Friday Foto ~ Partly Cloudy

 

Purple Cows and Spinning Chickens

 

Just before leaving Roswell we decided to search for one more letterbox located within Spring River Park and Zoo, a little community park and small zoo, located on 34 acres near the center of Roswell.

(This charming purple cow was hand-carved in France)

The zoo and park are both free for all visitors and is a true gem for the citizens of Roswell. Besides the animals, which include native species of animals as well a few species from around the world, most that have been injured or are un-releasable into the wild. There is also a Children’s Zoo with goats, chickens and llamas, and a Livestock area with miniature horses and Longhorn Cattle.

(This peacock was walking across the parking lot in front of our van)

(Most of the animals were taking it easy in the shade on this very hot day, like this sleeping Bobcat)

There is also a miniature train that was added in 1976 to give rides around the park. The park also features a small fishing lake, covered picnic shelters, a play ground, a hiking trail along the Spring River, green grass and lots of huge shade trees, too.

But the pearl within the oyster is the antique wooden horse carousel located within the heart of the park.

This carousel is a real treasure is one of about a hundred left in the United States and features hand-carved wooden horses and animals from various artisans from all over the world.

What surprised me the most, was that the cost to take a ride on this treasure, and be transported back through history, was only $.25 a ticket!

Inside the Carousel barn, they had a copy of a newspaper showing some of the history of this carousel, along with photos.

But once we got home, I did more research on this site: National Carousel Association.

I have always had a love affair with antique wooden carousels. How about you? Do you have a favorite carousel or fond memories of riding carousels?

(This Rooster was hand-carved in France. Jen wanted to ride it, but it was just too big for her to climb up)

(So Jen chose this smaller rooster to ride instead)

Whenever we visit a new place, I try to discover if the area has a carousel so we can have a ride. My daughter and I could ride them all day and have done just that. Our local Amusement Park, Cliff’s, has a more modern carousel, and when we visit, my twinlings will go off and ride coasters, while Jen and I pretty much just sit on twirling, spinning ponies all day.

(I can see that I should have ridden a larger horse, or maybe that mega rooster, but this little pony reminded me of my Apache. Plus I can see how weary I was. It was getting so hot and we were all feeling the effects of the heat and some dehydration. Right after this ride we left the park and gorged on cold stuff at Sonic Drive-In)

Oftentimes when we have ridden, the carousel operator just lets us stay on, while other riders come and go. One of our local Malls has a modern carousel, too, but we haven’t been in years because I just don’t like Malls, plus they charge $2-$3 per ride and one ride is never enough, so it gets very expensive.

Anyway, this is the fascinating stuff that I discovered about the Spring River Park and Zoo Carousel:

*Park: Spring River Park

*Description: Spillman Engineering

*Carousel Class: Classic Wood Carousel

*Year Built: 1927

*Type: 3 rows, Park, All Wood composition

*Figures: 20 Jumping Horses, 1 Standing Horse, 1 Donkey, 15 Menagerie Animals (3 Roosters, 2 Deer, 1 Pig, 1 Rhino, 1 Zebra, 2 Dogs, 1 Ostrich, 1 Swan, 1 Tiger, 1 Lion, 1 Cow), 2 chariots

*Music: No Band Organ: Taped music

*Note: 2 chariots: Muller & Dentzel. International mix of figures inc. menagerie. Donated to city by Marianne Stevens in 1971.

*History: Rainbow Gardens, Wilkes Barre, PA, 1927 to 1971
Spring River Park, Roswell, NM, 1971 to present

*Directions/Hours: Park located at College & Atkinson Sts. Opens Easter weekend & runs through the last weekend of Sept. Hours 1-6 Wed - Sun

*Mailing Address: 1306 E College Blvd, Roswell, NM, 88201

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Both Jax and the flying Pig look very hot and tired.

This little deer was hand-carved in France

Isn’t this swan adorable? It’s just for the babies and toddlers to ride

Oh! If only we lived in Roswell, we would be visiting Spring River Park and riding the wooden carousel every chance we got!

See, there really is more to Roswell, New Mexico than just Little Green Men.

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