solo road trip day #1

warning: this blog is boring. sorry readers, but I'm tired and I'm pretty sure this is borning.

I had a busy, emotional day yesterday followed by a wonderful, grounding evening. I got to have dinner with a friend and had good food and really good conversation. I was a bit of a chatterbox, but I think that happens when I start telling stories. After dinner I went back to Dolly's and talked a lot more. I was so excited for my trip I woke up multiple times in the night thinking it was time to wake up! I had a really crazy dream in which I was trying to get to Shambhala Mountain Center, but the only way there was through a series of caves, and the caves were flooded (not to the ceiling, but with big lakes replacing the paths that I 'remembered'. I was pretty freaked out by the idea of abandoning the car and trying to swim across these flooding trails to get to SMC. I eventually did get in the water and crossed one part successfully. I was floating really well. Floating on my back, even. When I got to the other side I looked around the corner and saw there was another deep lake that needed to be crossed. I said, this is crazy, even if I do get across and get to smc, how will I get all the stuff back? I'm going to get all our stuff in the big red plastic boxes...that stuff won't float! Luckily there were others around who had experience with floods and when we decided to come back another time, the waters had all receded. weird, eh?

So on to the road trip.

I left Boulder this morning at 7:30 am with a plan to drive and drive and drive all the way to Roswell, NM. My hope was to arrive by 4pm so I could have an hour at the International UFO Museum & Research Center before they close at 5pm.

I had quite a lovely morning. The weather in Boulder was cool, and there wasn't much traffic in Denver. Things were pretty smooth sailing for the morning. I had good music: my ipod was set on shuffle, so I got a great mix of my tunes. It was so fun to get a Peter Gabriel song followed by Billy Idol followed by Death Cab for Cutie followed by ABBA followed by ZZ Top followed by Rickie Lee Jones (and on and on and on).

Since I was with just myself, I gave a big cheer when I reached the New Mexico border. Unfortunately, I didn't think to try to get a photo of the border sign. It really isn't that interesting, I suppose, so you can just imagine a big sign that says "welcome to New Mexico".

Hm. this really is a boring blog so far. Let's try to spice it up....oh, wait, I was in a car all day by myself...not too much exciting stuff to report. I stopped for food and fuel in Raton, NM, and had what I think will be the only fast food on this trip. McDonalds fries seemed like such a good idea at the time...yuk. There was a pretty nasty construction traffic on NM-84, with multiple long periods of being stopped in a line of cars waiting for a pilot car to lead us through the tangle, and I got seriously delayed.

I finally made it to Roswell after 9 hours and 560 miles. Sadly, even going straight to the UFO museum, I only got there 5 minutes before 5pm. They let me in for free and I jammed through the exhibits. No time to read captions on photos, just looking while walking past! I was surprised that the museum was more substantial than I would have thought. I zipped through to the gift shop before they shut down and got myself a new mug with the International UFO Museum logo on it! I think this is better than one with a cartoon alien face, don't you.

After the museum, I located my motel, checked in, unloaded a little, spent a little time laying on the bed reading blogs and checking weather forecasts for tomorrow before gathering myself up again to get some dinner. I ended up at a cute local place called "Nuthin' Fancy Cafe". I had black-eyed peas, cornbread, and fried okra for dinner while reading a Neil Gaiman book. Not as good as having company, but the food was tasty and filling, and I enjoyed having a little reading time today.

tomorrow I had hoped to go to Carlsbad Caverns, but I heard a rumor that there is a lot of construction on the road to Carlsbad, so I'm thinking about skipping it in favor of a better route. I figure I'll see how I feel in the morning and make a decision then.

I did take some photos today while driving (yes, it could be dangerous, but I only pulled out the camera when there were NO other cars around. I promise!) You can see today's photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/1JennieSanchez

will update ya'll from somewhere in TX!