Little Green Men

 

After the Family Dinner, the skits, and the campfire music were over, we bedded down for the night in our bunkhouse. Jen enjoyed sleeping in a bunkbed and Dobbie just goes with the flow. As long as she can tuck herself down underneath the blankets, she’s a happy clam. And as I fell asleep, the most beautiful sound on earth serenaded me to sleep: Rain, Blessed Rain.

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In the morning, I woke up at 7am and went for a long walk around the ranch, before any of the other campers awoke. It was a great way to start the day. When I got back, it was time for breakfast, followed by packing up all our stuff, to head on down the road. After Jax and Jem shared many goodbyes and hugs, we were on our way.

Our first stop was just a few miles down the road at the Smokey Bear Historical Park, where we were going to find a letterbox.

Smokey Bear’s Gravesite

It is a beautiful, peaceful area to just enjoy nature, and that’s just what we did after returning the letterbox to it’s hiding place.

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Another mile down the road, we stopped for another letterbox and after stamping in, tried to entice the cattle to pose for photos, but with our monsoon season blessing us with daily rain, the grass is just too good for any self-respecting cow to even take one moment away from munching, to pose for the camera.

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Moving on. We drove right on through the historic town of Lincoln, NM, the former stomping grounds of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid broke out of jail for the last time in Lincoln, killing Deputy J. W. Bell and U. S. Marshall Bob Ollinger, in the process. We didn’t stop to visit this time because we were just there last year. You can check out that post and all it’s photos with this link: Lincoln, New Mexico.

Soon after we drove through the little town of Hondo, and then about 45 miles further east, we finally reached Roswell, where we had planned to do some exploring and letterboxing.

  

We were hungry as soon as we arrived and we thought it would be fun to eat inside the only Space Ship designed McDonald’s in the world.

 

Smurfs look like aliens, too.

Afterwards, we went in search of a place to hide our own letterbox….and we did.

We thought the location was perfect! We hope others do, too.

Then we drove back down Main Street, checking out all the Little Green Men everywhere we looked.

We then found a quiet, deeply shaded, cool and breezy bank parking lot to park the van, so that Dobbie could wait inside with the windows open, so we could head inside the International UFO Museum and Research Center to look for a letterbox.

It was simple to find. All we had to do was ask for it in the library. The lady also gave the kids some packets filled with educational material about UFOs, the Roswell Crash Site and Cover Up, and lots of fun, entertaining, collectable goodies.

The Research Library was a very cool place to explore and while I stamped into the letterbox, Jem found an interesting book, from the Area 51 Series, to read about the famous top secret Area 51 in Nevada.

 

The letterbox packaging was cleverly done inside the book, with a cut out area inside for the stamp and logbook. There were also additional clues inside for two bonus boxes to find later.

So, have you ever seen a UFO?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one, but when we lived in Rio Rancho, NM about 17 years ago, I saw Ball Lightning, which at the time was pretty terrifying because I’d never seen a blue ball of lightning traveling across the ground before. It was only about a mile from our house on the desert mesa, and I must admit that after I watched for a few minutes, I closed the door and locked it and said a little prayer.

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Anyway, after we got everything put away and cleaned up, we explored inside the museum for a little while.

 

 

Afterwards we walked outside to search for the two bonus boxes and once found, we walked back to the van. I was worried about Dobbie, but she was just fine. In fact, the ice in my soda hadn’t even melted, so I was very relieved. We drove around exploring some side streets and enjoying all the unique murals and storefronts with Little Green Men.

And then we drove further into Roswell, to look for another local letterbox inside of a little community zoo and park.

 

Up Next: Purple Cows and Spinning Chickens