Invasion of the Little Green Men, Part 1 - Wednesday, April 20, 2022

"War of the Worlds," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Star Trek," "Star Wars," "Men in Black," "E.T.," "Independence Day," "The X-Men," "Dune," "The Fifth Element," "GalaxyQuest"... The list goes on and on. Our society is fascinated by aliens and other-worldly occurrences.

In early July 1947, something strange allegedly happened in the high desert outside Roswell, New Mexico. A rancher saw something crash land on his property. When he found the crash site, there were strange metal pieces scattered about. He believed the material came from outer space. Authorities were called in and they originally released his story. But a few days later, they revoked the information that this was an unidentified flying object and sent out news releases telling the public that the crash site revealed a weather balloon. This set off conspiracy theories about the government covering up an alien crash landing. 

Roswell is home to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. This museum has been on my bucket list for years. I am determined to visit this museum today after our 11k walk.

We started walking at 8:20 am. The first couple of miles were on Main St. There were so many things to look at. First up, we saw the Invasion Station Gift Shop which was surrounded by aliens.

The Invasion Station Gift Shop, as
alien as it gets.

A mural of the 1947 crash site.

Take me to your leader.

Scattered throughout Roswell are myriad murals depicting everything from sunsets to alien happenings (but mostly aliens!).

A gorgeous sunset mural (not an 
alien in sight, although the clouds do
look like flying saucers).

Just a few doors down, we came to the famous Roswell McDonald's which got into the whole alien thing and made their dining room look like a spaceship had landed in the building.

McDonald's in Roswell, New Mexico.

A McDonald's space mural. 

Our walk instructions told us to go to the back of the building next to the McDonald's drive-thru to see a large mural. They weren't kidding. It took me six photos to get it all in!!

We continued down Main Street to see more crazy stuff. This walk is interesting!

The other side of McDonald's.

Dunkin' has a massive alien in front.

Even the U.S. Postal Service
got in on the act. Here's R2D2
disguised as a mailbox.

On our way north, we passed the new Roswell Convention Center and then the  Roswell History Museum and Art Center which contains the Goddard Planetarium. An outside display shows Dr. Robert H. Goddard "who here laid the foundations for the science of rocket propulsion." He also had 214 patents, 130 of them received posthumously. More on that in Part 2 of this blog. 

Bob standing next to Robert
Goddard's rocket propulsion
tower.

Dr. Robert H. Goddard.

The rocket propulsion tower.

Our next destination came as a big surprise to us. Bob and I did not know about the New Mexico Military Institute. The buildings look like castles.

Quarters 2.

Alumni Memorial Chapel.

Lusk Hall.

Lea Hall.

Bronco Plaza.

Bronco Plaza.

Hagerman Barracks.

Hagerman Barracks.

The quadrangle at Hagerman Barracks.

Pearson Auditorium.

With that, our tour of the New Mexico Military Institute was over. We got a little lost on direction #10 coming out of the NMMI. 

The sculpture below is outside the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art.

"Artesian," by
W.A. Goodman (1996).

The Wool Bowl, Roswell's premier high
school football stadium.

Eventually, we got back on track and then walked and walked and walked. We tried to go to the Spring River Zoo but they didn't open until 10 am. We were there at 9:30 am. 

So we kept on walking, this time on the Spring River Recreation Trail. It was a long distance back to the heart of downtown. I was starting to feel like Forest Gump.

Bob is training for the Deadwood Marathon on June 5, so tomorrow morning he plans to run 10 miles on the Spring River Recreation Trail. Since I definitely won't be up that early, I asked him to run toward me so I could get an action shot. 

Bob training for the 
Deadwood Marathon.

Spring River Recreation Trail.

The Spring River Trail goes down into the drainage ditch. It's a good thing it wasn't raining!

The trail in the ditch.

An interesting place to put the trail!

Bob on the trail in the ditch.

We came up from Spring River at the Roswell History Museum and Art Center. The rock bench near the parking lot was its own work of art. The piece is called "Oasis." Dozens of little pieces of art are embedded in the bench to make them look like fossils. I loved it. 

"Oasis" benches, by Susan Wink.

We continued on the Spring River Trail to the Iron Cross Observation Point. The German Iron Cross on the river bank was created by German POWs during WW II. The locals didn't like the Iron Cross and cemented over it with five yards of concrete. Over the years, the cement washed away and the Iron Cross is visible again. (See history plaque below.)

Piece of the Berlin Wall from the 
Eastern side which is clean.

Piece of the Berlin Wall from the 
western side which is covered with graffiti.

The re-exposed Iron Cross.

In honor of the POWs-MIAs.

We also saw a carving made from a dead tree that had been moved from across the street to the front of an adult social center.

"The Oldest Citizen," by Rex
Branson & Jeremy Crow.

I think that's supposed to
be a lizard.

It wasn't long before we caught up to Helen Hull, Bonnie, Gudi, et. al. They were doing the 6k and we basically walked through a park with them and then our routes split.

Our 11k walk finished strong in town where we passed by a number of fun things. 

Historical Society Archives Building.

Historical Society Museum didn't open
until 1 pm. 

"Tree of Knowledge" sculpture
in front of the library

On the "Tree of Knowledge."

"Tree of Knowledge."

The old Carnegie Library.

Alien mural on a print shop.

LOL.

More alien art in front of the
Roswell Chamber of Commerce.

Roswell Chamber of Commerce.

Fun sculpture.

Check out the
street lamp.

Alien couple carved out of tree stumps.

Chaves County Courthouse.

Alien inside the 
Visitor Center.

Vacationing with the aliens.

Early history of Roswell, New Mexico.

John Simpson Chisum, "Cattle King
of the Pecos."

I am going to make today's blog two parts because I still want to tell you about my afternoon.

To be continued in Part 2.