It was a dark and moonless night. They bounced down a rutted dirt road searching the night. The glimmer of sunset in far horizon had faded away miles ago. UFOs had been known in these fields and Area 51 was not far away. Suddenly two green glowing lights appear in the road in front of them. The dust drifting forward from the abrupt braking obscured everything ahead. As the dust cleared a second set of glowing lights joined the first set. Should they continue or was retreat the more prudent option. Slowly they crept forward. The car barely moving until everything became clear. The outline of a shape, darker black against the black of night. A small black cow and her even blacker girlfriend standing in the middle of the road.
This was the scene a few hours ago as we were searching for the marker where UFOs crash landed near Roswell, NM oh those many years ago. Most of the town seems to have put their notoriety behind them, but there are still many stores with little green men inviting you to come inside. The worlds only UFO decorated McDonald is here as is the International UFO museum and research center. But you can't find a UFO themed restaurant and there are only a couple of UFO shops in town. Mostly Roswell is just another boring mid-America town as they have abandoned all that made them unique. I don't know if I am more disappointed that my illusion of what I pictured Roswell as being from TV shows and movies is lost, or if it is the loss of the wonder and imagination that Roswell itself had given up.
We are on our way to San Diego to watch the Bears take on the Chargers and Roswell was a short side trip. What fun is there in traveling around the country in an RV if you don't take advantage of being able to stop here and there on the way? Anyway, I think the Bears have a good shot at winning this one and I hope they do. While I don't believe there is a prayer of them making the playoffs and if some miracle occurred and they did, I don't see them getting past the first round, I do enjoy watching a good game and if they lose at the last minute like they did the past two games, well that just helps keep the draft position high. All that being said I really don't like being in an opponents stadium when they lose. So as far as I am concerned they just need to win two more games this year. They have to be competitive in all of them, but they need to win two. This Monday against the Chargers and Thanksgiving against the Packers. If they did that, finished 4 and 12, were competitive in the remaining games and got a top 4 draft position, I think they would have had about the best season we could have hoped for given all the changes. With a solid offense, and a few good core defensive players, they can draft a difference maker or two and a few solid players and be very competitive next year.
Ok, so I have been accused of being overly optimistic at times, but I really think they can turn it around in a year or two with some really good drafting.
Part of the trip down we paralleled the old Route 66. So we got to see giant Paul Bunyan statues, Indian TPs, a pink elephant, long horn cow statues, a rusty metal sculpture garden, a giant cowboy statue, the quarter horse hall of fame and more garishly painted motels than you can shake a stick at. We also saw a lot of abandoned motels, empty restaurants, and building after building of empty stores. In some ways it was a look back at a simpler time, in others a reminder of how those times are gone and so many towns are going away with them. We also saw a row of lit up Christmas displays and as I was recently reminded every time a Christmas display is lit up before Thanksgiving an elf drowns a poor baby reindeer. So save those cute reindeer and wait until after Thanksgiving to light up.
A more football post along with a stadium review will be coming in a couple of days, but you have to put up with the trips there and back and our observations about the cities we visit along the way first. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy providing them for you.
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