Vacation

Alien Stuff – Roswell, NM

We’re in Roswell, NM, home of the reported 1947 Alien spacecraft crash. The following account from History puts the issue in perspective:

In the summer of 1947, a rancher discovered unidentifiable debris in his sheep pasture outside Roswell, New Mexico. Although officials from the local Air Force base asserted that it was a crashed weather balloon, many people believed it was the remains of an extraterrestrial flying saucer; a series of secret “dummy drops” in New Mexico during the 1950s heightened their suspicions. Nearly 50 years after the story of the mysterious debris broke, the U.S. military issued a report linking the incident to a top-secret atomic espionage project called Project Mogul. Still, many people continue to embrace the UFO theory, and hundreds [thousands, I’m thinking – ED] of curiosity seekers visit Roswell and the crash site every year.

We are skeptical about aliens even considering the recent UFO controversy. Perhaps the sightings are of something more Biblical in nature, but who knows for sure but the Almighty.

After today’s dinner in Roswell, we went to the local gift shop and bought a couple of souvenirs:

We’ll be on the road again tomorrow heading somewhere southwest of here.

Albuquerque Solar Eclipse

We were blessed with clear skies and good weather as we witnessed today’s annular solar eclipse from Albuquerque, NM.

Image information: Camera: Canon EOS Rebel SL1, Lens: Canon EF 100-400 set at 400 mm focal length. Solar Filter: Thousand Oaks Optical 77mm. Click on the image to enlarge.

2023 October Road Trip

We’ve begun the trek to view the annular eclipse of the sun in Albuquerque, NM, this weekend. Tonight, we’re camped out in Holbrook, AZ.

Cabela and Tucker seem relaxed and content in the RV while we are resting overnight.

RV Shakedown

We got the RV out to the fuel pit yesterday to get some diesel. It had been running low what with the weekly start-ups of the engine and monthly generator run. All went well, and everything seemed to be working during the short jaunt to get gas.

Before we head out on our next excursion, we’re going to have to get some new tires and a replacement for the main awning. We also should get it in for service for fluids, pressures and etc. New windshield wipers are a must as well as a checkup of any other essential items before a major travel segment.

We’re looking forward to being on the road maybe sometime in October, if not a sooner, longer shakedown cruise.

Grand Canyon Weekend Gridlock

Yavapai Point Webcam — South Rim, GCNP

There is no doubt that vistas like the one above are scenic wonders that beckon most people to come see for themselves in person. That attraction to tourists, however, often results in traffic lineups as depicted below. Both images were saved from the web on Saturday 11/19/2022 at about ten AM AZ time. Click to enlarge.

GCNP South Entrance Station Webcam

We regularly visit the website of the Yavapai Point Webcam when we look at our weather report and forecast each day. That also prompts us to look at the South Entrance Webcam that shows the lineup of vehicles waiting to pay the fee (or show their pass) for admission to the park. We see that these two images were taken when there were a lot of folks headed into the park on a weekend. In contrast, we have seen the South Entrance stations at off hours when there are NO vehicles visible.

We checked the webcams again today and note that there are a lot of cars and campers waiting; this being the Thanksgiving holiday week, that is understandable. Last Monday, the queue to get in was very light.

Verna and I have been to the Canyon many times, and these days, as beautiful and spectacular as it is, we do not wish to compete with the millions of park visitors flocking there. So, we’re content with viewing from a distance courtesy of the NPS Webcams.

Old Tombstone Wagon in 3D

I found myself rummaging through some old photos in the archives today and found an image pair that I took in Tombstone, AZ back in 2009. This is a very old buckboard wagon from the 19th century that was sitting along one of the Tombstone side streets. I found the image pair I took back then and today merged them into the anaglyph image above (click to enlarge).

If you don’t happen to have a pair of red/cyan glasses handy, you can view the 2D version of the image here.