On our way to Santa Fe, we had to stop in Roswell, New Mexico. Here we are at our home for two days. We got this camp site at Midway RV Park for half price with our Passport America. It is sure not worth the full price! We aren’t complaining though; it is simply a place to sleep for two nights.

We had to go into town to see what all the hoopla about aliens is about. I was always so skeptical about the stories of aliens and flying saucers. However, after hearing the stories and listening to the eyewitness reports, it sure is hard to discredit those stories. Especially after I found out they actually had a body that they did an autopsy on. One day after the sightings, all witnesses were warned to keep quiet forever and the evidence was boxed up and flown out of Roswell to parts unknown. Government coverup?

We stopped for a beverage at the Black Cock Brewery before heading home to a fridge full of left overs.

On Sunday, we took a long drive through the mountains. It was kind of neat to see snow on the mountains that fell last night.

Our first stop was the town of Lincoln, a well preserved town where a 5 days war was fought in the 1870’s when an established business man and a new comer fought over economic control of the county. Billy the Kid sided with the newcomer. He eventually killed the sheriff, was caught, tried and convicted of murder but escaped.

We ate lunch at a little bed and breakfast in a house once owned by James Dolan, the established businessman involved in the conflict.

We continued on our journey through the hills and came across many mentions of Smokey the Bear. It turns out Smokey was born in these mountains. He was found as a young cub, badly burned and clinging to a tree during a fire in the Capitan mountains in 1950. Fire rangers rescued him and took him back to the town of Capitan to be nursed back to health.

The Smokey slogan, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” had been coined in 1944 but this little rescued cub became the living symbol for the next 25 years. After he was healed, he was taken to the National Zoo in Washington DC where he lived the rest of his life. He was returned to Capitan for burial after he died.

I was interested in the air strip here, in the middle of no where. But then, this is close to the nuclear testing at Alamagordo and the NFO sightings of Roswell.