Day 5 Grants to Roswell

I am sitting on the gaily decorated Motel 6 bedspread in Roswell but friends, even the bright splashes of Americana fail to cheer me. I am saddened and disheartened by what I have found here or should I say what I haven't found here; virtually no UFO kitsch. In fact, the only alien/UFO refernces I've seen have been a plastic little green man at the KFC and a billboard advertising the UFO museum. I asked the desk clerk about this. She informed me that "they" voted to do away with it opting instead to promote Roswell as a retirement community. Retiree's don't like aliens or what? What about Coccoon??Is nothing sacred?

On the way here we passed the Trinity Site. In 1945 the first atomic bomb was tested there. John and I got into a discussion about how many people know what white sands or the trinity site are. How many people know about the Bonneville Salt flats? These are pretty important American events. Is it just that I'm over 50 or what?What do people know about? Celebrity gossip? This weeks episode of Glee (don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan) or Survivor? Who's leading the NFL? I'm not saying these things are bad or wrong but I think there needs to be a balance of the information we take in. Wow....sorry...didn't mean to get on a soapbox here...

O.K..new topic...how about ants. Yes, ants- you heard me right. We acquired a canopy before we left and I'm glad we did, but it seems as though this particular canopy was infested with ants. Now, we had ants at our house too and they really didn't bother me so when John told me about the situation I didn't really care. We've seen 2 or 3 so far on the trip- no big deal. Today, right after we drive by the Trinity Site, I swear to God, they started appearing. I'm not talking one or two, I'm saying for the next hour I was constantly swatting ants. On my legs, arms, hands, shoulders...you get the picture. Usually the ants and I have a truce. I don't kill things. Not spiders, worms, slugs...it's just part of my belief system but today the gloves came off. I must have killed at least a hundred ants and they just kept coming. Now, does anyone else find it odd that this started right after we passed the site of the testing of an atomic bomb? Our theory is that residue from the uranium is still there and the ants picked up on it and it drove them nuts. So after we checked into our hotel we went to Home Depot and bought bug bombs. There was an I Hop next door so we ate dinner and as soon as we got back to the hotel we set them off. One in the cab, one in the canopy. I'll probably have to come back a thousand more times to make up for the karma involved with this deed but I don't want to roll with the ants anymore.

One more bit of news. We went into Albuquerque to the consulate and got our vehicle importation permit!! It was pretty simple but could have been a mess if I hadn't checked the dates as we were leaving. She typed in that we were entering Mexico on March 3rd of next year!

We started out the day on historic Route 66, we got our permit, got dosed with radiation, attacked by ants and I took a really cool picture at a rest stop of a sign warning about rattlesnakes but I somehow must have erased it. Ah, the yin and yang of the road....so there you have it. Tomorrow we'll be in Texas. They say everything is bigger there. Let's hope the combination of radiation and insecticide doesn't create some crazy, giant mutant ants......