Shell Games and UFOs

It was a long, hot drive to the south eastern part of New Mexico, but I now have a fiberglass camper shell on Maxine. After searching for weeks, I got lucky on Craig's List, finally. I logged on only an hour or so after the man listed it and I was the first caller. He promised to save the camper top for me, even though it would take another week before I could drive down to buy it. Damn, those things are expensive, especially new. In 1994, I got one for $250. Now, the price has quadrupled! I was happy to pay $300 for a used one.

At the very last minute, something told me I was going to need help lifting the thing and centering it onto my truck bed. I called and asked a young musician friend if he could help me out. After agreeing to buy him a pack of cigarettes (my first time, ever, making that purchase. I didn't even know where to find them in the grocery store!) he came along for what turned out to be a seven hour drive. To pass the time, I told him stories of the road from my younger days as a traveling singer. He couldn't believe how hard the bands worked and how long we played, each night. The thought of doing 4 or 5 sets of music a night, five or six nights a week was unfathomable to him. Since Maxine Mazda doesn't have a CD player or MP3 option, we played the radio. David was in charge of changing the station when directed. We both learned a lot about music that day. The newer "Jack" and "Ed" radio formats allow for lots of older songs from my era and when newer songs played, he explained the term "acid jazz" and made me understand, finally, the difference between rap and hip-hop. (Since rap is so pervasive, it is just like singing. Hip-Hop is the style of music and one doesn't even refer to "rap", anymore).

As the drive took us from 7000 feet down to lower and lower altitudes, my ears, which have been plugged up for months, finally popped, at around 4000 feet. The terrain became flat, barren and boring. Thanking my lucky stars for a working air conditioner, I welcomed the 92 degree day. Finally, we got to Roswell, New Mexico, the UFO meca of the world. In 1947 a reported crash of a flying saucer put the little town on the map and it found its purpose. There are little green men with almond-shaped eyes glaring at you, wherever you turn. I especially like the sombrero-wearing variety, at the Mexican restaurant.

Even the McDonald's is shaped and lit like a mothership.

I didn't know that Roswell has a military academy. I found that to be curious, given the town's history!

Anyway, we finally got to Carlsbad, 130 or so miles south of Roswell, where the camper shell, resting on cement blocks, was waiting. A very nice and patient man came running outside, along with the rest of the family, when my truck pulled up about 3 hours later than expected. Damn, that was a long drive! He recruited his son, and along with David and me, we got the thing centered on the back of the pickup. And, he threw in 4 awesome clamps to secure it onto the bed. David went to work with a lug wrench to tighten it, and it had to be repositioned several times before the back closed without banging on the tailgate. Phew!! Now I am set for the winter. All I need for camping is a great futon to put into the bed and I am good to go!

Since I wasn't up for another 6 or 7 hour drive home, We spent the night at a Motel 6 in Roswell. The next morning, I INSISTED that David and I visit the UFO museum and 'research center' on the town's main drag. What a hoot! To somebody with my Coast-to-Coast AM producing background, this was ground zero. I loved the little library, aka research center. All manner of cryptoid or alien was categorized by type. Phenomena, such as crop circles, have their own shelves. On the back wall, copies of the original July 1947 newspapers, entailing the crash, are posted. In the museum, there is a large diorama of 5 aliens in front of a craft. Near the ladies' room, a rubber alien is submerged in a suspended animation chamber and another one is in a glass coffin. More accounts of the crash adorn the walls. There is a whole area for skeptical debunkers, a cheesy film with a reenactment of July 4, 1947, and a big replica of a Mayan carving from 600 AD, of a man at the controls of what might be a spacecraft. Well worth my $5. David even liked it, too.

After fueling and feeding, we began the climb back to Taos. A successful and memorable journey. I was happy to feel a cool breeze and see the mountainous terrain of Northern New Mexico again.