there early so we
could get a seat near the band.

The next few days the weather called for strong winds, building during the day. So we made an early start for our next destination - Roswell, NM. More on my next post!

This was the view from our RV at sunset.

Wine, Pecans and a Slot Canyon

 

The view from Baby at the Rio Grande Winery in Las Cruces..

The covered patio at Rio Grande

Inside the Winery

Las Cruces is studded with pecan orchards and wineries. The pecan orchards stretch out for miles all around the city and there are 9 wineries. As far as we know there is only one slot canyon and we found it - and it wasn't easy. Pecans and wine on the other had were - we went to 2 wineries and the Pecan Fest in Mesilla. This is our third time visiting the Rio Grande Winery, a Harvest Host location. It's a beautiful spot with very good wine, live music and food. And it was a Saturday night. But we had a surprise when we sat down, only one red wine available! That afternoon they had a Pickleball Tournament and then there must have been a big celebration! But the wine and band were great so another lovely night. Another night we visited D.H. Lescombes Winery and Bistro and had an excellent dinner overlooking the mountains. And there were lots of wine choices there.

A view around the Pecan Fest

Basilica de San Albino

The Pecan Fest was set in downtown Mesilla, mostly in the central square. There was live music, lots of vendors and some very good BBQ. We discovered the trail to Slot Canyon on All Trails, which we belong to. The reviews were all raving about the canyon but there were buts... The first one was the entrance. "Either climb the 5 foot fence or go under the barbed wire". What? And concerns about finding the trail as it wasn't well marked. But we thought we'd at least take a look. Scott downloaded the map so we knew we could find our way home. We went under the fence, and loved the canyon!

Crawling under the barbed wire - folks before
us had dug a depression.

The Slot Canyon is narrow.

And it was a hot day so the shade was welcome.

This was our second time staying at the Hacienda RV Park and it is very nice with a big hot tub, which we used several times. We managed to see 5 museums while visiting there. The biggest is the Farm and Ranch Museum up near Dripping Spring. We found the history of farming and ranching here very interesting. New stories to us were the range wars, lawlessness (Billy the Kid is big around here) and especially when it changed dramatically as a result of WWII. A lot of farms were confiscated to build the White Sands Missile Range and Test Facility. Now Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic are just north of there. 

I love these slices of life long ago. What's scary
is, a lot of things look familiar from my past!

There were a lot of vehicles in the Farm & Ranch
Museum, this hearse was my favorite.

Another day we visited the Railroad Museum and the Museum Complex which includes an Art Museum, and a Nature and Science Museum. Lastly we toured Fort Selden which is now a ruin but once housed a large number of "Buffalo Soldiers", African-Americans who joined the army after the Civil War. As a testament to their bravery nine Buffalo Soldiers received the Medal of Honor while serving in New Mexico. 

The 1910 Depot of the Acheson, Topeka and 
Santa Fe railroad. Now the Railroad Museum.

I loved this story about the first woman Engineer. 
She was quite famous nationally as a result, 
made the cover of Redbook. A third generation
railroad worker, it didn't hurt that she was lovely!

There were two huge model railroad set ups. So detailed and fun.

But now it was time to head west again. We had two great couples to visit in southern Arizona: So next stop Green Valley!

The ruins of Fort Seldon just outside of Las Cruces and near the Slot Canyon. 

Texas to New Mexico

Buffalo Wallow at Abilene State Park, TX

We returned from Mexico to our RV waiting for us in Cleburne, TX, after a easy dinner at a steak house across from the Quinta Inn near the Dallas/Ft Worth airport. We stayed there the night before our flight to Mexico with the Park, Sleep, Fry website and it worked out very well. $130 for a nice room, 8 days parking and shuttles to and from the airport. We stayed two nights at the Shady Acres RV Park - basic but safe - so that we could clean up, do laundry and replenish our refrigerator. The next day we headed off early for the Texas Abilene State Park. 

Our private site at Abilene State Park and nice
weather as you can see to have our late lunch.

Enjoying a break at the end of the Buffalo 
Wallow Trail

The Abilene State Park was great. We had a nice level spot with trees all around. A nearby host pointed us to a lovely trail around "Buffalo Wallow", a pretty pond that must have been a favorite watering spot for buffalo herds back when. It was a quiet night but bad weather threatened the next day - severe thunderstorms with hail was predicted to come in later that morning. So we left early, thank goodness as the 5 hour trip turned into 8 hours. We did manage to mostly stay ahead of the storm, which we could see just south of us.  And there was a brief attractive section over the first 20 miles through hill country in Texas but then we ran into a problem. Google navigation had shown a gas station in 20 miles on our route and our range was 30 - so no problem we thought. Bad decision. Suddenly the navigation changed to 26 more miles (the station was permanently closed). But we made the right decision then. We pulled into a layby next to a cemetery, unhooked the RV and Scott continued while I stayed in the RV.  He went slow, coasted as much as possible and made it into the gas station. We couldn't have done it with the RV attached. He also made it back, which wasn't easy as it was all complicated rural roads. 

Thousands of huge windmills decorate the flat
plains on our drive through western Texas

The cemetery where Heather and Baby waited
anxiously for Scott to return with a full tank.

So our 8 AM start got us to Brantley Lake State Park at 4 PM and it was great to pull into our easy site with long views over the reservoir. I had made a chicken parmesan and rice dish ahead of time for those two nights and it was a relief to have it all done. Before bed we snuggled up and watched an episode of Doc Martin. 

Our easy level site at Blakely Lake State Park

The view over the Lake, the southern most one
in New Mexico.

We got an early start the next morning as we had a busy day. Our advance reservation for Carlsbad Caverns National Park was for 9:30 AM and it was over an hour's drive. From the highway entrance it's a 7 mile scenic drive up the mountain to the Visitor's Center. There was plenty of parking for RVs happily, but it must be very hard when it's busy here. It wasn't during our visit - no line for the elevator trip. That's down 750 feet to the cavern. It's possible to walk 1.5 miles there but there's another 1.5 miles through the cavern so we were glad to take the elevator. 

It was so dark when we first started on the hike
through the caverns I held onto the railing for 
quite a while.. 

After a while our eyes became accustomed to
the dark and we felt more confident. Spot
lights show off areas, here with some blue color

You can see the walkway better here as I
lightened up the photo.

It's really quite beautiful and the history of it's
discovery and exploration is fascinating.

This ladder was used (a long time ago) to 
explore the lower depths of the caverns.

The next leg of our journey was 4 hours south through El Paso to Las Cruces and until we got near El Paso it was endless stretches of plains with no development whatsoever - including no gas stations. This time we had investigated carefully and filled up before leaving. We only average 9 miles to the gallon with Baby attached, giving us a minimum range of 216 and that's when it not mountainous. 

Our table at the Rio Grande Winery overlooking
the mountains and vineyards.

Our new friend Don from Minnesota

Our stop for the night was Harvest Host member the Rio Grande Winery in Mesilla, just south of Las Cruces. We had been here before and again it was a great night. Both times we came on a weekend when there is live music and food. And again, we met a fellow traveler and enjoyed his company over dinner. 

La Cueva trail left from here and went up into the first rock formation on the left. 

We had planned to spend the next two nights at Aguirre Spring Campground, which we loved two years ago,  but we wanted to do some biking and hiking around Las Cruces this time so we stayed two nights at the Hacienda RV Resort. It was a very nice RV park with a big hot tub, which we enjoyed a lot. Our first afternoon we went up to the Dripping Springs Natural Area and hiked the La Cueva Trail. This cave had been used for thousands of years but more recently is famous for the man know as the Hermit. Giovanni Maria de Agostini was a Italian lay monk who traveled throughout South America, walked north as far as Canada and then settled in a cave here on the mountain in 1867. Many during his travels regarded him as a holy man who could work miracles. He lived in the cave for two years, coming down to the town to preach and heal, before being murdered. He was 69 years old at his death. 

Scott pauses on the trail

The entrance to the cave.

Looking out at the entrance.

Our first night we treated ourselves to a beautiful dinner at the D.H. Lescombes Winery and Bistro.- terrific wine and food with a view across to the mountains. The next morning we biked the La Llorona Multi-Use Trail along the Rio Grande River. It was mostly an easy asphalt trail with a few difficult sections through a park and over some bridges. 

It was nice to adjourn to the Spotted Dog Brewery nearby and enjoy their IPA sitting out on the terrace with that same great view. Tonight it's dinner at our RV and an early start tomorrow to meet our friends Bob and Lesa DeFeyter at the Bonita Canyon Campground, which is at the Chiricahua National Monument, the "Wonderland of Rocks" in Arizona. 

The view from the Llorna Trail to the mountains, where we had hiked the day before.

The Rio Grande River at this time of year is just a trickle. In the Spring water is released from the dams for agricultural and recreational use during the summer.