Apr 4 Monday - back to the UFO museum & then around Roswell a bit

Apr 4 Mon Day 77 clear & sunny, only 16 C, (61 F) & still a little bit windy.

The wind is dropping fast and so is the temp, it is almost cool out. We are off into town to the UFO museum to see the documentary film about the Roswell incident in 1947 that we missed yesterday. It was a TV documentary, so was only about 50 minutes or so. It was good because it condensed the story being told in small bits in the exhibits throughout the museum to a timeline, ie. On July, 1947, sheep farmer Brazel finds a huge amt. of debris in his field, takes it to sheriff in town, on the 6th who contacts nearby airbase. They investigate and Col. Haut, media officer, releases a story to Roswell newspapers saying the army recovered fragments of a spaceship & two dead aliens from Brazel’s ranch. The following day, Gen. Ramey takes over the investigation & another news story is released saying that the ‘spaceship’ was actually just a weather balloon & the ‘aliens’ were human-like dummies used to determine the safety of parachuting from high elevations. Everyone involved in the recovery of the debris & transport of the ‘dummies’ is sworn to secrecy. The cover-up is complete! Some of the affidavits sworn by people about the incident long afterward claim that the airforce investigators threatened them with death if they continued to tell their story. That, I find hard to believe! (Sheila’s thoughts.) If there was a cover-up—why? The documentary said there were 3 reasons: they didn’t want to panic the public; they wanted time to check out alien technology before other world powers had a chance to; and thirdly they didn’t want a lot of attention focussed on Area 51—their top secret weapons testing site.
They also explained why there were so many UFO sightings etc. in the late 40’s & 50’s. Basically, they said that the testing of the atom bomb & the V2 rockets in the area would have piqued their, (extraterrestrials), interest because every advanced civilization knows that nuclear fission is necessary for space travel & that since we were demonstrating that we had that capability, it was time to “check us out,” probably to see if we were a threat to them.
They also show full length Hollywood movies about UFO incidents that occurred both here & elsewhere. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for those. After the film, Sheila started to look around the museum some more, reading just about everything. Just before 2 pm, almost 2 hrs after the film ended and about 1½ hours after I had finished with everything, we left for lunch. By now, though sceptical at first, Sheila thinks we may have been visited by aliens & that they’re monitoring us. She’s in good company as one of the exhibits listed the following people as being believers: US presidents, Ford, Reagan, Truman & Carter, (he even admits to a sighting), generals MacArthur & Marshall, missile expert, Cdr. McLaughlin, the president of Lear Aircraft, rocket scientist, professor Hermann Oberth etc.
The “Cowboy Café” I wanted to go to had closed at 2, so Sheila dropped me at the RV to get myself something & she went back to the UFO museum for more! She also, checked out a couple more stores for tomorrow’s shopping. Yesterday a large forest, (bush?), fire was burning out of control near Ruidoso (where we planned to go next,) and Hwy 70 was closed. This morning it had only one lane open. However, it showed all open by Mon afternoon. Sheila finally returned from the UFO museum around 4 pm and we went to check out nearby River Walk Park & Zoo. The zoo is free & features both indigenous & exotic animals from far away places. They have an adoption program for each animal, which Sheila thinks means their care is paid for by the adopter—hence no entrance fee for the zoo. An interesting idea. We saw goats, coyotes, cougars, bobcats, deer, antelopes, bison, raccoons, lemurs, coatimundi, foxes, snakes, a lizard & a tarantula, eagles, owls, geese, a huge turkey, a raven, & two beautiful peacocks etc. Sheila’s favourite was a very friendly llama that came right up to the fence & practically kissed her. After taking me ‘home,’ Sheila went to a local BBQ, ‘The Snazzy Pig’ for take-out, as tonight is “D. with S.” & “Castle” & there isn’t time to cook supper before D. with S. begins. Dancing with the Stars was especially good tonight, (both Sheila & the judges’ opinion) as all but two of the contestants outdid themselves as they danced to a song that was particularly meaningful to them at some point in their life.