 | Day 2 - Deming, NM to Roswell, NM |
Day 2 - Sun Dec 21, 2008Deming, NM to Roswell, NM - 289 mi
Headed north towards White Sands. Just over the hill when you leave Las Cruces is the White Sands Missile Base. That's where the crew and scientists and stuff work. They have a missile museum that's just inside the gate. You park outside and then walk in. There's a large selection of missiles on display, all of which are tied to White Sands in some way. Apparently they routinely fire missiles at Utah to test their guidance! There was also a very will restored V-2 rocket on display. When WWII finished we brought all the captured missile hardware and people back here, and this is where we reverse engineered and improved on their designs. North of the main base is a little cutout that they made into White Sands National Park. It's surrounded on all sides by the base, and it can be closed for a few hours a time a couple times a week when they do missile tests. The sand is really pure and it really does look like you're driving in the snow. You could get out and walk pretty much anywhere, but the dunes when on for miles and there's certainly no water around.
Speeding along on the highway, the radar detector went off. So I slowed down and got into the "slow" lane. The arrow indicated the cop was ahead, and when the detector goes off I always trust it. Just slowing down isn't always enough, sometimes people will call you in on their phones and the cops are looking for you specifically. This time, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a red car coming up, speeding just a little. He passes me, and just as he gets ahead of us I see the cop coming the other way, radar still on full. The red car brakes, but it's too late. The cop does a U-turn and pulls the red car over. Without the radar detector that definitely would have been me getting in trouble. That Valentine-1 is worth every penny, all 50,000 of them. North of that is a city called Alamogordo. As I was driving through I looked up to a hillside and saw a big building with a rocket out front! So I quickly turned right and found the place. It's a great space museum with many displays. The Smithsonian has a Saturn V rocket engine on display, but it's surrounded by ropes and blocked off with a lexan cover, so you can't really see much, and you can't take pictures due to the lexan. This one has one on display outside, you could get right up to it and touch it. It was much more amazing than what Washington DC has on display.
While at the museum I found a map which showed a pretty impressive lava flow on my way north, so I tried to find that. Unfortunately, it looks like it was on the base so I was unable to get to it or even find a place to see it.
Made it to Roswell just as the sun was setting. Found a motel and then went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still. The only movie I saw the entire trip, I figured Roswell was the best place to see a movie about aliens! Unfortunately, the movie sucked.
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