Chili, I mean. And if you ever decide on visiting New Mexico, it might be a good question to ask yourself… Yesterday Lauren, Gabe, and I took a day trip out to Roswell, NM on a whim — a whim that we created on the mention of flying out to uncharted territories for lunch! Ah, the life of a jet setter. :~) After a few days of discussing and planning, we saved the date for a Tuesday morning. We would depart from the DFW International Airport early in the morning, return to it no later than seven in the evening and essentially conquer all there was to see in Roswell in five hours! All talks of travel as the days grew closer succeeded in stirring up lots of excitement from everyone.
But, why Roswell?
When I was a kid, I discovered a passion for aliens inside of the movie E.T. (Ever seen that one?) I continued to spend time watching other alien-films, reading about extraterrestrials, and entertaining ideas that involved conversing with life from other parts of our galaxy. I fantasized about traveling to visit the crash just outside of Roswell, and of visiting the Area 51 base in Nevada from a young age. Well, now that I’ve started a career with American Airlines I figure, what’s stopping me? Lauren likes spooky stuff, I love aliens. It could only mean one thing, right? Why NOT go to the Alien Capital of the U.S.? It would be an easy flight, perfect to grab lunch, and just get away for a while. So I dropped the idea on Lauren, and it was a hit! We planned our flights, the date, and Lauren even got Gabe to come along with us.
Tuesday morning, the pair showed up at my apartment at 9 am and after a quick run-through to make sure everything was in order (we only brought carry-ons, just enough for cards and cash for souvenirs and lunch!) we loaded up into my car and headed out to the airport. A little tip, especially for trips like this where you’re moving the entire time, a mobile charger is totally necessary. It was a fairly smooth transition from the employee’s lot to our terminal: we hopped straight onto the bus without delay and made it to our gate for boarding with time to spare. Once our plane departed, it was a straight shot into ROW Airport, a quick flight of only an hour and ten minutes. We took the Pecos Trails Transit down to Main Street, and found Starchild, a touristy shop that also doubled as the set of the ~Crashdown Cafe~ in the show “Roswell.” It was a fun shop (the flying saucer structure built to look as if it had crashed into the building was the icing on the cake for me), and when we had finished there, we all agreed it was time for lunch so we popped into El Toro Bravo Bakery. Such a neat little Mexican restaurant on the corner of Main! The food was tasty too!
After lunch, we took a walk a couple blocks down Main and paid a visit to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. I found it especially pleasurable because it was chock full of amazing information: “Eyes Only” documents addressed to Eisenhower, personal accounts, photos of unidentified flying objects, artwork, and more. I would recommend paying it a visit if you’re interested in extraterrestrials, or even if you’re just in the area. It’s a wonderfully educative establishment. ;~)
Once we had made our way through the museum, we popped into the gift shop and rummaged for our souvenirs and moved on to a few other souvenir shops nearby. One of these had life-size alien statues inside, and of course, we snapped some photos with them! When we finally finished exploring Roswell’s touristy side, Lauren spotted an adorable coffee shop called the Stellar Coffee Company. The shop itself had lovely murals of the galaxy painted outside, and the inside was just as nice… with a nostalgic feel, conjured up by the dimmed lights and nineties grunge music playing indoors. The atmosphere was lovely, the people were great, and the coffee was some of the best I’ve ever had. If that’s not a top-notch reason to support local companies, I’m not sure what is!
We hung around in Stellar for about half an hour before we made our way back to the bus stop, boarded our bus and took it back to the airport. Just in time to avoid the rain as it began to fall, though we did get a little wet making our way out to the plane, next time we will be packing emergency ponchos. No big deal, it felt like something out of a movie! Our flight back to DFW was just as quick, if not quicker than the flight out of it, and getting home was a bit of a drag for me. Though I love living in the Lone Star State, I always find myself with post-travel nostalgia!
All in all, though, it was a lovely trip and a dream come true to experience. We didn’t encounter any live star-beings this go-around, but we did all learn some interesting things about the incident back in 1947. And hey, there’s always next time! Just remember: Roswell, New Mexico has lovely people and interesting things to learn, with a tremendous history behind it.
The truth is out there!