Friday, March 18, 2011

Friday, March 18,2011 Roswell, New Mexico and Amarillo, Texas

Thursday, we spent the day exploring Roswell, New Mexico, that proclaims itself as the dairy capital of New Mexico.  We first went to the UFO Museum, this is what we think of when we hear Roswell, New Mexico, not dairy.

In 1947 there was an event in the Roswell area that has been unexplained and many people believe a UFO landed with aliens.  The US Air Force investigated and many feel whatever occurred was covered up.  We found the museum to be interesting and thought provoking.  We had lunch at a restaurant that was recommended by the campground as being the place that locals go, Peppers Grill and Bar, but we were not overly impressed with the food.  After lunch we stopped at the visitor’s center and had pictures taken with some “aliens”.

We then went to the Roswell Museum and Art Center.  Art of local artists was on display.  An artist was in the museum working on an art project using material that would be inflated she was busy cutting and sewing.

The museum area had displays pertaining to the Native American Indians and the ranchers of the region.

The weather  was very warm close to 90 degrees with lots of sunshine.

Today, Friday, we traveled a little over 200 miles from Roswell to Amarillo, Texas.  Most of the country was flat and sparsely populated.  We passed large feed lots of cattle with the aroma to go along with it.  The town of Portales, New Mexico had a sign stated it was a town of “17,000 friendly people and 3 or 4 grouches”.   Friona, Texas had a sign declaring it the “cheeseburger capital of the world” but we didn’t see any place selling cheeseburgers.  Then Hereford, Texas declared itself as the “beef capital of the world”.  Going through Hereford we remarked that we had not seen any trains in our travels today and then we hit a detour where we were stopped at a railroad crossing as 2 trains side by side were traveling through and then a third train came through.  From this point on we were seeing trains most of the remainder of the way to Amarillo.  After getting to the Amarillo "Best” Wonderland RV Park we unhooked the car and went to a nearby restaurant that is known for catfish for a late lunch of catfish and the trimmings.  We then returned to the campground and set up the motorhome.  We lost another hour of time today as we moved into Central Time.  It is cooler in Amarillo, temps in the high 60’s and rain (something we have not seen for weeks) is predicted for tomorrow.