i was at the crash site

this morning we went to the international ufo museum and research center. it's the only reason i wanted to stop in roswell. i don't necessarily believe in aliens, the crash, or cover-up, but i have some friends who are interested and i thought my brother was but it turns out he's not or that was just something when he was little. it's still hard for me to picture my brother as an adult. i still think of him as the kid i left when i went to college. i grew up but he's frozen in time. i think i'd have to live geographically close to him for a couple years or at least until my consciousness of him as an adult outweigh my memories of us as children. anyway, back to the museum. it was kind of cheap. it's very much a home-made type place. if the displays were a bit more professional looking, perhaps what is presented could be taken more seriously. what i did like about it though was it presented information and you are to consider it and make your own conclusions. it presents both sides of the argument. if people claim to have seen aliens or have alien material, they talk about it and the research done to dispute it. the part i wasn't into was the art about aliens but my mom seemed to enjoy those paintings. i got a few things at the museum shop and then it was off to our next destination.

at the carlsbad caverns

we arrived at the carlsbad caverns and purchased tickets just as the entrance to the cave to walk down was closing. we decided we'd rather take the elevator straight down since my travel companions are all about seeing things quickly. there are caves in okinawa so i didn't think this would be too big of a deal but okinawa is small and america is huge. in short, these caves are HUGE! i did my best to take pictures and was glad some parts were lit and flash was permitted. as some points i really had to brace myself to be still so that the pictures would be as sharp as possible. during this cave trip is when i put my camera into full manual mode for the first time and tried to get some decent shots that way. not the best way to learn as i should have practiced this in full light beforehand. the inside of the cave was not as cold as i thought it would be. in fact i really didn't notice it get 'cold'. i did make some jokes about different parts of the cave being bat apartments (2ldk, it's a japanese thing) even tough bats don't live in the part of the cave we were exploring and they had already flown south for winter.

the caves are close to texas and you have to drive through texas to get back home to california. just a few minutes into texas (we didn't even realize we had crossed the border) and cop lights were flashing for us to pull over. again my mom and her boyfriend amazed me by getting off with a warning for speeding. i know if it was me i would have gotten a ticket. i'm sure it's that once the cop sees the driver's license, he is dumbfounded as to how to pronounce the name and just issues a warning. i can't get away with the elderly asian immigrant magic they must possess. perhaps it's time to change my name.

star on a hill in el paso

as we were driving into el paso, i wanted to get a sense of the city and a general feel for the city since twiddle thumbs goes through here to visit relatives and absolutely hates it. as we approached, i noticed a strange smell in the air. perhaps this is why she hates it? also my brother wanted to know which direction mexico was so i tried calling her up to ask for any landmarks to point out where mexico was. we weren't very successful.

several times during this trip we have not pulled over in a major town to eat simply because it wasn't quite mealtime or the others were not hungry. i tend to eat my meals regularly so this was anguish for me. i couldn't let this happen again, especially because when you pull into a small town at night it's damn near impossible to find vegan food. thus, we decided to have dinner in el paso. i used my mom's gps device to find an italian restaurant. funny how chucky cheese, domino's, and every other pizza joint shows up. there wasn't a way to eliminate the pizza joints. i thought italian would be safe, that i would be able to have spaghetti with a plain tomato sauce. i picked a name (cappetto's) and we arrive to see the sign say it's a pizzeria. shit. oh well, let's go in anyway as there seems to be a decent size local crowd. as we were waiting for our food, a magician passed from table to table performing tricks. he walked right up to me and it was weird. here i am in texas while a magician is asking me to help with his trick on my birthday. this could very well be the strangest birthday to date.