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28th Jan - A mammoth 11 hour, 500 mile drive across Texas to Roswell in our next state, New Mexico, faces us today.The drive was totally beautiful and we are officially in love with the state of Texas.We passed thousands of ranches, each with their own trademarks and names over the entrances, we passed signs saying things like "Relax, I'm in control - God" (we wondered whether that meant that if we stopped steering he would ensure we wouldn't fall off the mountain side we were on!) and "The Texas State Capitol is 15ft higher than the Washington D.C. State Capitol.Love Texas, Be Proud of Texas".We see lots of wild signs like this everyday, but more so when we do long journeys and they always make us smile.We just love the fact that they advertise their state in the actual state itself, or the fact that they advertise America in America (we see lots of electronic billboards which just have a huge American flag and "God Bless America" written on the bottom).We then passed through oil fields with working oil pumps and (my favourite) cotton fields with their harvest waiting to be collected.We passed through small towns in the middle of nowhere, which were so Western it was like something out of a Hollywood movie.We even saw, wait for it, tumbleweed roll in front of our car on a long empty road!Classic.These are the sort of areas where you have to get petrol when you can.We saw a petrol station and decided to stop and fill up even though we had over half a tank and thank God we did, as the next gas station was 137 miles later!!We also have no mobile reception in these areas and so if we had run out of petrol there was little we could have done!We saw no one on the roads for hundreds of miles, went through a dust storm and saw a beautiful sunset over the New Mexican mountains.Our best car journey yet.
29th - As there is not a huge amount to do in Roswell we decided to walk the 5 mile round trip to downtown to take a look at the UFO museums.The first place we stopped at was called the Area 51 Museum.This is basically a very cheaply done place which consists of a gift shop and then the museum itself which costs $2.00 (about £1.00 each) and is just mock ups of silly situations with a fake alien in, so that you can take pictures with them, such as an alien snowboarding, an alien on the toilet and an alien at a barbeque.Its completely daft but worth going in to for a cheap giggle and for the opportunity to put silly pictures in your collection.We then headed to the UFO Museum and Research Center, just up the road, which is the more serious place for enthusiasts.This place has newspaper cuttings from the time of the Roswell incident, copies of the witness statements that were taken at the time, a time-line explaining exactly what happened, where and when, information on the area the object landed in, details of other sightings around the world, details of alien abductions etc.We came out with me believing that alien spacecraft did land in Roswell in 1947 and Ralph thinking it was a load of rubbish (no real surprise there).We then walked back to the hotel, calling in for a Starbucks coffee at probably one of the strangest Starbucks locations we have ever been in.At the table to the side of us there was a group of people (mainly old women) having a meeting about canvassing votes for Hilary Clinton for the upcoming democratic presidential nomination.They were being given Hilary bumper stickers ("but only one per person"!) and being told what to say to people who wanted to know why to vote for her.On the table behind us were a group of three young (between the ages of about 18 and 21) guys having a bible meeting and talking about having to be ready for the day when He will come!It was a totally strange situation, hearing a pro Clinton speech in one ear and hearing bible stories in the other!We got back to the hotel and were thrilled to discover that this hotel is the first since we were in Virginia (all that time ago) which has an indoor heated pool and spa, so that was the rest of the evening covered!One of my old school friend Sheree Taylor nee' Wilby died of cancer today at the age of 30, leaving three young boys behind.I feel sorry that we put off meeting up until I returned from my travels, as now that will never happen.It also makes me think that we made the right decision taking this trip, as you never know what life will bring.
30th - We left Roswell and headed for the Carlsbad Caverns.The journey took about 3 hours and was full of dusty roads, tumbleweed and, eventually, mountain views.The areas we drove through were mostly deserted towns without any sign of human life, never mind a petrol station!The journey from the main road to the caverns consisted of around 7 miles of steep climb in the car (which thankfully managed it without any obvious problems) but it was well worth it.The view from the top of the mountain was stunning and we could see for miles.Rather than the cotton fields etc.that we had seen in Texas, this view consisted of huge mountains, scorched land and, best of all, lots of cactus!We were told that we could either choose to walk around 2 miles down into the caverns, or we could take the elevator, both for the same price.I chose the walk and Ralph's face dropped as, once you got to the bottom there was a further 2 mile walk to see all the caverns!!!Anyway, he soon changed his mind when we started our descent, as the caverns were beautiful and huge.We hope the photos do them some justice.After the caverns we drove a scenic 9 mile route around the mountain canyons, where Ralph was lucky enough to spot a cougar and a roadrunner (beep-beep!Typically I had my head in the guidebook and missed them both!), before heading to our next stop the Guadalupe Mountains.We only stopped there briefly as we had thought about walking the 8 miles round trip up the mountain, but decided that the trainers we have with us were not going to be sufficient for the trek and so headed on, a further 3 hour drive, to El Paso.El Paso is back in the state of Texas and is on the American/Mexican border.As it was now dark we decided to explore El Paso tomorrow.
31st - El Paso is just really a border town.It's quite run down and full of discount shops selling cheap clothing, merchandise etc.The main thing you notice is that everything here is in Spanish, it's a sort of Spanish part of America.It does cause some difficulties though as not everyone here speaks English and the majority of adverts/radio stations etc are in Spanish.We went down to the American/Mexican border to find out whether our American Visa would allow us to cross into Mexico for the day.They looked at our passports and our Visas and told us that the small "m" on the Visa meant "multiple entries" and we could therefore enter and exit the U.S. during our 6 month visa period as often as we liked.We were thrilled that we were able to walk over into Mexico for the day, but really upset that this had not been explained to us before as it meant we could have gone over the border into Canada when we visited Niagara Falls!!We so wanted to see the Falls from the Canadian side, but had received advise that leaving the U.S. in this way would cancel our visa!Getting on with our day, the journey into Mexico was incredibly easy.We walked to a bridge, paid $0.35 (about £0.18p), walked across it (which took about 3 minutes) and walked into Mexico, with no one checking our passports, papers or anything at all.We took a walk down the main street of the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez.Its full of drug stores, opticians and dentists, things which the Americans pay a fortune for, but can hop over the border into Mexico and get at at least a quarter of the price.Its also full of hasslers asking whether you want to look in their stores, take a taxi, have a drink in their bar etc.The area didn't feel entirely safe and we couldn't look anymore like tourists than we did, so we decided to take a walk up the main street and then head back to U.S. soil.We also realised that without Mexican currency we weren't going to get very far.We walked to the end of the main street and stopped outside a Mexican cantina where we were able to decipher one of the things on offer in the window, large chicken with tortillas and salsa (grande pollo y salsa y tortilla!!).We thought it sounded quite nice and would be nice to be able to have a truly Mexican meal in Mexico, but we didn't have the right currency.Just then a Mexican walked past, ushered us into the cantina and proceeded to explain that they would accept our dollars and he would help us order our meal, as the owners spoke no English.Our chicken meal ordered together with drinks, he left the cantina, he was just so kind helping us out.Another guy in the café helped us when we wanted straws for our drinks (Ralph has a really bad cold sore at the moment) and asked us whether we wanted baked potatoes with our dinner as the Mexican owners had no idea what we were talking about!The owners were lovely even though they could not speak a word of English and therefore we had no means of communication.The dinner arrived and it was huge and delicious but we then had to think about the problem of paying.As they had agreed to take dollars for the meal we expected that they would rip us off with the conversion, but no, they kindly gave us the exact exchange rate, took our dollars, gave them to their young daughter who stuffed them up the arm of her jacket and ran round to the nearest exchange shop.She then brought us back our change in dollars and the bill money in Mexican currency so everyone was happy.We were even happier when we realised that the whole meal with two drinks had cost us $7.00 (about £3.50!!).Fantastic.We then took a walk back up the main street and this time had to pay $0.30 ($0.05 cheaper than going the other way) to cross the bridge back into the US.This time, at the end of the bridge, we had to queue with all the Mexicans to go through immigration, which consisted of standing in a concentration camp type place until you got called forward into a type of mobile hut where we had to show our passports and visas and were asked "what have you brought with you into the US?" and "where in the UK do you live?".We then had to put our backpack through a scanner and we were free again, after just a few minutes (after the queuing).As we were both feeling pretty rough today (Ralph has his cold sores and I have a stinking cold) we went back to the hotel for hot bathes and coffee. I didn't think too much of El Paso because it is just a border-town and is rather run down, but Ralph thought it was a good place to get a flavour of Mexico, if you weren't going over the border (and there's no real reason to do so other than curiosity in our opinion).In one sense it's a shame that a US city is so completely over-run by Mexican influence, but on the other hand it does give a flavour of different cultures and traditions in a safer setting.
1st February - We took the long drive up to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, which was absolutely stunning. The New Mexico 'countryside' is a mixture of desert and mountains - and what a view it is. We have never seen anything so majestic as this so, again, we hope the photos do it justice. As we travelled further north and the elevation of the land increased we started seeing snow on the peaks of mountains in the distance and thoughts of a quick ski stop surfaced. On arriving at Santa Fe we were surprised how cold it was, although it is not surprising when the city is 7,000 feet above sea level - this caused Ralph some breathing problems on the first night and I got constant nose bleeds while I was there.Kirsty booked the hotel and it was a beautiful place about 300 yards from the centre of Santa Fe - which is more like a small town than a city. I guess it has a large suburban spread that makes it a city because the centre is just a bohemian cultured town based around a plaza square. All the buildings are adobe style (a traditional Spanish/Mexican building material of sun baked bricks made with mud and straw) and the whole area really is pretty and clean, but unless you like (Red) Indian art shops, expensive galleries and Michelin quality restaurants, there isn't a great deal else. We found a reasonably priced Parisian café and had a nice meal before calling it a day.We are getting electric shocks left, right and centre here due to the dry air so we might be happy when we are on lower ground again!
2nd - Los Alamos. We headed through some more beautiful mountain scenery to the place where America designed, made and tested the atom bomb in total secrecy in the 1940s. Los Alamos is a small quaint little town that is home to a nuclear research facility, which you can't visit, but there are a few museums about the town's atomic history and ongoing research. Along the route there are a few Native Indian reservations which have signs saying that Indian law now applies or forbidding entry to non-Indians; and of course these were very enlightening as it was our first sight of Indian reservations. These days you have to get invites to their villages (or 'pueblos') in order to get a full flavour of their rituals and ceremonies.Los Alamos is an interesting place as, at the time of the design of the bomb, you were not allowed into any part of the area unless you had a pass which was checked thoroughly.Many of the people who worked in Los Alamos did not even know what they were working on, as the government recruited on a "need to know" basis.The address they had to give to all family and friends was a P.O. Box address and all letters were censored to ensure they did not talk about where they were or what they were doing.To the towns and villages just outside Los Alamos, who did not know what went on there, it was simply know as "the Hill" and they could only speculate.Only when the first bomb was successfully tested was the areas secret revealed and the world found out what had been happening there.We visited two museums, one relating to the secret life of the people on "the Hill" and one relating to the science behind atomic bombs and the continuing research.Unfortunately, by this time, something we'd eaten or a bug we'd contracted had taken hold and we therefore had to cut our day short and head back to our hotel room where we remained until the next morning.
3rd - We woke up this morning and there was 6 inches of snow on the ground! It was a totally beautiful sight and so, with a last drive around Santa Fe to say goodbye, we risked a drive further north to a place called Las Vegas (New Mexico not Nevada!) which is tiny and reminded us of the Canadian wilderness, but the big draw here is that they have natural volcanic hot springs at the side of the road that are free to the public. The town is so dead (and the townsfolk want it to stay that way) that there were only two locals there and Kirsty joined them in the tub. If the springs had been any bigger I would have got in too but I'm not that comfortable getting cozy with half-naked strangers. It was about 0 degrees C outside but the springs consisted of three earthen 'tubs' which ranged from warm bath temperature to about 45 degrees C and bubble with sulphur and lithium - the locals in the springs thought this was marvellous; I thought they were toxic. The woman in the spring said she had been bathing in them regularly for 24 years and over time it has cured her back problems caused by a car accident, so Kirsty frantically started bathing her face to try and 'heal' her dry skin caused by the dry air and altitude here.The funniest thing about this place was the fact that the locals were desperate to know how we had found their springs, as they want to keep them all to themselves.When we explained they were in the Lonely Plant USA guide they were totally distraught and explained that even a huge book written about hot springs all over western America purposely put the directions to them in incorrectly to avoid tourists stumbling upon them!Rightly so, Kirsty says they made her day.From here we made our way to Taos (still in New Mexico) and stopped on the way to take a look at Sipapu Lodge Ski Resort where we had a good think about the benefits of a day's skiing against the cost of all the clothing we would need to buy. Unfortunately I have still not recovered from my cold, cold sores and bug, and I therefore had to admit that there would be no skiing in the next few days.The roads up to Taos were all snow covered, a few feet deep, and cyclones of snow swirl on the mountain roads.We were told to watch out for Elks crossing, but unfortunately did not see any.On arriving in Taos we went to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which is the second highest suspension bridge in the US and the views were once again stunning.The height was astounding and we just wish it was a clearer day as the snow was coming down thick and fast and the wind was blowing it all over the place.As Ralph's illness is getting worse by the hour, we checked into a hotel in Taos and he watched the Superbowl (New York Giants beat the New England Patriots) whilst I updated the blog.
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