New Mexico and Colorado

The Walmart in New Mexico was a hoot. The entire town has really embraced the whole alien thing and the Walmart was no different, it was completely decked out with murals of aliens on the front of the building and on the bus stations. There was a whole section in the front of the store with alien stuff - from alien water to alien beer, magnets, postcards, you name it, they sold it. It was hysertical. And I swear the people that work there are not from this world. Such an odd bunch - I think I even saw a guy in an "Edgar suit"!

We walked around downtown Roswell for a little while and went in and out of the touristy alien shops. We even made a stop at the alien museum, but opted out of the tour and just headed to the gift shop. We had breakfast at this little cafe in town, nice folks - bad coffee.

So as we were in and out of the shops, I asked the one shop keepers where Area 51 was, she told me Nevada. Oops. We got to talking to one of the check out girls in the museum gift shop (see jerky flirt posting) and found out that nothing actually happened in Roswell. No spacecraft landing, no little green men with antenas, no flashy things in the sky. The reason Roswell is famous is because in 1947 Roswell was the closest major town to the landing site in northern AZ, 4 hours away. Good information to know. BTW - they say that there have been "sightings" in Roswell over the past 60+ years. Guess the little green men are salty that all their stuff is hiding out in a small town in NM.

After Roswell we headed north to Albuquerque (Abq from now on - that word is a pain to type), Home of the 5 Minute Shower. We arrived in Abq about 4:30 Monday afternoon and found a campsite to stay for the night. We checked in and found out that there is a limit on shower time this being the desert and all. So it's one 5 minute shower per person, per night. But ya see, we had not showered in a few days and really NEEDED a nice long hot shower. We asked if we could purchase another shower, but the painted lipped lady had to ask her husband first. In the end, they gave us each an extra token for another shower. We used them in the morning and took a nice long, hot shower before getting back on the road and heading into town.

During the night in NM, we had this crazy, crazy thunderstorm. Because even though we were in the desert it rained, like it always does, where ever we go. I kid you not, every place we have been to, it has rained. It rained in KY, in TN, in MO, OK, TX, NM, AZ. We could make a fortune as rainmakers. I swear to God. We actually saw and took pictures of "our cloud". See somewhere in the desert we were driving and saw these big beautiful white puffy clouds and in front of those clouds was a little dark cloud, just hanging out. That little dark cloud is ours, it follows us everywhere just to let us know it's thinking about us. Cute. Kinda.

So anyway back to the thunderstorm in NM, it was bad, like end of the world bad and so unbelieveably loud that it shook the ground and our tent. I woke Ike up to make sure he thought we were safe. He mumbled something and went back to sleep. Helpful. It was a long night for me. :(

A quick call to Tracy Tuesday afternoon and we found a great Mexican place for lunch. Can't be in the southwest and not have Mexican. The food was awesome and the server was hysterical. We couldn't do the Sandiea Peak tram tour thing that took you up the mountain in a gondola type thing because it was too hot for the dogs to stay in the car, so we headed out of Abq and figured out where to go next.

Where to go next was a question...we had had enough of the desert heat for a while so we decided to head to Colorado. I heard a rumor that there was free beer in CO.

We drove all night from NM to CO and arrived about an hour outside Golden CO about 2 am Wednesday and slept in another Walmart parking lot. I have to say there is nothing more humbling than brushing your teeth in a Walmart parking lot. :)

We toured the Coors brewery the next morning (Wednesday) and got there early enough that we were in line when the first tour bus pulled up. We got on the second tour bus and it was such a cool tour. They even gave you free beer during the tour and 3 free beers after - it was awesome! After the tour we ate lunch in the Safeway parking lot overlooking the streets of Golden and then headed to Vail and Aspen. The drive was VERY windy...holy crap! Vail was pretty cool and a cute little town. Aspen was horrible, prententious and snotty....but really beautiful.

The drive through the Rockies was absolutly breathtaking. The mountains are incredible. We camped about an hour outside of Aspen on Wednesday night. The views from the campsite were amazing. Words can't really describe it.

On Thursday we drove through Aspen and made our way to Utah.