Close Encounters Of The Roswell Kind

OK, so I know many of you are thinking, Oh dear, they are not going to give us all that BS from the looney tunes down there in Roswell, New Mexico, are they?

I mean that flying saucer incident happened so long ago (1947 to be exact) and wasn't it proven to be a hoax? Hmmmmmmmm. A BIG HMMMMMMMMMMM!

If you have never been to the International UFO Museum and Research Center, we would highly recommend it. There is more to the story than most of us know from the press when we were young. I have always wanted to explore this place and this question since I was about 10 years old. I mean, are we that arrogant to think we are the only ones in this universe? Come to this museum and when you see the amount of research they have done on this subject, it will open your mind. I will say that some of the alien things on display are hilarious, but then we can all be funny, odd and a bit 'off' when we want to be :o)

When driving across this southern New Mexico landscape, you will experience that endless big sky in the high plains along the Sierra Blanca Mountain Range and you can just imagine how one could see a flying saucer hovering over that mystic expanse. Get ready.........here are the photos.

As you enter town from the south, you are greeted by this scene at the side of the road in a wheat field. Of course, I had to make a radical lane change to pull over to get these photos. The town folk have a good sense of humor about this whole alien thing. You can see the guy on the right is asking the alien next to him for a jump. The alien has a real set of jumper cables in his hands......

.....I had to take a close up of the woman offering the alien a pie. A PIE! It must be mince meat because that is how most people react to mince meat. Then, the alien on the left has an ET doll under his arm. Hilarious!

The museum has endless newspaper clippings from the 1947 incident in Roswell as well as others from all over the world. There are in-depth reports from the military, the pentagon, scientists, NASA, citizens.....it just goes on and on. There are also collections of artifacts from the Roswell UFO crash site.

 I loved this display of how they found the saucer in 1947. Reminds me of a few science project things I did back in jr. high school.

Here I am again, always trying to make peace with everyone :o)

Suddenly, with great surprise, the alien spaceship came to life and scared the
poop right out of me! Their voices sound like they have been sucking the helium out of balloons! I think they were trying to tell me that they are being held prisoner by earthlings. It was so silly and completely entertaining.

They also have a great collection of old alien movie posters

So, we finally got to the part of the exhibit where they go all X-Files with the dead alien in the air lock. Where are Scully and Mulder when we need them?

Ewe! Just Ewe!

The one profound thing he may have ever said. I think we need the aliens more than ever right now.

By the time we got to the end of the exhibit, I just wasn't feeling like myself.
I was starting to believe.........
Rowan took one look at me and said, "I think you are hungry. Let's go eat and maybe you will snap out of it".
We left the museum and noticed something strange had come over the neighborhood..........

.....There were aliens everywhere and they were directing us to Mexican food

 An alien matador? Are you kidding me?

  They led us right to the Pollo Bravo Mexican Grilled Chicken Cantina.

  .......where we proceeded to have the most delicious grilled chicken we have ever had in our lives. And we mean EVER! We split a half chicken with pinto beans (notice the red chili floating on the top), pickled red onion, hot tomato salsa, rice and corn tortilla. Everything house made and extremely alien fresh.
The best meal we have had so far on this trip. I think I can describe it as out of this world!

When we went out to get in the car, we noticed we were being watched by the light pole. They ARE out there!
 Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :o)

Stay tuned. It gets more fun.  
  

CARLSBAD and THE CAVERNS

Arriving in Carlsbad, New Mexico and going to The Carlsbad Caverns National Park, was very exciting for both of us. For me, the last time I was here I was about 10 years old. For Rowan, she has never seen this place. The Caverns are truly something to behold. I remember when I was little, it was all so enormous and beyond my comprehension. Now that I understand how this place was created and the time it took, Oh my goodness! I feel like such a spec in this huge universe we live in. Rowan, and the scientist in her, was just awe struck and wanted to find the answers to all of it. We walked the mile and a quarter down from the entrance to the cave instead of taking the elevator down. We just had to see ALL of it. Plus, we wanted to see where all of the bats live during the spring and summer months. They are currently not in residence (they winter in Mexico). We are very sorry we missed them. I mean, how exciting to be in the bat cave! :o) We highly recommend a stop to see this wonder if you are ever in southern New Mexico.

We took well over a hundred photos. I will only post a few of the best here, which of course don't even come close to how incredible this place is in person.

A very brief history of the cave: Over 250 Million years ago the area was a coastline for an inland sea. The area was basically a huge reef. Hence, the huge caverns were created. Go here for the full story:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_Caverns_National_Park 

Jim White was the crazy 16 year old who braved going into the cave for the first time with a homemade wire and wood ladder and a kerosene lamp in 1898. I would have been grounded for LIFE if my mom ever caught me doing something like that! And, he went by himself the first time! ACK!

The natural entrance to the cave. This is where, in the spring and summer, you can watch the hundreds of thousands of bats come out for their early evening feeding (they say that 300 of these bats can hang in 1 square foot of space!). Just imagine the shit (guano) that would cover you with that many bats flying overhead. Holy Crap is an understatement! We walked in this way.

The temperature in the cave is about 56 degrees year round with 90% humidity.

As we started to descend, it took about 15 minutes for our eyes to adjust to the darkness. This is the last photo I took with a flash. From here on out we used the very low lighting that is provided in the cave.

So can you find the image of the saint in this photo? This is a natural rock formation.

They have named these formations lions tails. Most of the rock formations you see in the cave are stalagmites and stalactites. If you go to the Wiki page, it will explain all of the minerals that make up these celestial formations and how they are created through time. It is fascinating information.

Mother Earth (for obvious reasons)

 To us, this looked like a grove of trees. It was about 30 feet tall.

 Wow! It is really hard to find words to describe what a wonder this place is. What a treat!

 Us just outside of The Caverns main entrance. It is amazing to think all of that crazy geology is going on just under our feet. This part of the country is truly amazing and so diverse.

We found a couple of our extra terrestrial friends standing guard in front of a little group of shops on our way out of the national park. We told them our next stop is in Roswell to see their friends, so they didn't beam us up to their mother ship...YET!

Thank goodness, because we were able to stop at a taco truck for dinner tonight.

We were in heaven, which is almost like outer space, right?

Maria made us chili rellenos, chicken tacos, pinto beans, rice and all the fixins. YUM!

This made Jenni VERY HAPPY! 

 Get Ready. Roswell is next. Beam me up, Scotty! :o)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

 More Miles In Our New Shoes

Call us CRAZY! It would not be the first time in our lives that this word would be used to describe either one of us and we look at this as a good thing :o) Shows we still have a sense of adventure….we hope! Taking off  in our car to drive west across the US in the middle of a winter that promises to be a doozy, some would call insane. Well, it is time for another sabbatical, so we are diving into it……………….

We are headed to the west coast of the US via the Southwest, into Los Angeles and then up the coast to San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, BC. Since it is winter we decided to head immediately south from Indiana to Little Rock, AK to try to avoid the snow that greeted us the morning we left town. What we encountered in Little Rock was snow and then all the way to Dallas/Fort Worth was snow, ice and cascading jack-knifed big rigs and pick-up truck accidents. Some of these immediately in front of us and others just 5 minutes ahead of us. This storm was not supposed to be here. That is why we dropped down to Dallas and Hwy. 20 instead of taking Hwy 40 through Oklahoma City, where there were blizzard conditions. Our 1 hour drive around Dallas turned into over 4 hours since we were going between 5-15 MPH the whole way watching in horror as cars were sliding all over the place like hockey pucks. We finally gave up and got a hotel room in West Fort Worth to try again the next morning.

Here are some photos of our first two days of snow and ice travel:

 Day 1: The snow as we left Indiana

Food Alert!!! Already?

We spent our first night in Little Rock mainly because we just had to eat at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken (we have been here before when we came to see the Clinton Presidential Library, which is just down the street). If you like fried chicken, the really deep fried crispy, crispy and spicy kind. The kind that is so moist on the inside you barely have to chew it, the kind that just wants to make you have more.......this is it! You must have the fried pickles with it. The coleslaw and of course the beans and that slice of white bread. This IS the South, for cryin' out loud!

Happy me :o)

Fried dill pickles with ranch dressing. The extra crispy corn meal crust is the real kicker.

Mmmmm.......dark meat!

Day 2: Snow in Little Rock? Yep. 

The whole town shut down for 1 inch of white stuff. The bonus? It only took us about 10 minutes to drive right through the downtown freeways during morning rush hour.

We had a break in the weather as we approached Texarkana. The weather report last night said it was supposed to be overcast around Dallas.

 

 Here is how it looked as we approached Dallas. We should have been able to see the city ahead of us in the distance.  Instead we saw the first snow-fall there in 2 years.

The situation started to get more intense as the traffic got thicker, the roads became more icy and the semi's increased in number. Every bridge we started to cross around the city was just covered in ice.

Bumper cars anyone? These are the last photos we took as things got so dangerous it took both of us to keep our eyes and full attention on the road. We are so thankful that we didn't have an accident and end our trip before it even began. Our advice to you if you ever get stuck in icy conditions is get off the road into a warm hotel and wait it out. The stress and danger of being out in it, isn't worth it.

Day 3: Fort Worth, TX to Carlsbad, NM

We woke to 18 degrees and sunny skies. Luckily, we had stopped our driving last night just to the west of where the worst of the weather system was. We hit the road and headed for Abilene, where we should have spent the night last night. We decided to stop there anyway because Rowan had found an interesting sculpture for us to have a look at. The piece is called 'Jacobs Dream' and is located on the campus of

--> Abilene Christian University. The sculpture is a huge bronze piece describing Genesis 28 and --> of angels ascending a ladder to the gates of heaven. 

 

 Looking at all this art made us hungry, so here is food alert #2 :o)

I could not leave Texas without having some Texas BBQ so we asked the googleGod where the best BBQ was in Abilene. 

This is it!

Not fancy, but we didn't want fancy, we wanted delicious.

 Start with a slab-O-fries.........

add KILLER beef ribs, slaw, house made pickles, sauce and house made banana pudding (not pictured.....). Super delicious. All of it!

We headed west from Abilene through basically nowhere for miles and miles on country 2 lane roads to get to Carlsbad, New Mexico. The only thing to look at were tumble weeds, oil & gas wells, cotton fields, cotton, fields, wind farms, cotton fields, oil wells........you get it.

The wind farms went on for miles and miles. Good to see the folks in Texas are finally getting  a conscience about renewable energy.

Nowhere with a view of nothing. For miles. Thank God for our Sirius XM Radio and that 80's music set!

Huge cubes of harvested cotton. For miles. Most likely on its way to China to be made into clothing to be shipped back to America.

End of the road reward, a cool salmon colored sunset cloud over our hotel when we arrived in Carlsbad. Even though today's drive was pretty bleak, there is a strange beauty to the back and beyond. One thing for sure, you have to be a special kind of person to live in these parts, where there is nothing out here but basically you.

Stay tuned for more adventure coming from the road. Carlsbad Caverns is next.

BOHEMIA

Prague (Praha)  -  The Czech Republic

Post 2

 A world of Art & Entertainment

As we walked around the streets of Prague, we found endless art and entertainment in many forms. One could easily spend two whole weeks just looking at the plethora of churches/cathedrals and religious art......at times that alone becomes overwhelming (I will have a special post just on that topic later). I was constantly stopping to snap photos of architectural whimsies (those fun embellishments added to buildings such as statues, animals, organic images, etc.), as well as a wide variety of street performers. Here are some photos and movies of some of the fun stuff we found:
(click on photos to enlarge)

 Don't ask us because we don't know what this is supposed to be either.

 We came upon this guy while walking over the Vltava River on the Charles Bridge (more on this famous bridge later). He was just standing there, we expect, to have people come up to take their picture with him. Not exactly the warm cuddly guy you want to snuggle up to. OUCH! Very peculiar indeed.

 Whimsical stone face on the arch over a doorway. Reminds me of Jr. Bird Man.

 Nice kitty-cat gargoyle at the crest of a roof

 Pagan masks on the side of a building. Prague has an interesting Pagan history: http://www.36hoursinprague.com/paganism-emerging-as-a-popular-religion-in-prague/

Big Silver Naked Pregnant Lady:

This metal sculpture is found at the Y of a very busy street (funny). When walking up to it from the side, it is hard to tell what it is supposed to be. It is only when you get about a block away you realize it is a very large naked pregnant lady on her knees.  It stands roughly 20 feet tall. She is hollow inside so you are free to climb inside to experience what it may be like to be “inside a womb”. I can imagine cars driving by seeing people come out of her behind! I wonder how many car accidents there are at this junction :o)

Liechtenstein Palace, Malostranské Square: In front of the palace, there are 27 cast iron columns with reliefs of male heads by Karel Nepraš fitted into the cobblestones. These commemorate 27 men who were condemned to death by Karel of Liechtenstein and mercilessly executed on the Old Town Square in 1621. They look like an example of art from the communist era. Each column is different. Go here to see detail of each: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:27_nobles_of_Bohemia_by_Karel_Nepra%C5%A1

Column detail

Marionette and Puppet Making 

 

The art of Czech marionette and puppet making goes back to the 18th century. The figures are traditionally hand carved from wood or made from plaster. They represent all kinds of characters from devils, witches and wizards to clowns, kings and princesses.  Many of these beautiful, elaborately carved Czech marionettes are highly prized works of art. This shop we stepped into represents only a hand full of local Czech marionette carvers. Some of the puppets are over 4 feet tall. 

Marionette theatre (puppet theatre) enjoys a long tradition in popular entertainment in Prague and around the Czech Republic. There are a number of marionette theatres found around Prague. The photo above is a little art piece above the entrance to one of these theatres we passed by.

Typical performances include puppet versions of Mozart's famous "opera of operas", Don Giovanni, and the enchanting story of the Magic Flute. These productions feature very tall puppets clothed in period costumes, set against 18th century stage sets. In Marionette Theatre the story is recounted visually, with little or no spoken words, so there is no language barrier for the multicultural audiences these productions draw.

Me and that liar, Pinocchio.....oops! Did I just tell a fib? :o)

I took this wonderful video of a man giving a little puppet show on the Charles Bridge. You can see how talented these puppeteers are at their craft.

Back to some architecture, and the art of looking up.......... 

You will find these neoclassic/art nouveau stone figures, always in pairs, holding up many window balcony's and doorway entrances all over Prague. The artistry is just amazing. I have included three of my favorites here. Where has this artistic romance gone in the public art of today?

 

My favorite pair seem to depict two African men

The Grotto (Dripstone Wall) - Wallenstein Garden - Valdštejnsky palace (currently the home of the Czech Senate).

We were walking down this little quiet side street in Lesser Town (again trying to avoid the crowds coming off the metro), and happened upon a small arched doorway in the middle of a very tall stone wall that was at least 100 yards long. I couldn't resist and stuck my head through the open doorway. Inside was the most amazing garden, and to our surprise (and Rowan's relief that I wasn't going to get in any trouble!), it was a public garden. We had just happened to find the back entrance. Here is a photo of the very strange dripstone wall inside the garden. There are all sorts of mystic faces, reptiles, birds, etc. hidden in the stone. One of the most unusual things we have ever seen.

Up Close

From a Distance
Go here for an excellent video tour of the entire wall where you can have a better view of the hidden images:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYZT6HorW7w  

Here is the plaque describing the garden. (click on image to enlarge).

White (albino) peacock showing us his stuff. There are a number of them in the garden.

We had never seen one before this encounter. WOW!

MUSIC

We found the opportunity to listen to music just about everywhere we went. The street music is around every corner and I can't include them all. Here are a couple of videos of two very different kinds of music we made special trips to go and see.

We first saw this group, The Balkan Latin Connection, on the street in Lesser Town. They were playing under the Charles Bridge. We were walking over the bridge and heard this amazing sound coming up all around us. We saw them below us and ran down to try to have a better look at them. They announced that they were playing at a festival later that night in another district of Prague, so we got directions to the park where they were playing and took the metro out to see them. It was a neighborhood Polish festival. What a really special evening we had there! I think we were the only native English speaking folks. We had a BLAST eating local food and drinking excellent Polish micro brews.

Here's another piece by them.........are they having fun or what!

OK........and here is what we ate while we were there..........WE HAD TO! THEY HAD FOOD TRUCKS!!!!!! :o)              The Chefparade Foodtruck, and The Chef

The Menu: Rib Eye, Rump and Flank Steak. Comes with roasted vegetables, potato and a creamy sauce.

 I got the special........a little bit of each one! :o) Knock-your-socks-off delicious!

More Music......
The video below was taken inside the Church of St. Nicholas located in the Little Quarter

(Malá Strana). We were exploring the quarter and stopped by the Baroque masterpiece of a church to have a look inside. I will have more detail and photos of the church in a later post just on churches and religious art. For now, here is a clip from the music concert we came back here to see. The concert was called "AIR". The only instruments were the massive church organ, played by Michaela Káčerková, and an oboe, played by Jan Thuri. As you can imagine, the acoustics in a church like this were amazing. The music in the video is Sonata in C Minor by Antonio Vivaldi.
I had to break the video into two parts in order to download to the blog. Here is part 1:

Part 2

Museum Art - Gallery M54

We visited two museums/galleries while in Prague. One of them was actually at the Strahov Monastery up by Prague Castle. The aerial views of Prague in these blog posts were all taken from the monastery area. There will be more on the Monastery in my later church/religious post. Here is a sample of drawings and etchings by Oldřich Kulhánek that were on view in the halls of the monastery. The show, titled: Ecce Homo - Behold The Man, was an amazing mix of young and old faces that had wacky similarities. They were done in microscopic detail. He is also the artist who has done all of the drawing for the Czech bank notes.
More on him here: http://www.manesova54.cz/en/vystavy/147-ecce-homo-ejhle-clovek/

The Mucha Museum

I have been a huge fan of the artist Alphonse Mucha since I was in high school, so to have an opportunity to see his original works at a museum dedicated just to him was a real highlight of this trip for me. To be able to stand in front of his life size original posters was just breathtaking- The Four Seasons, various theatre posters of Sarah Burnhardt and some of his original paintings too. If you go to Prague, you must make a stop here. You won't be disappointed. Here is a selection of some of my favorites:

Part of the beautiful gallery

 

Us As ART

The bronze sculpture pictured below by sculptor Olbram Zoubek is located on Újezd street at the foot of Petřín Hill. Most tourists that walk past this simply end up taking candid pictures of various poses next to the men (just like I did below)…completely unaware of the deep meaning of the monument. Unveiled in 2002, this monument is in fact a Memorial to the Victims of Communism. It shows seven bronze figures descending a flight of stairs. The statues appear more “decayed” the further away they are from you – losing limbs and their bodies breaking open. It symbolises how political prisoners were affected by Communism. There is also a bronze strip that runs along the center of the memorial, showing estimated numbers of those impacted by communism:  
205,486 arrested
170,938 forced into exile
4,500 died in prison
327 shot trying to escape
248 executed

The bronze plaque nearby reads:
“The memorial to the victims of communism is dedicated to all victims not only those who were jailed or executed but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism”.

As the late afternoon sun started to cast our very long shadows, I decided I would make some of my own art...;;

.....then, of course, I got all of us involved- Rowan, Maria, Kim and me.......

The most hysterical pieces of art we saw where these Homer Simpson paintings of him as classic art. There was Homer in Edvar Munch's 'Scream', as a self portrait of Vincent VanGough and as a Vermeer woman holding a child. It was hilarious! I almost bought one :o)

We found this guy behind bars in a basement window well along the street. It nearly scared me to death!

 

Franz Kafka

I can't end this post without mentioning one of the most famous writers in Prague history.

Kafka was the author of two of the most influential novels of the 20th century, The Trial and The Castle. He spent most of his short life in the Old Town section of Prague. Hardly any of his work was published in his lifetime. Go here for more on Kafka's interesting life: http://www.egs.edu/library/franz-kafka/biography/

This bronze bust of Kafka hangs on the building where he lived and wrote many of his books.

 

That is it for this post. Stay tuned for much more fun from Prague coming in the next few weeks.