Welcome to Roswell!

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It was our fifth day on the road when we arrived in Roswell, New Mexico; the cosmic G-spot for all UFO enthusiasts as well as the inspiration for this entire trip in the first place. The three hour journey from Albuquerque was actually kinda bland as we’d leave picturesque mountains in favor of dull flatland. Fortunately we had decent conversation to help carry us through. We knew we’d finally reached our destination when we spotted a gas station (the first one we’d seen in about 75 miles) featuring a flying saucer on it. There were a few other not so subtle hints as well.

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Getting our kicks on Route 66 with Buzzsaw Sharks & a T-Rex named Stan!

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After our success at Aztec we headed down to Gallup, New Mexico and spent the night. The next morning we decided to skip the crappy, free hotel breakfast in favor of McDonald’s and a southwestern variant of their breakfast burrito with green chiles (I swear, everything down here had green chiles in it). We barely sipped our ice coffees before hopping on to I-40 towards Petrified Forest National Park. It was just over an hour from where we’d been staying but, as soon as we crossed the Arizona border, the clock gave us those sixty minutes right back courtesy of the Arizona Mountain Time Zone. In many ways it was like going back fifty years…

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Invading the UFO Watchtower in Hooper, Colorado!

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It was only our second day on the road when we’d hit our first snag of the trip. The original plan was for us to leave Colorado Springs that afternoon and arrive at a unique attraction in Hooper, Colorado sometime in the evening. Unfortunately, our GPS couldn’t find the listed address no matter how many different ways we tried entering it in. Making matters even worse, neither of our cell phones could get any service unless we were near a metropolitan area. So much for Google Maps! I dug into the glove compartment and retrieved an old school, paper one but, with our eyes crossing from fatigue and unsure where to even look, it wasn’t much help either.

We’d already completed a full day of activities including the Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, as well as the May Insect Museum. At this point we were understandably starting to lose steam and opted to just go straight to our hotel in Alamosa (three hours south) with the intention of resuming our search the next morning. Our hope was that the human element would prevail where technology fell short and that one of the locals could point us in the right direction. After all, in the sparsely populated San Luis Valley, surely someone will have heard of the UFO Watch Tower.

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A “Sign” of Bigfoot on Pike’s Peak!

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The seeds for this latest Terror Dave adventure were planted during last year’s road trip while driving through Tennessee. We’d just seen a UFO house near Chattanooga when I asked the other Dave what his thoughts were about us visiting Roswell, New Mexico. After all, why should we toil in residential neighborhoods when we could go straight to the UFO capital of the world? David readily agreed so, for the next fourteen months, we saved the necessary funds while I spent hours mulling over maps, perusing websites, and thumbing through books on the region in an effort to create the perfect itinerary. I also spoke with numerous friends who were familiar with the southwest and could give me some input on what they considered to be “must see” spots.

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After about ten revisions, the trip evolved from us starting with our usual drive from Chicago into our flying into Denver and renting a vehicle we’d use to cover 4,000 miles in two weeks while making our way through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Though a pricier option, it would allow for more activities including The Grand Canyon and Rachel, Nevada a.k.a. the vicinity of Area 51.  It would also afford us time to see less grandiose attractions such as the subject of today’s post; the world’s only officially sanctioned “Bigfoot Crossing” sign.

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“Digging up the Marrow” & Unearthing the Fun!

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On Saturday April 4th, we arrived back in Chicago (after doing TWO zoos; Louisville and Indianapolis) and ate lasagna at my place before relaxing on this final night of our vacation. We hunkered down for the night and watched two movies together; the old sci-fi classic, It Came from Outer Space, and a new movie David had gotten on Blu-ray called Digging up the Marrow. Though we’d watched several movies during our trip on DVD, including Wolfcop (which was okay), Love in the Time of Monsters (which was also okay), What we do in the Shadows (which was really funny), Animal (which we liked),  Dark Haul (which was bad) and Muck (which was even WORSE) we inadvertently saved the best for last!

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This Is No Joke! Janine Caufield Takes Her Business Very Seriously (And Has Fun Doing It!)

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One of the things that amazes me is how certain stores continue to thrive whereas others selling the very same thing fail. A magic/novelty store is very specialized and if you don’t have the clientele, this type of business is doomed to go out of business. Thankfully, these stores that have succeeded have found that capitalizing on things like holidays helps keep the business going year round. Though they may have started out selling only magic and novelties, things like Halloween masks and costumes are now what helps make the business thrive.

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This was very evident at Caufield’s Novelties. One room contained both the magic tricks and novelties (as well as lighting equipment). Three rooms were devoted to Halloween costumes, masks and props. Being a fan of Halloween this is not a bad thing at all. With stores like SPIRIT dominating the Halloween business in October, it is nice to see a mom and pop store like Caufield’s carrying so much more, and of better quality, than anything that SPIRIT ever carries.

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