The Alien Capital Of The World

So… How’d You Sleep?

Well, I have to admit, I slept a lot better than I thought I would. While it got a little chilly, it wasn’t enough to force me into my sleeping bag, but rather just made me curl-up a bit more. There was intermittent wind that would rustle the tent, but it wasn’t bad enough to wake me up once I got to sleep. The wildlife wasn’t that noisy, either. Overall, I slept from about 10:30 PM to 5:30 AM without too much interruption.

Javelina?!?

Once I woke-up, I wanted to get my day started and decided to get my computer so I could proof yesterday’s blog post and begin today’s. The drive to Roswell wasn’t going to be a short one and it would help to get a head start on the process.

There are signs all over the campground about the javelina. They’re smallish pigs that travel in packs and supposedly can be dangerous. My father told me a story about taking a walk while visiting his parents in Phoenix, Arizona, decades ago, and having to jump on top of someone’s car to escape a group of angry javelina.

Keeping that in mind, while I’m looking through my car to fetch my computer, from the other side of the campground, about 30 feet away, I hear a grunt/squeal, and all the birds that were making noise suddenly go quiet. My reaction was to literally jump back into my tent, zip it up and quietly listen for more sounds. After about ten minutes or so of feeling like a scaredy cat, I decided to venture back out and use the bathroom, which thankfully was only about 20 feet away. (The location of the bathrooms was fortunate now, but wasn’t last night when everyone was constantly walking back and forth past my tent… grrrrr!) Naturally, while I was in the bathroom, I heard more squealing and grunting around the campground and didn’t waste any time getting back into my tent, though I’m not sure what good it would have done if any of it was real.

Santa Elena Canyon Revisited

After finishing-up work on my blog posts, I packed-up my tent and headed back to Santa Elena Canyon to hike the trail that takes you inside the canyon itself. When I arrive, there are a few cars and I only run into one small group of people during the two-mile round trip. There was a bit of elevation and a little exposure that had my knees a little weak at times, but other than that it was a fun hike. While inside the canyon, you had to look straight up to see the top of the canyon on each side. It had to be at least 500 feet on each site and made me dizzy to view it. At the end of the trail, I hid a roaming stone for someone to find, then headed back to take a few shots with the Bronica before beginning my trek out of the park towards Roswell.

Charles The Flagger

There were sections of roads in Big Bend that were being resurfaced, and, when you reached such a section, you’d encounter a single, solitary flagger holding a “Stop/Slow” sign. Usually, you’d see the “Stop” side and have to wait upwards of fifteen minutes for the line of cars to come from the other direction so you could then follow the lead truck back in the direction you were heading.

On my way out of the park, I ran into such a situation, and, after a couple of uncomfortable minutes between the flagger and myself, I popped my head out of my window and asked him how long of a shift he’d be working. He seemed to love the fact that someone even bothered acknowledging his existence, and I ended-up talking to him for the next ten minutes or so. Well, to be honest, I spent a minute or two talking to him about Santa Fe and Albuquerque once I learned that’s where he was from, but then I spent the next eight minutes or so hearing his story about the nurse he dated for four years, who apparently took a job in Seattle and asked him to come along with her, but he refused because of his career and the fact that he wasn’t someone who would “chase a skirt”. He was a funny guy and told the story in an earnest and entertaining way, but I could sense a sadness. In any case, it was good to have an interaction with someone like that. It hadn’t occurred to me how lonesome and intensely focused my travels have been so far.

The Long Drive To Roswell

The drive from Santa Elena Canyon to Roswell, New Mexico, was estimated to be around 6 1/2 hours, but I stopped so many times to take pictures and videos along the way, especially during the time I was still in Big Bend National Park, that it ended-up taking about 8 hours. The first portion was enjoyable, but once I got out of the park and firmly into northwestern Texas, the beautiful scenery gave-way to flat horizons full of electrical lines, oil pumps and lots of road construction. The worst part was when I left a new battery for my GoPro on the roof of my car, while switching things up on the side of the road, and driving off. Despite looking at it when I set it down and telling myself “now, don’t forget the battery on your roof, dumbass” I managed to do just that, and didn’t realize it until I was about five miles down the road, apparently because I can in-fact be a dumbass.

The Alien Capital Of The World

Is Roswell, New Mexico, the “Alien Capital of the World”? Well, who’s to say where that is when there isn’t a whole lot of evidence that aliens even exist, but Roswell grabbed that bull by the horns and rode it into the ground. You can’t walk or drive ten feet in this city without a sign or a mural or a statue depicting a little green man with black, beady eyes performing some kind of magical feat or simply trying to sell you a bong or a cheeseburger. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually really spectacular.

Grocery Shopping + A Shower

It was time to stop and buy some groceries. For the past couple of days, I’d been living off of trail mix and protein bars. Thankfully, I found a real grocery store and was able to grab some decent food and a new container of water that should cover me for the next week until I get to San Diego. After checking-in to my room and getting things unpacked, I took a long shower and got into these blog posts, which took me much, much longer than I’d hoped they would take, despite how much prep work I’d put into them. Oh well, maybe tomorrow I’ll get some sleep.