Bees, West Texas, and Roswell family travels Dec. 2004 Section on Roswell, NM follows....click here to jump to it....

Visiting Bottomless Lake Park with Kids

The slightly illustrated version.....(click to enlarge any photo)... plus a special illustrated section on ROSWELL,NM!

We were out at Ruidoso, NM after Christmas and heading back through Roswell, NM to Brownfield, TX. It is an hour and a half from Ruidoso to Roswell, then another 2 hours to Brownfield. We had lunch in Roswell, then headed up onto the caprock for the VERY UNEVENTFUL drive thru west Texas. If you have seen the movie KILL BILL, it is dead accurate (forgive the pun) about what west Texas looks like. Once you are up on the caprock you see NOTHING....there are occasional small oil derricks....a ranch property here and there...but mostly brown dusty cotton fields -- newly mown so not even plants to be seen. Very exciting Tatum,NM is the home of some iron silouettes one can buy....

An especially scenic part of west Texas...note that the 'cattle' are metal silouettes attached to the ranch sign

The caprock as seen driving east from Roswell towards Texas

The caprock itself is a strange area of raised land maybe 100 feet high that you come up onto after crossing the Pecos River coming east from Roswell. It covers the whole horizon north to south.....but it isn't like seeing mountains or anything.

Ok OK....driving from Texas, when you get within 20 miles of Roswell you CAN see mountains off in the distance....(click and squint)

One place I have been curious about is off the road just up from the beginning of the caprock where a sign says "BOTTOMLESS LAKE NATIONAL PARK". ??? A lake? A feature of the landscape that is not dead cotton plants? dry earth? oil derrick? Never known what this was.....

Well, we had nothing better to do as we came upon it on Dec 30th....so we followed the signs south off the road the 5 miles to Ranger Station and the 7 miles to the lake. Oscar mentioned his stomach was bugging him, but we paid no attention....neither kid has ever shown any of the car sickness my brothers and I had as kids, but Oscar had been reading alot as we came down the winding roads out of Ruidoso, so anything was possible.

As we approached the Ranger station, we found ourselves coming back off the caprock and seeing what almost seemed to be carved holes out of the side of the caprock. We went along first to the 'lake' but had passed a lake before the 'lake' and weren't sure what was going on....the 'lake' turned out to be a trailer-parking area...next to a (now-deserted) building that outlined a little beach! Apparently this little lake (maybe 300m across) was the beach where you came to swim -- in a little marked off area-- if you lived in Roswell. Huh.

the beach....

So we drove back to the ranger station.....parked in the lot.....and walked towards the carved hole in the caprock hillside....another lake! A small round lake of maybe 80 feet across down in the hole....and people were fishing from the far side of it. They had scrambled down some wacky path to get down by the water. Interesting....but not interesting enough for us to try to go down there. and SUDDENLY Oscar was freaking out cuz he saw some bees. Bees? Only Oscar noticed them....we walked back toward the car trying to calm Oscar down-- the bees were apparently concerned with a trash can up near the hole the lake was in. Didn't see any others.

landscape of Bottomless Lakes Park

We went into the ranger station where a ranger told us the lakes were NOT truly bottomless...some old cowhands had tried to measure the depth of the 'lake' (with the beach) by throwing a rope in....but the rope was pulled along by the under-ground current due to the nearby Pecos that was all connected to these wacky little lakes-- the lakes, about 7 or so, made a string along the edge of the Caprock. The ranger station even had a little landscape showing the lakes-- and you could pick out the individual lakes as if they were inverted popsicles made of clear plastic to see the exact contours of the lake beds. Interesting. The kids thought it was interesting. Then they went to look at another display. I saw a bee there (inside the building) walking on the little landscape. I didn't mention it after Oscar's lovely reaction earlier....

I needed to use the bathroom, but Grady was going....and wondering why I didn't go also -- I told him I'd wait until he could watch the kids so that they wouldn't destroy the ranger station.... So Grady was in the bathroom...the kids got bored with the salination display...went back to the landscape-- now I couldn't see the bee (good!) and we thought we'd take a picture with Alex's new- for-his-birthday Polaroid camera. The boys each took out a lake, smiled, I took the pic. They put the lakes back in, started looking at other lakes, or something...when Alex SCREAMED "a bee! a bee!" as apparently he'd been stung-- I guess the bee was near some object on the landscape that blocked my (and the kids') view of it until Alex actually set his hand right on the bee!

the picture that lead to all the trouble

So! Alex is now hysterical. I pull him towards the drinking fountain and calmy tell him to calm down and take a deep breath. He is panting and MAD and squirmy and I shove his hand under cold water. He is so mad he finally gasps a large breath just to get me to say something different. The ranger comes out of the office to check on the commotion and I told him what happened. He asked if it was Alex's first bee sting. Yes. Then he reminds me to keep an eye out for anaphalactic shock and I tell him (as Alex continues wailing) that I would, but we didn't have that in the family so I didn't think it would happen, I just needed Alex to calm down and realize he was OK.

Grady came out of the bathroom....finally Alex was calming down. I had a chance to use the bathroom The ranger found (and removed) what remained of the bee. We bought Alex a cold soda simply to hold like an ice pack. calm calm calm.....OK....let's GO! Headed back to the car....got the doors unlocked, started to get the kids in when Oscar FREAKED at seeing bee -- Oscar started screaming and writhing and didn't get in the car-- so the bee did. I told Grady to get the kids over near the road -- AWAY from the car which was 30' from the trash can that attracted the bees in the first place. He heads off with a screaming hysterical Oscar...I flush the bee from the car by reversing with the windows open and driving to the road....I hadn't gotten the windows back up when we tried to load Oscar again-- now even more hysterical because he saw a bee while walking to the road. Got Oscar in the car, Grady did Oscar's seat belt, I am yelling at Alex to get in....when a bee flies through the open window...Oscar screams and starts throwing up-- mercifully out the car door (still open).....Grady gets the seat belt off him...I get the bee out of the car as Oscar continues to puke on the roadside.....got the windows closed.....dragged Oscar BACK into the ranger station (I am SURE they were DELIGHTED to see us!) to clean the kid up in the bathroom....finally got him calm and clean.....tried to get him to close his eyes as we went back to the car (Grady and Alex were in and ready to go)...but Oscar wouldn't keep his eyes closed an freaked out twice more as bees were SOMEWHERE. Sigh. Finally got him loaded and we left.

Gads.

Roswell: Dairy Capital of New Mexico!

The road to Ruidoso from Roswell. Note the exciting change of scenery compared to west Texas (above).

Ruisoso Residents

For most of Texas, Roswell is a Denny's stop in the way to Ruidoso, NM. Literally. There is a Denny's in the corner of the main street in Roswell as it crosses 380 the thoroughfair between Post, TX and Ruidoso. (By the way...Ruidoso is pronounced "ruh-doh-sah"). Ruidoso has a small ski resort (Ski Apache) due to a strange quirk of Sierra Blanca mountain -- it gets and retains snow while nearby mountains (El Capitan less than 50 miles away) stay bare. The local Apache tribe owns and operates the ski resort (by the way, for nice, relatively uncrowded, family skiing, I highly recommend the place), and not to lose that important summer income, they also own the requisite Casino. There is also a race track, and an avenue of darling little overpriced shops with inadequate parking. Most popular local item: chain-saw carved bears.

But I digress....many people seem to make Roswell their actual vacation destination (to be fair.... Carlsbad Caverns is within a 2 hour drive of Roswell). The Alien Research Center is free and less than a block from Denny's. An amazing number of people have signed their log -- including my husband despite my wishes to the contrary. In fact, a huge chunk of Roswell has completely given in the whole alien experience. I'll tell you, there is nothing like having an overweight balding 50-year-old guy in a slightly too small t-shirt tell you kids all about the Chupacabra!

across the main street from Denny's...note the alien street lamp (middle right)....this photo is 2 years old...the clothing store (topped by the horse) has moved about 2 miles up the road and has been replaced by a shop that seems to seel clothes Brittany Speers would favor.

Holidays 2002

You really can't avoid the aliens....but that's OK because the kids think it is Disneyland! Now on our most recently trip we were driving through Roswell on boxing day which was a sunday and many of the shops were closed. Fortunately one t-shirt shop WAS open and the proprietor was able to sell us outerspace sparky guns as he told us about the high incidence of food poinsoning at the aforementioned Denny's (where, coincidentally, my husband happened to be finishing my salad at that very moment!). While we hung around tow, another store opened so the kids would not be bereft of alien dice (with alien eyes instead of pips).

But we had to spare some time on our return trip to make sure we could get into our favorite alien store. The alien items are actually reasonably priced (a small plastic alien is only 2 bits). The store carries an amazing variety of alien t-shirts (many on sale....funny how they don't sell out....). And it features a curtained-off section called AREA 51. For just a small fee, you and your kids can interact with aliens!

some trouble with the locals (2002)

The boys participating in Roswell's favorite sport. 2002.

Unfortunately AREA 51 was having lighting problems this year so Alex could not exhaust his entite new roll of Polaroid film (Birthday Present Camera). But they managed to locate a few more alien artifacts they just had to have. Even my husband found an alien mask he could actually breathe in and therefore couldn't pass up (Ok OK, I encouraged him to get it...).