No visit to the Carlsbad area is complete without a visit to Roswell, home of the most famous UFO crash site. So one fine day, we mounted the motorcycle and rode north to see the aliens! It was election day, so somehow that seemed appropriate …..

Roswell is also home to the international UFO museum. The museum described the events of the 1947 incident in great detail through first person accounts and affidavits. Allegedly, all of the physical evidence was taken by the military (soon after, Area 51 was formed) and eyewitnesses were threatened to stay silent about what they had witnessed. The eyewitnesses seemed pretty credible to me! The truth is out there …..

The museum isn’t very large — essentially just one big room. It only took us about an hour to peruse the exhibits and take a few alien pics. After fortifying ourselves with a hot beverage and snack at the local Stellar Coffee, we continued on our motorcycle loop.

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Our ride took us from desert floor upward into the nearby mountains. As we increased elevation, we entered pine forests and passed small lakes. We even saw snow, melting along the hillsides. We soon arrived at the town of Ruidoso, home to several casinos. We popped into one, just for fun. I tossed $20 into a couple of slot machines and won a quick $1.50. Woo-hoo, winner winner chicken dinner!! However, on the whole, casinos just aren’t that much fun in these COVID days. With many restrictions and social distancing, it just isn’t the same experience.

Back on the bike, we headed down the mountain almost reaching the town of Alamagordo, then turned left, back up the mountain to the tiny hamlet of Cloudcroft. Perched at 8700 feet, it was 20 degrees cooler here than at the desert valley floor. We stopped at a small local pub and tucked into a tasty burger and beer, while perusing the unusual wallpaper. (The pub’s TV channel was tuned to early election results — couldn’t get entirely away from it!)

After our late lunch, we climbed aboard for the nearly 2 hour ride back to our campground, arriving just as the sun set. It was quite an epic ride for us, about 270 miles. But it was an absolutely beautiful journey through desert, mountains, forest …. and aliens!