On my northwest trip several years ago, I was walking along a trail in the early morning. I was wearing a bright red jacket to protect against the chilly air. A hummingbird stopped and hovered about a foot from my chest. I stopped. He/she looked at me with one eye, then turned and looked at me with the other eye. Finally, probably after a mere 2.5 seconds, seeing no place to poke his/her beak to get nectar, he/she zipped away. Next time I come West I am going to wear only red shirts to attract the hummingbirds.
I took a short hike. I through my boomerang is a small clearing near the flagpole. Eventually, it landed twenty feet up in a pine tree. Fortunately, landscaping around the flagpole provided numerous throwing stones. Unfortunately, I don't throw rocks as accurately as I used to. One rock would go too high. So I would overcompensate and the next rock would go too low. One branch blocked several throws that might have liberated my boomerang. Eventually, after about 20 throws, I succeeded and my boomerang dropped free. That discouraged my boomerang throwing for the rest of the day.
During this trip I have been mulling over the idea of throwing boomerangs off cliffs. The idea of throwing sticks off cliffs and not losing them because they return might seem fun to some people. I have even thought of a contest called boomerang horseshoes. The returning boomerang landing closest to the cliff's edge earns points.
After the boomerang incident, we spent rest of the day relaxing. We read. We napped. We read. We napped. Kathy worked on her blog posting.
Just before the sun went down we took a short nature trail hike. A sign at the head of the trail claimed the trail was closed because of fire damage. However, the campground host said the trail was now open for adults. A fire in December 2007 left a lot of burnt timber standing which might fall. When we walked the trail we saw very little standing burnt timber. We saw some burnt living trees. We were amazed at how many living trees remained.
We went to bed.
The next morning as we prepared the vehicle to drive to Roswell, we discovered the mechanism that turns the spool for unwinding the awning would not wind up the awning. After 30 minutes of struggle, we cut off the canvas and pushed the aluminum frame closed. Since the canvas was now missing, the aluminum frame would not stay closed on its own. We had to duct tape it closed. For those of you that think everything is idyllic on our vacation, here we have evidence that "stuff" happens.
After completing this operation we drove to Roswell stopping to check our email using an open Wifi connection at an RV camp in Mountainaire.
We arrived in Roswell at about 2 pm. We entered from the North, driving down Main Street past big box chain store after big box chain store. It reminded us of Ninth Street in Salina. And, in fact, Roswell is just slightly larger than Salina. We also passed New Mexico Military Institute. Later, in our reading, we learned that NMMI is the Alma mater of Will Rogers, Sam Donaldson and some other fairly well-known people. Finally we passed through downtown where the International UFO Museum and Research Center is surrounded by UFO souvenir shops.
After registering at a campground, we had lunch at a restaurant recommended by the staff at the Visitors Center. Then we went to the UFO museum. It was about 3 pm and, since the museum closes at 5 pm, we postponed our museum visit until the next day, and went to the gift shop instead. We also visited many of the other souvenir shops around the museum until they too closed at 5 pm.
Chris thought the souvenir shops shabby and uninspired. We were the only persons in many of the shops. Several shops were not completely full of merchandise. The messages on the t-shirts lacked the amusing cleverness Chris had hoped to see. Only the UFO Museum 's shop had books and videos about UFOs and even its selection was tiny and uninspired compared to the hundreds of books and videos, fiction and non-fiction, made about UFOs, not to mention related science fiction books and videos.
The most interesting shop we found (for Chris) was the “Not of This World (Heavenly) Cafe.” This cafe appears fairly well-maintained. It sells fancy coffees, Italian sodas, sandwiches, provides Internet, but it also has a circulating Christian library and promotes an anti-alien message. Chris first assumed they are attacking the “new age” ideas often associated with belief in UFOs, but he was wrong.Their Web site AlienResistance.org explains that the "hosts of heaven" mentioned in the Bible are aliens. They are not demons in the traditional sense. Traditional demons have no bodies. These aliens have bodies, but " they seek to 'mingle with the seed of men' (Daniel 2:43 KJV) and to turn humanity away from the worship of the true God - often claiming to be our creators and/or spirit-guides." In addition to this coffee shop, this group also promotes its views at conferences. The shop sold CDs and DVDs of the speeches at a conference in Titusville, Florida.
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