Billy the Kid's Grave
Mine That Bird
Aliens
The New Mexico road trip continues...
While driving from Cuervo, we passed a sign that read "Billie the Kid's Grave" 2 miles...
Well, how can you just drive by and not stop at that?! It ended up being 2 miles to the turnoff, then 7 more miles to the Cemetery, but it was just a few minutes out of our way and when else would you ever see this?
Fort Sumner, New Mexico is the location of the famous burial site.
The entirety of the cemetery.
We continued our drive onto our next stop. Again, driving through miles and miles of barren land.
Roswell, New Mexico
We made it to the land of the Aliens!
Main Street - Roswell, New Mexico
Driving around Roswell. The homes and neighborhoods here differ substantially from those in Albuquerque. Nice homes where you could actually walk around in and not feel like you'll get mugged at any moment. Quite refreshing.
More things Alien. This is tiled into the elevator of the Hotel.
Our humble Roswell abode. We've stayed at several hotels during our stay. Our Roswell hotel was by far the nicest. So refreshing to be away from ABQ and the bad neighborhoods and dirty hotels.
This is the Baymont by Wyndham in Roswell.
Everything here is about Aliens. You can stop to pose with an alien about every 1/4 mile or more. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes, some are even silver.
I commented to Michael, "Why can't they be more consistent with the aliens and make them more life-like?" Once he finally got what I was saying, it was a pretty funny statement.
What do aliens look like anyway?
I haven't had a frozen yogurt in a couple of years. For some reason, this all of a sudden became a priority. Good thing they had the Very Berry Yogurt Bar close by.
I chose a cheesecake, no sugar yogurt with white chocolate chips and pecans. I know why I waited a couple of years to have one... I was waiting for this bowl of perfection. YUM!!
Mine That Bird
Kentucky Derby Winner #135
May 2, 2009
One of the biggest long-shot winners in history at 50-1
While watching the derby this year, they mentioned a longshot race that was won years ago by a horse named Mine That Bird. It was a neat story and at the end, the commentator mentioned that he was retired and living out his years in Roswell, New Mexico. What? We are going to be in Roswell this summer! I quickly got online and starting finding out more information about him and how we could possibly meet him. We also discovered there was a movie made about his iconic win and how this horse came to be a Kentucky Derby Winner. The movie is called 50-1.
I was excited to learn that he is retired and stabled at Double Eagle Ranch and they welcome visitors to the Ranch. Yippee! We made plans to visit while in Roswell.
After I sat Michael down to watch a movie without telling him what it was, he watched it and was excited when I told him we were going to meet this horse on our trip. He asked several times about when that was going to happen.
After arriving in Roswell and having the best yogurt ever, we made our way over to the Ranch.
Just outside of the town of Roswell, the sign directs us down to the Double Eagle Ranch.
The gates are open, so we drive right on in.
What a beautiful ranch. Definitely worthy of a Kentucky Derby Winner.
When we arrived, we weren't quite sure what to do.
I know from reading online that quite a few people visit the ranch, but there were no directions as to where to park and since nobody came out, we weren't sure where to go.
So we parked and walked around for a minute.
We found this paddock with a horse laying down. We summoned him and called to him and he quickly got up and came on over.
This spunky horse was eager to visit and was obviously young and rambunctious.
He was just showing off now...
After a minute, we determined that this is not who we came to see. Mine that bird is older, smaller, a different color does not have a white face.
We looked around for a minute and there was a worker watering these trees. When walking towards him to inquire as to where Mine That Bird was, we saw him in this paddock.
The worker said that many people come and see the banner near the other horse, pet it and leave.
They never go looking for MTB.
Well, we knew that was the wrong horse and I'm glad we kept looking.
He is very curious. I quickly had to give Michael a lesson on how to pet a horse and especially stay away from his mouth. Better yet, just keeping your fingers away from his mouth.
MTB was definitely as described in the movie,
he's got a thing for putting things in his mouth and being feisty.
He is a feisty horse and always trying to nibble on either us or my phone.
Not very easy to take a selfie...
What a pretty boy.
Michael and his signature pose.
An actual photo of the 2009 race with Mine That Bird taking the lead.
Jockey Calvin Borel celebrates Mine That Bird's win at the
135th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Down on Saturday, May 2, 2009.
Celebrating the win.
What a great story.
Seeing Mine That Bird brought me to tears. I could have stayed there and visited with him for hours. Not only do I love horses, but we watch the Triple Crown Races every year. This was a great story and a definite pleasure to meet this beautiful horse.
Alien Museum and Research Center
UFO Museum
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is known for being a crash site of some unidentified creatures that visited from space.
It launched an enormous investigation from our government and to this day, they continue to monitor space from here. We decided to be very touristy for a day and go ahead and check out the "research center".
Here it is. The UFO Museum and Research Center.
The mecca for all things alien related in Roswell.
Yet another "variety" of alien. This one is of the silver kind...
The timeline of how Roswell became known for it's aliens and crash site research.
Alien Autopsy
Well, that was quick. This museum is interesting, but we both aren't sure we believe in Aliens. We walked through, looked at the evidence and were done with our tour very quickly.
On to the hotel and tomorrow we drive to Carlsbad to tour the Caverns.
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