We’d been planning on going through El Paso, Texas, and westward from there. But as we were sitting looking at our planned route west, we noticed Roswell was about the same distance away as El Paso, and was sort of a bucket list kind of place. So we made an overnight stop in Abilene, Texas, as planned – but then kept on going northwest to Roswell instead of to El Paso.
We found a great little campground about a mile from the heart of downtown Roswell for $17.50/night! It was basically a gravel lot, but everything worked at it was clean.
We loved the aliens everywhere. Even McDonald’s got in on the fun and turned their Playplace into a UFO. Playplaces are Adelaide’s favorite, so we obviously stopped in. Since we arrived after 5pm, most stuff was closed. We wandered downtown anyways just to figure out how to spend the next day before having our first taste of Mexican food in New Mexico. My food was good – I was asked the official state question of New Mexico: “Red or green?” and chose green. Karissa got a crispy taco. The delicate shell was divine! The next day we went to another Mexican place and the shells were equally amazing – light, crisp, delicate, and perfect!
The International UFO Museum and Research Center lies in the heart of downtown Roswell and is on nearly any tourist map available. Thus, I had high hopes for the place. It was pretty lame. Mostly newspaper clippings tacked up to bulletin boards. Maybe a few pictures here and there. It was obviously put together in the 1980s and hasn’t been updated since then. It felt very dated and was a huge disappointment. The alien-themed shops around town also had a bunch of overpriced, old merchandise that probably hasn’t changed much over the decades.
Despite the UFO Museum disappointment and un-fun stores, the rest of Roswell was great. The random aliens on windows, signs, and the street lamps really made the place feel fun. The people around town were nice and the food was really good. We had a successful trip in a fun little town. We’re definitely glad we stopped.
