Roswell today and a surprise in Carlsbad

This morning we woke to this sunrise in a Walmart parking lot

We had planned to make it to a boondocking area I read about near Bonito Lake but when we saw the Walmart in Ruidoso Downs (on the 70 heading North on your Right. Park in the right end of the parking lot/south side) and it was getting late we decided to just stay at Walmart. It's FREE and works fine for us on stop over nights.

We found out there was a Ford in Roswell so we didn't back track to the Ford in Ruidoso Downs we passed last nigh that was closed, so we drove straight to Ford this morning to inquire about the airconditioning. As it turns out they couldn't fix it for a day or two so we called ahead to San Antonio and booked an appointment for Saturday. (hopefully we don't melt by then...it's HOT)

We then headed a crossed the road to McDonalds for an early lunch as it is an "out of this world" playcentre shaped like a UFO with service as fast as the speed of light!!!

Sierra enjoying the black hole slide

We then parked down the road a bit and took a stroll down Main St in search of Aliens and UFO's. It doesn't take long to find them...

Even the street lights are aliens

We went into the International UFO Museum. ($5.00 per person over the age of 15, 5-15 $2.00 and 4 and under are FREE)

Sierra loved the stage area and it kept her busy
performing for quite awile :)

 Aliens outside the museum...people plaster them wih their colour coded stickers for the day from their admission to the museum.

The most astonishing thing Ian saw today...

At home $6.00 will buy you almost 2!!!

Roswell is a neat little gimmicky town, but if you are looking for authentic looking Alien/space/UFO souveniers...you won't find them here, or at least we didn't. Everything we saw was cheap dollar store quality...so we left with nothing but pictures and memories...and yes we left with both our children.

The Roswell Visitor's Centre (which by the way is the BEST most friendliest service I have encountered anywhere!) told us Roswell has the only FREE zoo in New Mexico but after the museum it was time for a nap so we headed out in search of a boondocking site in Carlsbad on the Pecos River that I heard about but it was so hot we took a detour to Brantley Lake State Park in hopes of some swim time tonight before supper. The winds today were horrible and it was a hard drive for Ian as he tried to keep the RV on the road.

But we made it to Brantley Lake State Park.

we took a drive to the lake (primitive camping on the lake is only $8.00 per nigh) and it was warm but so windy Aayla honestly might have blown away so we left without even a picture of the lake. We continued on to Carlsbad towards the boondocking spot and got the biggest surprise!!! We couldn't overnight here unfortunately but that's not the surprise...this was:



Playground on the Pecos

Right on the river

It had a bat cave

lots of slides

towers to climb

Xylophones to play

All sorts of climbing apparatus

Tire swings and normal swings,
baby swings and large swings

balance beams...tricky in high heels but isn't that what all the cool kids
 wear to the playground?

A stroll over the river

and back to play some more

Giddy up Horsey...Rapido!!!

a puppet theatre...oh I LOVE puppets!

As the sun started to set it was time to go find a place to make supper and sleep for the night.

We ended up at you guessed it...Carlsbad Walmart just in time to see the sunset

See Walmart Camping can be beautiful :) And as an added bonus...it's FREE. A Great end to a fun day, celebrating our 1 month mark on the road today!

...but that means we only have 3 1/2 months left :( What other adventures are instore??? Well tomorrow it's the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park, Carlsbad Caverns and yes most likely another trip back to that playground!