New Mexico: 11.15.01 - 11.19.01
Albuquerque, Roswell, Carlsbad
Travel Companions: Elbert L.& Melissa H.
Part 1: 11.15 / 11.16
Part 2: 11.17.01 - 11.19.01

See photos from this trip.

11.15.01 - Albuquerque, New Mexico

So now I'm at the top of Sandia Peak, at an elevation of almost 11,000 feet. Woah! We rode the Sandia Peak Tram up. It's the "world's longest aerial tramway" according to the ticket. Well, time to head down!

The view going up there was very nice. We got to see pretty much how big Albuquerque is because the town ends when there are no more lights.

When we finally found our way to the base of the tram, the sun was beginning to set and it started to sprinkle. We were taking pictures of the sun setting, and when we turned around, we saw a full rainbow. It was probably the brightest rainbow that I've ever seen!

Let's see… it was about 25 degrees up at the summit. Brrr… it snowed while we were up there too.

So far, we've noticed a few subtle differences from driving around and hitting up the local Smith's (supermarket):
-Mostly Caucasians and Hispanics
-People drive slow (according to Elbert)
-Very dark on the road; need more streetlights
-Friendly people
-Very "American" names: Randi, Holly, Mandy
-"Pussycat Video Entertainment" stores
-Lots of tattoo parlors
-Everything seems to be happening near the University of New Mexico
-Pueblo-style adobe homes & buildings
-Southwestern style décor
-Lots of younger people around
-Green tea boxes with "Oriental" pictures on them
-Popeye Spinach!
-5 lb. Box of Uncle Ben's
-Water is more expensive.

Looks like we've been non-stop since we arrived today. We picked up our Chevy Camero and headed to the 66 Diner for lunch. When we got there, we saw the daily special sign and noticed it said "roadrunner." Heh, but when we asked the waiter, he said it wasn't really roadrunner. What a let down for Elbert. Haha.

After lunch, we headed over to our hotel, The Plaza Inn, and dumped off our stuff. Next, we headed to Sandia Peak.

After the peak, we had dinner at the Monte Vista Firestation. That restaurant is a converted old fire house. They still have the pole!

Post-dinner activities included driving around Central Avenue (Route 66) and looking around. We eventually found the Smith's and walked around it for a while. Lots of laughs; lots of photos.

And that takes us to now. We're chilling in the room and waiting for Melissa to arrive at the airport. She'll be here at midnight.

11.16.01 - Roswell

So after finally hauling ourselves out of bed, we had breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts. Heh, yummy. They remind me of Winchells.

After breakfast, we set out for Roswell. It was about 180 miles away and we got there in about 2-1/2 - 3 hours. Elbert was hauling some major butt while Melissa and I were asleep. We even had some time to stop and pose for pictures in the middle of the deserted highway.

The drive down was simply gorgeous. No matter what direction you look in, you can see until forever. There were clouds in the distance that looked soft and fluffy enough to sleep on. It provided for a really nice scenic drive.

We passed this village called Encino Village. Woah… a village. We also passed Ramon, which was like a 2-building town. Then we passed Mesa, which also had about 2 buildings. Talk about being in the middle of nowhere. Now I know why they chose this area to test bombs.

Roswell doesn't have a whole lot to offer. It's a very small town with its main attraction being the UFO Museum. We headed over there after having lunch at Tia Juana Mexican Bar & Cantina. At lunch, we had this cool drink that was a Sangria & Margarita mixed together. A very pretty drink. Melissa & Elbert both took a tequila shot recommended by our waitress, but it didn't taste very good, so she gave him a free shot of something else.

Since Elbert had drunken so much at lunch, I got to drive the car. Yeah! This was the first time I've ever driven a convertible. Neato. Actually it's not so easy to drive a convertible because there's this huge blind spot.

The museum was pretty cool. It has all of these pictures and letters/testimonials of the 1947 UFO crash. It seems pretty convincing, but I am extremely skeptical about UFOs. Seems like figments of the imagination, and yet, so many people swear that they saw UFOs or aliens.

So after looking around the museum and buying a few souvenirs, we headed to the Ramada. It looks like we're the only ones staying here! I suppose this town doesn't get a whole lot of visitors. Now we're chilling in our room. Melissa & Elbert are napping. Heh, we couldn't figure out what to do, so they just fell asleep.

There's nothing to do here! Maybe we'll see a UFO or something.

Elbert did a little research to find us something to do here. He asked the front desk guy, who told us about some places to work out. He also told us about Bud's Country & Western Bar, or something like that. Evidently, it's a happening place with dancing and drinking. I wonder what kind of dancing they do there.

So we checked out those places according to the map and one place was closed, and the racquetball place was nowhere to be found. Misinformation! Grr…

So Elbert and I just drove around the town. We stopped at an Albertsons to check out the local products. We found more "Oriental" pictures on products. We also saw the "Asian Food" aisle.

After a while, we felt hungry, so we drove around and ended up eating at Pasta Café Italian Grill. It was pretty decent food. Our waiter was a very animated character. It turns out that he's a cave restorer. He told us that there are a lot of very sketchy areas in town. Heh, luckily we didn't wander into any of them.

Part 1 / Part 2