Saturday, April 18, 2015

Roswell, NM

Roswell, NM surprised us with some excellent museums and art and historic homes. We only stayed two nights but we managed to pack quite a lot of experiences into that short time.

First stop: Spring Street River Park and Zoo. This small park and zoo is free and has the unique feature of being a locals funded zoo. Individuals and families adopt an animal to provide for its care. Some of the enclosures could use updating and enlarging but overall it was an interesting place to visit. I won't show you photos of the animals in their enclosures because that just makes me sad...but the freeroaming peacocks were rather photogenic!

He's a handsome devil.

I'd never seen a white peacock before.

Here is one of the fine old homes in Roswell:

Colonial Revival style.

The owner of our RV park highly recommended the Southeast New Mexico Museum. Unfortunately it was undergoing renovations during our visit but an enthusiastic historical society member did let us see a little bit of the downstairs of the beautiful old home that houses the museum.

Freshly renovated, the wood features and furniture of this home are gleaming and gorgeous!

It easy to see this was an elegant home in its heyday.

The Roswell Museum and Art Center provided a comprehensive look at all facets of local history, detailed displays of Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard's work -- considered the father of  liquid propellant rockets, plus several art exhibits for us to browse. This was an excellent museum and it was free (donations encouraged).

The Emporer's Palace.
Lots of New Mexico art on display.



Part of the Native American display.

Part of the Dr. Robert Goddard display.

Next, we checked out the International UFO Museum.  This museum's primary focus is on the Roswell UFO Incident, which is either a UFO event covered up by the government or the crash landing of a Project Mogul ballon in 1947.

Hans is ready to join the aliens!

Thanks to our RV park owner's recommendation, we had a fantastic lunch at Big D's Downtown Dive. Definitely worth a stop and let's hope that TV show never finds out about this place...



Our last stop in Roswell was the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. We LOVED the variety of art here and the purpose behind it. The museum was built to showcase the art of the Roswell Artist in Residence Program. Founded in 1967, the program gives artists the "gift of time", allowing them one year of residency to focus on their work.

This painting reflects the contradiction of water hungry Los Angeles in the middle of the desert.




Mixed media of mosaic and oil painting.

We stayed at Red Barn RV Park, a small park just a couple of miles from the center of Roswell. There are only about 20 full hookup sites, and most of those are taken by seasonal rigs. The owner was extremely friendly and helpful and made this a pleasant place to stay. The only drawback was noise from the local highway and an occasionally braying donkey across the road (we wore earplugs to bed).

This is actually a pull through site, the white gate in front of our rig opens up.

Back in sites back up to an alfalfa field.

Rosie especially liked the view...look at all those squirrels!

We're off to Ruidoso today, back to pine forests for a bit.


15 comments:

  1. I love art museums...something we haven't done since we were in Cody a few years ago. The Emperor's Palace caught my eye!
    I can only imagine what is going thru Rosie's mind...dang squirrels!

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  2. Roswell looks like it has quite a bit to offer! I thought it was all about aliens and had no idea that there's so much wonderful art. We'll definitely stop there on our next tour through New Mexico. Thanks for the great ideas.

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    1. We were pleasantly surprised by the variety...we are not big alien fans so this was a very good thing!

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  3. In Ruidoso, park free at the Lodge at Sierra Blanca and walk the loop trail that goes along the perimeter of the golf course. Very enjoyable 2 or 3 miles or so. You may also enjoy a casual meal at Farleys near by. Have fun!

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    1. Thanks for the tip, we just may do that walk this evening!

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  4. We were at the same site as you are and yes there was road noise but Steve enjoyed the Donkeys.
    Im so glad that you went to the museums now I know and see from your great pics what I missed especially the white peacock! I opted to go to Bitter Lake NWR.

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    1. If we had another day we would have gone to Bitter Lake...I guess we'll have to come back some day!

      I enjoyed the donkeys too! :-)

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  5. Ash Lawn, the home of President James Monroe here in Charlottesville has a number of peacocks. They used to do light opera there and the birds would yell out during the arias. It was hilarious but the singers weren't so impressed even if the birds are beautiful. A braying donkey brings back memories of our Fred and Ginger at the farm. They always made me laugh. Thanks for the memories. Boy that Downtown Dive food would put a smile on our faces too. Great picture of Hans.

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  6. We're in Santa Fe right now and though it's beautiful in its way, it's so dry and brown compared to where you are. Roswell looks absolutely lush!

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  7. Roswell does have a lot to offer. Did you two make it by the Pecos Flavors Winery on Main?

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  8. What a neat place! Looks like the perfect museums with lots of interesting items but not overwhelming. We have been to several small town museums located in a local historic home and have always found them fascinating. I like the Emperor's Palace in the one museum:) The food looked as yummy and huge at Big D's.

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  9. This looks like a must visit place when we get on the road. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. MIL lives in Roswell so we will be making regular stops. I want to see the Tree of Life at the library, and now must see the museums as well. We plan to stay at Bottomless Lakes but if we need to be closer to town it's good to know about this little spot. Those gates are pretty cool! Tessa loves to watch people on our sidewalk - her "dog tv" :-)

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  11. Never thought Roswell would offer so much beyond the aliens! Looks like a cool town. And I'm with you about local great food dives......being found out by those TV shows just ruins them! Keep them a secret!

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