Sunday Drivers

June 16, 2022 - Reading time: 7 minutes

We awoke early today, hugged our fellas goodbye, and began the road trip to Roswell.  Visiting the site of the alleged Area 51 alien crash has always been on James’s bucket list and it’s on the way to the Grand Canyon, so why not? 

The weather was beautiful all the way to New Mexico, though scorching hot outside, and the route was comprised entirely of non-Interstate, rural highways.  There were very few cars on the road which afforded us the opportunity to pull over for photos a few times.  

Things of interest included:

• Clusters of flat-paddle cacti growing abundantly throughout the beautiful Texas hill country. 
• Wind farm, after wind farm, after wind farm along Hwy. 89.  Our first sighting of them as we came over a ridge made our mouths drop. The wide open topography and clear weather permitted us to see these giant power producers for miles and miles in the distance, as well as up close. They are enormous. 
• Oil wells.  Countless in number throughout north Texas.  They pumped up and down like giant metal birds pecking at the ground.  In one area they were intermingled among a wind farm.  A juxtaposition of energy in transition? Time will tell.  
• An exit for Frazier Road! We resisted the urge to pull over to look for our people.  After all, the aliens were waiting. 
  
  
  
  
  

We lost cell service among the miles and miles of farmland about an hour before reaching the Texas/New Mexico border.  I had luckily printed directions for each destination from Google Maps before leaving home, though it felt overly cautious doing so at the time.  And the temperature outside kept climbing.  I’ve never been more thankful for the AC.  

We arrived in Roswell hungry for dinner.  There were alien photo ops all over town as one would expect.   Most of the museums and gift shops were closing by that time, so instead of rushing, we opted to search out a local food joint.  James had accomplished 9 hours of driving and was in the mood for a beer.  Turns out there are lots of kitschy alien adventures in Roswell, but only one local brewery.  It was  fantastic.  Small, but with a great selection on tap and a super friendly bar tender.  (I won’t list the name of the brewery because the grandmas have this blog link, but you can Google it if interested.) The food truck on site was authentic TexMex and our burritos were perfect.  

The hotel accommodations were comfy, too and we slept soundly without an alien abduction.  Well, at least we think we did.