Shenanigans on US-285 {Road Trip to Texas Part 3}

The New Mexico landscape between Santa Fe and Roswell is (how should I say this?)... desolate.  The hot, dry fields seemed to go on forever!

I'm not sure what got into us (maybe it was the hypnotic nature of the vast desert... or maybe it was the heat?), but we decided we needed to do an impromptu photo shoot on the side of the highway.

I parked my car....

And climbed a fence...

"Am I going to get arrested?!" - Me
"Nah, don't worry about it." - Jen

And ran into the desert!

Jen and I attempted to jump at JUST the right time to catch the timer on the camera....

Failure.

Run, Lindsay, run!

I should start a business taking senior photos in the fields of New Mexico.  Olan Mills eat your heart out.

Jen really took one for the team to get these shots - that ground was HOT and SPIKY!  But she looks fab.

We took one last "doublie" before climbing back over the fence.

About thirty minutes later, we started hearing a weird noise coming from my car.  My beloved RAV 4 is a good car, but it's had it's share of bad luck (including being rear-ended on the DAY I bought it... and subsequently being rear-ended three more times, two of which while sitting -- minding my own business -- at a red light).  Based on its ill-fated history, I wasn't entirely surprised by the noise.

"Is your car making a noise?" Jen asked.

"Ummm.... I'm not sure."

After a few more minutes, I couldn't ignore the noise any longer.  There was definite banging. 

{That's what she said.}

I pulled over into this lovely setting...

I'm pretty sure a few bodies were buried in the vicinity, but I couldn't be bothered by that.  I had a car problem on my hands!!

It appeared the wheel well liner had somehow come unattached and was hitting the tire.  I was relieved it wasn't a mechanical problem, but we still weren't sure how to fix it.  SO, we high-tailed it the last 30 miles to Roswell, and hit-up the Walmart tire center for some help...

The guy helping us - Lee - was wearing a Longhorn bracelet (the manly, Lance Armstrong kind), and I asked if he was a Longhorn fan.  He informed us that he was actually from Austin and moved to Roswell for his wife.  WHAT a guy!!!  He further proved how awesome he was by taking the wheel well liner off, and not even charging me!

Roswell was off to a fantastic start...

... and we hadn't even seen any aliens yet!  

But that was soon to change.  The annual UFO Festival was going on downtown, and we were headed that way....