Victoria and I were looking for a change of scenery, so we decided to take a three-day weekend to Roswell, New Mexico. It didn't take long to see a bit of a scenery change.
We stopped at Schlotzsky's to grab something to eat and then rode off into the setting sun.
It was soon dark and we made it for our planned stop for the night in San Angelo, The Microtel.
The next day's driving was flat and full of oil wells.
When we hit New Mexico, it was still flat and full of oil wells.
We made it to Roswell a while later and we could really see the alien thing is huge there.
Being the jerky lover I am, our first stop was at GTO Beef Jerky to get some jerky.
We then had a look downtown by the courthouse.
The jerky I got earlier wasn't a meal (also Victoria isn't a fan of jerky) so we headed over for some good New Mexican-style Mexican food at Los Cerritos Mexican Kitchen.
After eating, we drove around more. Some of the alien stuff really caught our eye including this Dunkin' Donuts.
There was also this quirky souvenir shop called Invasion Station that had an El Camino out front and was hocking a bunch of alien wares.
After buying a few magnets, we headed to the visitor center. I noticed some cool street art as I walked around the building to go inside.
Once we looked around inside, we started walking some more. You can definitely tell they take pride in the alien thing.
All that walking brought us to one of the main attractions in town, the UFO Museum. We went inside and checked it out.
Our minds were numb with the sheer volume of information we learned at the UFO Museum. We decided to walk a little more and go to Sippy and Opals for some locally-made ice cream.
We wanted to have a low-key night so we headed to Albertson's and got a few local products.s. They didn't have the beer I was looking for, so we then headed over to Black Cock Brewery.
We got back to the hotel and started to think what would be good for dinner.
Little Caesars was around the corner and pizza would definitely hit the spot. We got a pizza, breadsticks, and some wings and just relaxed for the rest of the night.
The next morning, I decided to get up early and head to Bottomless Lakes State Park. Victoria wanted to sleep in so I took in the Next Mexican beauty by myself that morning.
Another place that was recommended to me was the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. This place was a no-frills area that I pretty much had to myself.
I drove the dirt road around the refuge and then headed back to the hotel. Unlike the oil wells I had saw the day before, it was cool seeing a massive solar farm.
I got back to the hotel and Victoria was awake. We were both hungry and tried to go to Big D's Downtown diner, but found it was closed on Sunday. This place was really highly recommended so I definitely need to check it out next time.
Another highly recommended place was Cowboy Cafe.
I had the Alien Omelette with chicken fried bacon.
After eating, Victoria and I hopped into the car. I discovered this really cool local grocery store called Farmer's Country Market.
There was a lot of good stuff at Farmer's Country Market. We bought a few things and then headed to the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art had a lot of cool art pieces and we took our time there. Our next stop was the Spring River Park and Zoo to check out what that had to offer.
As you can see, we had done a lot of exploring. I told Victoria how beautiful it was at the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. I mentioned how we wouldn't even need to get out of the car if we wanted to explore. She thought it would be nice to check it out, so we headed out in the car and went out there.
I still had my state park pass for the day, so I put it back on the windshield and we headed out to Bottomless Lakes State Park.
It was definitely more crowded than what I had experienced earlier that morning.
We had done a lot of exploring and headed back to the hotel. We had leftover pizza, beer, and I had some jerky for dessert.
The next morning, we had to say goodbye to Roswell. We ate breakfast and then hit the road.
It wasn't long before we were back in Texas and into some very different terrain.
The trip was great and we brought some great things back to try. At Albertson's, we found this New Mexico Pinon Coffee was very bold and provided a good pick-me-up.
At Farmer's Country Market we found this cool hot sauce with a sombrero.
We also found these spicy Tapatio-flavored Doritos. In many ways, it reminded me of Ketchup-flavored Doritos with a lot more spice.
A final thing we found was Nativo jerky.
Just like the jerky from GTO, this jerky was dry and crispy like a chip. There was also hot sauce included with it.
We definitely covered a lot of ground during our Roswell trip. I can definitely say Roswell loves the aliens, but I found a lot of other things that make Roswell great in its own right.
