Roswell {Road Trip to Texas Part 4}

Back when Jen and I initially planned our road trip, she informed me that we would be passing through Roswell - coincidentally - during the weekend of the annual UFO Festival.  

I. Could. Not. Believe. Our. Luck!!!  

It's not that I'm an alien aficionado (or even a believer, really), but I knew we would be in for some VERY interesting encounters at an event like that!

Upon arrival, we were greeted by this friendly, three fingered alien.

Jen - "Put three fingers up."
Me - "What?!" {turning around} "Ohhhhh."

The festival had about everything you'd expect at a usual carnival... games, rides, food...

.... and guys in foil sombreros?!

Mmm, twisted taters.

Beam him up!!!

Every lamppost in town had an alien at the top - I loved it!

Roswellians (Roswellites?) are nothing if not dedicated to the alien theme.  Every building in town had an alien sitting out front or a decal in the window.  Aliens are to Roswell as adobe is to Santa Fe.  Abundant, that is.

There were multiple souvenir shops along the festival route, and Jen and I stopped in a few...

Although there weren't a lot of quality items to buy (no hat for James and no t-shirt for my dad... Sorry,  guys!), we hit the jackpot at one store. There were aliens hanging out in every nook and cranny, and it had AMPLE photo opps!

He looks pretty excited to see Jen.

Why so angry sir?

"No hablo alienese."

Creepy!!!

The back of the store was set up to look like some sort of twisted 50's soda shop with a bunch of aliens hanging out.

Don't worry, I kicked his butt.

 Apparently this party animal was out all night and needed some caffeine.

 Catching up on my gossip with this leg-crossin' dude.

After we felt we had experienced all the UFO Festival had to offer (which took about 30 minutes), we stopped for a snack at McDonald's on our way out of town.  We were amazed to see an entire space-themed mural painted on the side of the building.

So of course we had to get out and take a few pictures.
I guess we'll never know if aliens really landed in Roswell... but one thing is for sure...

It's a great place to crash. 

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....

Santa Fe: The Land of Adobe {Road Trip to Texas Part 2}

As we exited I-25 for Santa Fe, Jen and I noticed something.  

Everything was adobe.  

Like, seriously.  Everything.

Once we got over the adobe, we found our hotel downtown.  (Well, let's be honest.  We never really got past the adobe.  For the duration of our stay, we said, "Holy crap, what is WITH the adobe?!" about once every thirty minutes.) 

We felt like pimps rolling up into the El Dorado Hotel and Spa, our destination for the night.

It was beautiful!

Our initial plan was to walk around downtown for awhile and then find somewhere for dinner.  But we soon realized the steakhouse attached to the hotel looked pretty awesome AND we were starving... despite the fact that it was 5pm.

It was absolutely EMPTY that early in the evening!  

Jen's 31st birthday was the next day, so we decided to go all out.  She went with her staple lemon drop martini, and I branched out a bit with a pomegranate martini.

As our waiter brought out the bread, he also brought our amuse-bouche.  We were informed that an amuse-bouche is a single, bite-sized appetizer.  Our amuse-bouche was a slice of beef tenderloin, carmelized onions, and asparagus sauce.  YUM!  Jen and I felt very cultured eating it.

We then ordered crab cakes, and we both had the beef tenderloin for our entree. By the time we left, the old folks had all arrived to also partake in the early bird special.

After dinner, we were ready to walk around downtown.  However, as soon as we walked outside, we realized it had started raining, and it was FREEZING!

So.

We stayed in and made lemon drop martinis in our room.  

We made one more attempt to go outside that night and check out the rooftop pool/hot tub.  To our surprise, the hot tub was super cold....

So.

We went back to the room, made more martinis, watched a movie, and ordered chocolate cake!

The next morning, we woke up bright eyed, bushy tailed, and ready to use my self-timed camera for some selfies (or doublies and we began calling them).  Jen hadn't put on her eye make up yet, so she requested to wear her sunglasses.

We then decided to put on the hotel robes... and I couldn't leave Jen alone wearing her sunglasses.  I like to call this next series of pictures, "Blind Mental Patients Get Down".

We ventured out, and were happy to see beautiful weather!  Our first stop was the toy store, so that Jen could get some souvenirs for her kids.

More of the sights of Santa Fe...

Jen got a pretty Santa Fe Christmas ornament, and I got this bracelet:

After shopping, we decided we were definitely hungry and DEFINITELY ready to celebrate Jen's birthday with a fun, rooftop lunch!

After lunch, we bid adieu to Santa Fe.  Not only had we hit our adobe and turquoise quota (quite possibly for life).... we had some aliens awaiting us in Roswell.  

It was time to hit the road.

Note to self: Do not leave "walking" directions programmed in your phone unless you want to seriously confuse yourself.