Day 7: Midland to Roswell

 The past 6 days of searching for severe weather left us a little worn out, so on May 29 we had a chance to relax and enjoy some time off. Few storms were predicted to develop in the Texas/New Mexico area, so Dr. Kalkstein and MAJ Hughes thought we should go to Roswell, NM for the day. We would visit some local attractions and possibly see some desert storms fire up. After breakfast, we drove 3 hours west from Midland to Roswell and the scenery changed even more. We were now in the arid desert of New Mexico, the birthplace of thunderstorms that would move east across the plains.

We ate some authentic Mexican food outside town for lunch, and the went to the city center to check out what Roswell is known for: aliens! Dr. Kalkstein loved the souvenir shops, we visited the UFO Museum (which was far from convincing), and realized that the entire town is built on the alien tourism industry. MAJ Hughes was not so excited, being the extremely scientific man he is. After our fill of extraterrestrial paraphernalia, we checked into our hotel and then bought supplies for dinner at Walmart.

The last part of our day was at Bottomless Lakes State Park, east of Roswell. We first walked around a sinkhole lake set in a cliff, an example of Karst topography.  Then we set up a grill near a larger lake with a beach, went swimming, and Dr. Kalkstein cooked up a great Memorial Weekend dinner. MAJ Hughes set the mood with his mandolin folk music. As the sun set beautifully behind the storm clouds, we roasted smores. It was nice to have a slow evening, be together, and still see some weather. The storms gave a lightning show as we returned to the hotel, refreshingly earlier than previous nights. Hopefully we are well-rested for the next day of being back on the chase in New Mexico, starting our second week on this AIAD.









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