Day 6- Roswell
Our days have been action-packed and therefore I have fallen a bit behind. I wanted to catch everybody up on what we’ve been doing. On this past Thursday, we were in the UFO capital of the world, Roswell, NM.
I’m not quite sure what I had in mind, but Roswell was way more of a tourist trap than I had expected, and not even a particularly nice one at that. I enjoyed the museum dedicated to exploring the possibility of UFOs, aliens and the conspiracy of a government cover-up of the supposed UFO crash near Roswell in the 40s. However, for having an international reputation for being the center of the alien movement, it was a little shabby, in my opinion- lots and lots and lots of small text printed on paper in a rather haphazard order, along with random posters for movies or TV shows about extraterrestrials and local artwork about aliens. But it was interesting nonetheless.
After this, we met up with a man named Guy Malone at the Not of This World Café who spoke with us about his organization, Alien Resistance, which is a Christian group that believes alien abductions are the work of evil spirits and can be stopped by invoking the name of Jesus Christ. It was a very interesting meeting and I’m glad we got the chance to speak to someone about the Roswell culture and tourism business, as well as Mr. Malone’s beliefs about aliens and paranormal activity. We ended our day with a very pleasant afternoon at Bottomless Lake, which provided a chance to relax for a little while after spending several days constantly on the go.
Day 8- Grand Canyon
The next day we were at the Navajo Reservation (see previous blog) and then we traveled to the Grand Canyon, epic family destination for tourists. In fact, we saw tons and tons of families while we were there, from all over the world. I think that in a country like America, which is known for being crowded and overdeveloped, a strip mall on every corner, people are drawn to the places that still inspire awe, where they can feel the vastness and wildness of natural beauty. A place like the Grand Canyon still inspires that feeling of exploration- even though there are guard rails and trails to walk down, it still seems like an adventure, though a relatively safe one and kid-friendly. Families are obviously drawn to these areas of natural phenomenon, like we saw here and would see later on the trip at the national parks and Niagra Falls. Of course, we also saw how families are drawn to the other extreme, the completely “unnatural” and commodified attractions like Mall of America and Disneyland.
The next day we were at the Navajo Reservation (see previous blog) and then we traveled to the Grand Canyon, epic family destination for tourists. In fact, we saw tons and tons of families while we were there, from all over the world. I think that in a country like America, which is known for being crowded and overdeveloped, a strip mall on every corner, people are drawn to the places that still inspire awe, where they can feel the vastness and wildness of natural beauty. A place like the Grand Canyon still inspires that feeling of exploration- even though there are guard rails and trails to walk down, it still seems like an adventure, though a relatively safe one and kid-friendly. Families are obviously drawn to these areas of natural phenomenon, like we saw here and would see later on the trip at the national parks and Niagra Falls. Of course, we also saw how families are drawn to the other extreme, the completely “unnatural” and commodified attractions like Mall of America and Disneyland.
We walked around for a bit and then drove to another spot for a more intense hike that some of us (including yours truly) participated in. The Grand Canyon was breathtaking, much more impressive than I had been expecting. I enjoyed the mile and a half hike down quite a bit but on the way up it dawned on me that I was definitely not in good enough shape to have attempted that. Luckily, the group that had gone down with me were good sports about waiting for me as I huffed and puffed the mile and a half back up. We made it back in time for a delicious dinner at a place called, strangely enough, We Cook Pizza and Pasta. We stopped for a minute or two of some truly amazing stargazing on the way back to our bus, and then headed to Salt Lake City.
No comments:
Post a Comment