Well here we are safe and sound in Chula Vista.
For those who are not "in the know" it is about 8 miles
southwest of San Diego. We got in a day earlier than anticipated
and it was just in time. I have had enough driving to last for a while.
To finish up our Roswell adventure we stopped for dinner at
Galactic Sushi (no we didn't eat any raw fish). It was an interesting
restaurant all done up in sci-fi. Signed pictures of all the star trek
actors covered the walls along with other science fiction memorabilia. A
nice place other than the very bad Karaoke going on.
The next morning before we left town we stopped at the
International center for the study of UFOs. Now they take UFOs very
seriously in this place. They had all the information on the
conspiracy and cover up of the crash, but then they pushed on from there and
had a whole area dedicated to alien abductions, another on the ancient
astronauts, another on .... well you get the idea. And they take this all
as Gospel. Aliens may not be alive and well in Roswell, but you
wouldn't know if from stopping in the Center.
Since I last posted an entry we have visited the White Sands
National Monument, seen the Saguaro cactus in all its massive glory,
driven though the Cleveland National Forest (forests down here mostly mean
scrub brush and if you are lucky some stunted mesquite trees), and crossed more
miles of desert then I think I ever wanted to see.
The most interesting of the places we
saw was White Sands. Imagine huge sand dunes all the purest white.
It was like massive mounds of snow. And the way the park is set up you
can drive out among the dunes. So we did. The RV towing the jeep
out on the sands. Along the path we saw people sledding on the
dunes. Yep, disk sleds skimming their way down the dunes as if they
really were made of snow. Now the really interesting thing is that some
things actually live there. A few lizards, some birds and mice
mostly. I am not sure what they eat other than each other, but apparently
they live in this barren landscape.
Now interestingly
enough another use for the White Sands is as a missile test range.
As you are driving down Interstate 70 you see signs that warn you when the
highway is closed for missile tests. For example if we had been 2
days earlier we would have had a 3 hour wait while the interstate was closed
down for a set of tests. Seriously they close the interstate to run these
tests.
Another interesting situation happened earlier today.
As we were cruising down Highway 8 we came across a Border Patrol Checkpoint.
Now granted we were only a few miles away from the Mexican border, but
we were not planning on going across the border and the highway we were on
didn't go in that direction. But nevertheless they stopped all the
traffic on the highway and checked for illegal aliens (not the Roswell
kind). A third stop was as we came into California. There they were
checking to make sure that you didn't bring fruit into California.
I am fairly sure that if they just decided to close I-80 and
ask each car some questions there would be more than a couple of
complaints. But down here in the wild west apparently this is
normal.
By the way - if anyone wants to move down here. Desert land in Arizona apparently goes for between $25 - $50 an acre in 1000 acre lots. So you can have your own 10,000 acres of scrub covered, tumbleweed rich land for as little as $250,000. My guess is they will offer you a discount on larger purchases.
The next few days we will explore some of what San Diego has
to offer, we will check out the stadium (as we always do before the game day),
we will let you know what the San Diego fans think of the game and we will try
San Diego's signature dish (the fish taco). Stay tuned for
more in the next couple of days.
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