Road Trip Southwest: The Long Drive
DAY TWO
Opening Location: Carlsbad, NM
Closing Location: Cortez, CO
Mileage: 704
Gas Expenditure: $108
Woke up early and enjoyed a very adequate
continental breakfast at the hotel formerly known as Quality. Another benefit of staying at the Octillo Inn was the bonus friend in our bathroom that morning, a large black scarab looking creature that lived even after Colin attempted to slam an ice bucket on it. We drove the twenty miles to the Carlsbad National Park, very excited to see the gas station at its entrance advertising $2.89 a gallon. Our ascent up the hillside was only eventful in that I kept missing the turn off to park and take photos. At the top we watched a discovery channel film about caverns … with very poor sound and then began our descent into the caverns, electing to take the natural route. It was an amazing steep incline for an hour at least. After all the hub bub about not touching anything and how they were preserving the caverns forever, I had to wonder at the huge asphalt ramp we were walking down. But apparently that doesn’t bother anyone. We had these audio guide things which, unlike some I’ve had in the past which were walkmans you hung around your neck, this was a long plastic rectangle on which you entered a number and then held it up to your ear. Of course that only left you one hand for the slippery steel railing … and then if you were holding a camera … forget about it. C was in fact holding a camera, or rather using one every few feet… we’ll see if any of those turn out. I’d say about a third of the
photos I took with my digital turned out. At the bottow there is a very cool 50’s looking eating place… with food prepackaged in plastic to survive the descent. I just opted for a coke, my first of the day and I was really needing it after that. We then followed the ‘big room’ tour around the the bottom of the caverns which was, of course, amazing. Yeah, Natural Bridge outside of San Antonio’s got nothing on this place. Up the elevators in one minute we were back at the top, ready to drive back down the hill, this time taking photos along the way. We had one last stop before leaving the area and that was to get that cheap gas. We pulled up only to find they were out of the regular gas and only had the premium (which was of course just as expensive as gas back in the town). So we drove back to town and bought gas at $3.09 a gallon.
The next stop was Roswell. The drive to it was rather uninteresting. But the town did feature lampposts with little alien faces and we ate at an Arby’s whose front sign said ‘Aliens Welcome.’ I of course accidentally ordered a sandwhich which had some sort of rancid sauce on it so I couldn’t eat it. That’s a good way to keep on a diet.
The UFO research and science Center is this crazy hollowed out movie theater with information about the so-called ‘Roswell Incident’ posted up on tack boards, with all sorts of signed affidavits and photos. I have to admit I was impressed with both the thoroughness of the descriptions and its balance. They gave a very well argued alternate explanation involving the government testing a weather balloon system which was supposedly going to be used to predict Soviet missile launches. Anyway, I think you could easily come out believing the same thing you went in with, as Colin and I did. He believes that obviously the government was covering up something there, but not that it was an alien crash landing. I am inclined to believe it was aliens… there is just too many people involved whose stories reflect that. Anyway, it was a small well done museum and a nice way to spend an hour and a half.
After hitting the gift shop we were off again, our next planned stop being diner in Santa Fe, we had a little extra time. I suggested to Colin we might take this alternate route because then we might go buy the ruins of a Pueblo city by Peco. He agreed and we rolled across this gravelly
road partially overgrown by weeds on the side and through the middle of no where. And then it began to rain. And then we hit this ‘city’ with lots of twisty streets (well the street we were on became twisty as it went up and around hills at 15 miles an hour). Anyway, by the time we got back to a major highway the sun was in the process of setting and we figured we would not really be able to see the ruins. But we went anyway and of course found the gate closed saying the park closed at 6 pm, it was now 7:15. We could see the top of one of the ruins, so I took a picture and we got in. When we got back into the car, Colin was like too bad they closed at 6 and I promptly announced that I had read that in the book and he was like well why did we come and I said I wanted to see if we could see anything from the road. He was not very happy with that response. And said “You’re an ass.”
And we drove the thirty minutes to Santa Fe to eat at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Which was highly recommended in the guide book and right near the old part of Santa Fe. I had a buffalo burger, like made from an actual buffalo, which pretty much tasted like a burger. Colin unfortunately had an esphogal issue and couldn’t eat his meal. But the décor was nice… pictures of competitive cowgirls from the thirties I guess. And the waitresses all dressed as cowgirls. We seemed to be the only table with a cowboy waiter. And he had an earring and a leather hat. I guess it’s the new west.
We quickly drove past the oldest buildings in Santa Fe, one of which was the seat of the Spanish government for the area back in 1700. And then on to Cortez in Colorado, and on and on and on and on. I don’t know what I was thinking putting us up there… it was like a 4 hour drive that we started at 10 pm. We finally hit the travellodge at 2 am. C wailed on the doorbell several times to awaken the desk clerk, who also checked us out in the morning … he didn’t look to happy with us. But we slept in, we had to start our next day a little behind schedule.
Conversational question of the day: Why are people like Paris Hilton famous?
Debate of the Day: What’s the difference between believing in God and believing in the aliens?
Opening Location: Carlsbad, NM
Closing Location: Cortez, CO
Mileage: 704
Gas Expenditure: $108
Woke up early and enjoyed a very adequate
continental breakfast at the hotel formerly known as Quality. Another benefit of staying at the Octillo Inn was the bonus friend in our bathroom that morning, a large black scarab looking creature that lived even after Colin attempted to slam an ice bucket on it. We drove the twenty miles to the Carlsbad National Park, very excited to see the gas station at its entrance advertising $2.89 a gallon. Our ascent up the hillside was only eventful in that I kept missing the turn off to park and take photos. At the top we watched a discovery channel film about caverns … with very poor sound and then began our descent into the caverns, electing to take the natural route. It was an amazing steep incline for an hour at least. After all the hub bub about not touching anything and how they were preserving the caverns forever, I had to wonder at the huge asphalt ramp we were walking down. But apparently that doesn’t bother anyone. We had these audio guide things which, unlike some I’ve had in the past which were walkmans you hung around your neck, this was a long plastic rectangle on which you entered a number and then held it up to your ear. Of course that only left you one hand for the slippery steel railing … and then if you were holding a camera … forget about it. C was in fact holding a camera, or rather using one every few feet… we’ll see if any of those turn out. I’d say about a third of the
photos I took with my digital turned out. At the bottow there is a very cool 50’s looking eating place… with food prepackaged in plastic to survive the descent. I just opted for a coke, my first of the day and I was really needing it after that. We then followed the ‘big room’ tour around the the bottom of the caverns which was, of course, amazing. Yeah, Natural Bridge outside of San Antonio’s got nothing on this place. Up the elevators in one minute we were back at the top, ready to drive back down the hill, this time taking photos along the way. We had one last stop before leaving the area and that was to get that cheap gas. We pulled up only to find they were out of the regular gas and only had the premium (which was of course just as expensive as gas back in the town). So we drove back to town and bought gas at $3.09 a gallon.The next stop was Roswell. The drive to it was rather uninteresting. But the town did feature lampposts with little alien faces and we ate at an Arby’s whose front sign said ‘Aliens Welcome.’ I of course accidentally ordered a sandwhich which had some sort of rancid sauce on it so I couldn’t eat it. That’s a good way to keep on a diet.
The UFO research and science Center is this crazy hollowed out movie theater with information about the so-called ‘Roswell Incident’ posted up on tack boards, with all sorts of signed affidavits and photos. I have to admit I was impressed with both the thoroughness of the descriptions and its balance. They gave a very well argued alternate explanation involving the government testing a weather balloon system which was supposedly going to be used to predict Soviet missile launches. Anyway, I think you could easily come out believing the same thing you went in with, as Colin and I did. He believes that obviously the government was covering up something there, but not that it was an alien crash landing. I am inclined to believe it was aliens… there is just too many people involved whose stories reflect that. Anyway, it was a small well done museum and a nice way to spend an hour and a half.After hitting the gift shop we were off again, our next planned stop being diner in Santa Fe, we had a little extra time. I suggested to Colin we might take this alternate route because then we might go buy the ruins of a Pueblo city by Peco. He agreed and we rolled across this gravelly
road partially overgrown by weeds on the side and through the middle of no where. And then it began to rain. And then we hit this ‘city’ with lots of twisty streets (well the street we were on became twisty as it went up and around hills at 15 miles an hour). Anyway, by the time we got back to a major highway the sun was in the process of setting and we figured we would not really be able to see the ruins. But we went anyway and of course found the gate closed saying the park closed at 6 pm, it was now 7:15. We could see the top of one of the ruins, so I took a picture and we got in. When we got back into the car, Colin was like too bad they closed at 6 and I promptly announced that I had read that in the book and he was like well why did we come and I said I wanted to see if we could see anything from the road. He was not very happy with that response. And said “You’re an ass.”And we drove the thirty minutes to Santa Fe to eat at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Which was highly recommended in the guide book and right near the old part of Santa Fe. I had a buffalo burger, like made from an actual buffalo, which pretty much tasted like a burger. Colin unfortunately had an esphogal issue and couldn’t eat his meal. But the décor was nice… pictures of competitive cowgirls from the thirties I guess. And the waitresses all dressed as cowgirls. We seemed to be the only table with a cowboy waiter. And he had an earring and a leather hat. I guess it’s the new west.
We quickly drove past the oldest buildings in Santa Fe, one of which was the seat of the Spanish government for the area back in 1700. And then on to Cortez in Colorado, and on and on and on and on. I don’t know what I was thinking putting us up there… it was like a 4 hour drive that we started at 10 pm. We finally hit the travellodge at 2 am. C wailed on the doorbell several times to awaken the desk clerk, who also checked us out in the morning … he didn’t look to happy with us. But we slept in, we had to start our next day a little behind schedule.
Conversational question of the day: Why are people like Paris Hilton famous?
Debate of the Day: What’s the difference between believing in God and believing in the aliens?
posted by Bears Fonte @ 9:30 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home