Little green people and balloons

Wow.. it has been a busy last few days for Jim, Pat and Thor...

We started out visiting Roswell, New Mexico. If you have never visited Roswell, it is kind of a shock to your senses. The complete town is little green men crazy. Everything, stores, buildings, and all are painted with their ideas of how the "incident" came about.. To prove my comment, here is a picture of the local Wal-Mart...

We stayed at a cute little RV park in Roswell. It was very small, but it was super clean, and the owner was the sweetest young lady, who just wanted to talk, and talk about.. yes... those little green men. She told us about all the spots to visit.. and learn!

After visiting the UFO museum, which was very interesting, we HAD to visit the gift shop. Of course... how could I leave Roswell without key chains, coffee cups, pens, etc, all this little green men on them? then too.. we wanted to pick up little green men car antenna tops, for friends that we had promised.

A real kick was the street lights.. they were little people that covered the lights on the streets.

In case you would like to see them.. a picture follows. It was taken in front of the UFO museum, so guess it is appropriate.

Next was a trip out to the Bottomless Lakes State Park. We had been told that this was a rather interesting place to see, which it was. The Bottomless Lakes are a chain of eight lakes that are actually sinkholes that range from 17 to 90 feet deep. They were formed when circulating water dissolved salt and gypsum deposits to form subterranean caverns. Eventually, the roofs of the caverns collapsed from their own weight. Sinkholes resulted and soon filled with water and formed existing lakes. The park has a lovely RV camping area, along with swimming and places to picnic. One drives though the park, and are able to view the lakes and camping area along the way. The drive consists of a time period of close to 45 minutes. We were able to get out and take pictures, as well as just stay in our truck and enjoy.

One of the high points to our vacation was to be able to attend a event we had been wanting to see for years. It was the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. To say it was a awesome event would be putting it mildly. We were able to camp right on the field that the balloons were launched. No walking long distance, or having to have a shuttle take us to the field for us. Of course, we were packed in like little fish, but hey, who cares. We were in the second row! able to see the balloons from our camper, if we so wished... but that was not for us!! We were awakened at 5:30 in the morning!!! can you picture that? with sounds like you can not imagine.. what is that? Sounds like planes... no, it was the balloons being lighted up with these HUGE flames! Good gosh, it is still dark!! We had to forgo our coffee, grabbed our heavy jackets (it was COLD out there), and headed over to the field. Jim wanted to get pictures of daylight taking off. The pictures are a photographers dream. Over 600 balloons, from 16 countries are entered in the event. The launch field, where you are able to walk among the balloons all being inflated, and taking off, is over 80 acres. ( a lot of walking!!). Jim took pictures and pictures and pictures before the day was over. We, along with lots of other folks were so excited about seeing this awesome event. We will put in some of the pictures we took during the day.. hope you can enjoy them as much as we did.

They informed us that there were over 70,000 here today. I can believe it... What we can't believe is ... we were picked out by a reporter, Charles D. Brunt a Staff writer for the Albuquerque Journal newspaper and his photographer!!

He asked us all about our being at the festival, where we were from, and all. He says it will be in the paper tomorrow.. we will see.. :-) In case you don't believe me, here is a picture of me and the reporter...

The next day we picked up the paper, and lo and behold, there we were! The photographer did a fine job, and the article that was written was very nice too. When we get back home Jim will scan the picture and article and we will put it out so that you can read it too.

Tonight is the fire works. That will probably be a blast too. Guess Jim will have to get out the tripod for his camera for that.

our next adventure will be the RV Rally in Kerrville, Texas. Wow... I can't wait for that too...

Guess we will have to go home to get rested up from all our vacation.. :-) but we are really enjoying ourselves, and feel so thankful the good Lord has given us all this joy ...

Till our next post.. take care, all.... and not to forget.......Walk Softly.....

Pat, Jim and Thor

Indian Nation and tornado alley

Wow... if you like wind, the place for you to visit is Oklahoma!

I have seen windy conditions before, but Oklahoma has everyone beat... hands down. That, and the worse roads you can not imagine Our poor little Thor has been shaken, tossed, and generally just abused from one end of this state to the other. Mr. Jim is going to have to tighten down every bolt in Thor. To make things worse, we took our new bikes along for this trip, and they took a terrible beating too. The other day we had to stop at a bike store, to purchase a new bike rack that would be stronger, and hold the bikes more secure. That emptied our pockets about $300.00!! But, thankfully, the owner liked our "old" one, an bought it from us for $100.00. I say "old", when it was only used a couple of times, which was a difficult pill to swallow. But.. it had to be. The new one holds two bikes individually, not bundled together like the original one. It does not seem to shake and shudder as much as the original one did. Oh well, all in the things you just deal with while on the road.

We stayed at a nice park in Oklahoma, called Terra Star RV Park. When driving in, we noticed a bunker.. yes... a bunker. I told you it was not called "tornado alley" for nothing. But, bless their hearts, they wanted it to look pretty if it HAD to be there. So, it is painted with such pretty pictures. We walked over there, just to look it over, and a couple of men were on the grounds working, and told us "go on in.. it's open. So, me being a curious soul, I drug poor Jim in with me.


Hard to describe, kind of like a long, dark cave. But it had fans, and a long table, where they all played cards while havoc is being played out side. Odd, huh? I asked one of the men, when the last time it was used. He just laughed and said "the other night". Oh dear. I knew the storms were bad down the way, where we were, but guess it must have been worse here. Even the entrance door is painted.. isn't it cute?

With all the rain we have had, we were both starting to feel rather wrinkled. We were just wanting to see SUNSHINE again!! One night it rained and rained... so hard, with winds whipping everything around, and suddenly.. it just stopped! Jim looked out the window, and when I turned around, he was out the door.... with his camera. When looking out, I saw what he was wanting to capture. It was the Largest rainbow!!! we called it a "sherbert rainbow". The colors

were brilliant... and "sherbert" colored!! We wish we could have gotten a better picture.. this just does not capture the size and blinding brilliant color, fully, but it does somewhat. We both

agreed that our Lord really outdid himself with this beautiful display..

Finally... we made it through Oklahoma, and it was on to Texas. It is windy here too!! an HOT.

I am asking myself, why, oh why, did I bring along all these fall clothes? We have been over to the mall a few times, just to get short sleeve shirts, and shorts already. I just can't win!

Today we went to see a "must see" here in Amarillo. It is the famous Cadillac Ranch. It has even been on television. I had to admit.. it is truly "odd". The Cadillacs average 1500 visitors a day. Inspired by Stanley Marsh, a Amarillo legend, famous for his fanciful creations. The Ranch consists of 10 Eldorado Cadillacs, buried nose first in a farm field. It is one of those things you just have to see to believe.

We will be here, in a place called the Oasis RV Park for a few days, and it will be on the road again for Thor, Pat and Jim again. Our next stop will be in Roswell, NM. Have to pick up a few little aliens for car antennas for a family we promised. It is kind of a kinky, weird place... but it has wonderful photo opportunities. Just so odd, you find yourself kind of wondering... do you kind of question.. was there something to this place? Stayed tuned, and we will be writing about it, and sending along some pictures... to make you "kind of wonder" too... ::-)

Till then.. take care .... and as always.... Walk Softly

Jim, Pat and Thor