Tucson Desert Museum, Old Tucson ( movies set) and desert sunsets.

Today is the 24th Wed, so today we had to get the car fixed another flat battery, we are doing something wrong, Wal-Mart replace it but when we try to start it later in the day its dead again, could be the alternator, we take it to a mechanic in Tucson ,its not the alternator, thanks goodness for that, just something minor. We went to the Desert Museum and get photos of the animals native to the area, and some of the desert, which is totally covered with giant cacti, also have another look at minerals, at least the 3-4 time but they still amaze us, AMAZING colours and formations, the miners of old must have worked in a fairyland of colours in the mines.

 

The Sonora Desert, as you can see it contains many varieties of cacti

                                                  Raptor display ( eagles and hawks)

Some of the exhibits at the Tucson Desert Museum, it is so well done, all of the American displays are

 

                                 Remains of an old movie set at Old Tucson town

                                    Sunset with Cacti, with the amazing colours thrown by the desert

Tombstone and Bisbee




Cameron, Mike and Wyatt, at Tombstone

Onto Tombstone ( of movie fame)which is just before Tucson, we stop off to do the cowboy

 thing and look at this wild west town, boot hill, all the outlaws and that sort of thing.

We had dinner in a saloon called “Big Nose Kates” who was the girlfriend of

Doc Holliday one of the men who was involved in the OK Corral gunfight killings

( 3 men dead). While at the saloon we met a lovely couple Cameron, Mike and

their son Wyatt, named after Wyatt Earp who was also involved in the above murders.

Hi guys hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay.

Lee dressing for the part of Wyatt Earp

We also went to Bisbee which is a more authentic town,

( most of Tombstone has been recreated) lots of crazys there,

was one of the biggest mining towns in its day when the

mine closed down in the mid 70's a lot of the

realestate was abandoned, hippies moved in and squatted

and some are stillthere today. Got some great sunsets later that

day as well, apparently it has something to do with being

in the desert and the how flat it is or some reflection, will have to

Google it to find out which is correct

This vehicle obviously belongs to a devoted Hillary Clinton campaginer

(note the cute house in the background)

One of the wild looking places inhabited by squatters from the 70's.

Some of the hundreds of great sunset photos we took.

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El Paso Texas The Thing



We wonder what this thing could be?



The landscape on the way to Arizona from Texas and New Mexico





Colour is very popular in New Mexico



A Ghost Town



there are millions of these Yuccas in New Mexico and Arizona


Driving from El Paso Texas we see billboards that advertises “The Thing”, our curiosity gets the better of us. It’s really pretty corny, but interesting, probably a crazy old man’s collection ( a little like Grandad’s large collection of walking sticks) this guy has collected interesting memorabilia from all over the world plus has made hundreds of so called creatures.



Joe at the Thing, gave him a taste of Vegemite, he didnt like it one bit, had to rush off to Dairy Queen for an icecream





Just another beautiful sunset





Me with one of the "Things", really its is an Alien, attacking.










Alamagordo and White Sands National Monument

We ended up spending the night in the  little ski town of Cloudcroft about 7000 ft above Alamogordo, it was pretty cold and sooo windy we thought the RV was going to blow over, we ended up getting up at 4am and driving  down the mountain to Alamogordo below and slept for another 3 hours.  We toured through the Space museum and then went onto the White Sands National Monument; The sand was stunning, and it was very sandy to say the least, I really liked it and got a few good snaps.

driving through the desert dunes.

Carlsbad Cavens and living Desert

We are now in Carlsbad and had a nice time at the Living Desert Park, then onto the Caverns.

Inside the Caverns

The caverns were amazing, need to know a little bit more about the operation of my camera, but got some ok shots. The cavern is 800  mtrs underground and about 1800mtrs long  the photos arein the cavern called the Ballroom.
 
 
 

 Between towns called Mayhill and Cloudcroft we got some amazing sunsets

Roswell

We headed to Roswell, we checked out the UFO museum and I think maybe Lee is beginning to cross over to being a believer, about time too, we also attended a christmas tree auction which was believe it or not a lot of fun. Met some great girls at the Tourist Info centre, Suzy and Felicia, who joined in with our sillyness and our Alien capture kit



Felicia, Lee and Suzy, very helpful at the Tourist Information Centre in Roswell 




Us being abducted by Aliens for Christmas in another world ( dont we look terrified !!!!)

This morning before leaving Roswell we stopped off at the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Donald and Sally Anderson, they sponsor about 6 artists each year in a programme that runs for a full year ( fully paid for) , maybe we should apply.

The girls at Bell Gas and our Alien capture kit


 Finally when we were actually leaving Roswell we stopped off to get gas and met 3 great fun girls at the Bell Gas station, who are very interested in our theories on how to capture the foreign creatures.



leaving Albuq to Hard Rock Bosque del Apache



Crazy freeways, very nerveracking.
Leaving Albuquerque NM, we are happy to leave the tangle of spaghetti highways and the fast pace, we stay overnight at Socorro at the Wal-Mart parking lot, we had dinner at a brewery/pizza place where we got talking to a few people who were in town to see the festival of the cranes, from all over the world, Canada, Germany France, so of course we had to check it out.


We got up a 5am and head off to Bosque del Apache wild life centre, maybe a wild goose chase as we don’t know where we are going, but we are amazed when we do find the reserve, we wait in the freezing cold to take some photos, most likely with my camera and standard lens it will be impossible to capture any decent shots, but what the heck we will only be here once so we wait. We did end up getting a few good shots; we will have to invest in a telephoto lens.




The cranes about to fly off Bosque del Apache just before sunrise



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Sunrise and they take flight
The wild life reserve is man made and there are thousands upon thousands of birds nesting and feeding.



Valley of Fires



After leaving Bosque del Apache, went through the valley of the fires, 5000 year old lava flows.



Sheriff Randy and Lee with the Vegemite



Then we stop in a town called Capitan, we met a great Sheriff, Randy we showed him our Alien capture kit and being a local and knowing heaps about this alien thing he was able to give us lots of valuable information. We got Randy to have a taste of the vegemite (alien bate) unfortunately he thought it tasted like fish bait, most people so far think it tastes like S....t

Lincoln County, Billy the Kid territory, also many ufo's have been seen in this area

Fire on the way to Ruidoso



Valley of the Gods Casino and Resort.



Sculptures as the Hubbard Museum

We then went to Billy the Kid county at Lincoln, but because of the time of year most places were closed. Instead of heading straight to Roswell it’s getting late so we stop to ask a local if there were any  other places close by, she recommended stopping  off at Ruidoso where we visited a fabulous resort and casino in the pine forest, had breakfast at an old diner and visited the Hubbard Museum basically it’s a horse museum, with lots of fantastic horse sculptures. The local woman we spoke to  was an  Apache and her husband and their children had actually witnessed a ufo in the woods around their home of Corona back in 1986 ( was the size of  a football field, other witnesses too) .

Sorry about some of the photos being repeated an out of order, this is acting like Jumula, Angela will now what I mean.