Route 66, Alien Cats, and Donuts – Thoughts from September 18, 2024 – Roswell Part 2

We bought several alien and Roswell-related things from the various shops we traveled through. The best one was an alien ship driven by an alien cat who is attempting to beam up a mouse. There were several other things I wanted to get, but I’m realizing I have too much stuff from past vacations, so I controlled myself. The last few shops we saw were closed. That was probably for the best for both of us. Patti asked at one shop where there was good Mexican food nearby and they suggested a place down the street. Our next stop was the Tagueria Jalisco restaurant for “authentic Mexican food.”

The restaurant was appropriately alien themed, and they told us to sit anywhere. This happened at almost every restaurant we went to in Arizona and New Mexico. Most restaurants in California you must wait to be seated. This restaurant had more people in it than most of the other restaurants we went to. We sat in a booth, and I had a view of a Mexican TV show that featured humorous videos. You didn’t need to understand Spanish to understand what was funny in the videos. After we ordered, Patti took our donkey and squirrel sidekicks over to a wooden alien. She set the sidekicks in front of the wooden alien and took several pictures. The staff seemed endlessly fascinated by what she was doing. She brought my phone to take the pictures, and I looked at the pictures. You could see the sidekicks fine, but you could only see the feet of the alien. She took the phone and sidekicks back up to the wooden alien and took the pictures over. More people came from the back of the restaurant to watch the new happenings. This time, you could see the wooden alien fully. As it turned out, there were two aliens standing side by side. We got our food, and it was deliciously authentic.

There was a McDonald’s by our hotel room. We went there because it had a play area in front shaped like an alien ship. Patti also got a soft serve there. She prefers soft serve to scooped ice cream. The other advantage of soft serve is that it usually only comes in one flavor. The only acceptable flavor for Patti is vanilla. We took photos with the aliens outside. Patti also insisted on getting a photo of our donkey and squirrel sidekicks in the lap of one alien. The silver alien gave no protest. Inside, Ronald McDonald and other characters hung above the play area as if they were in space. One of them was flying in a spacecraft shaped like fries. It said in bold letters on the side, “OUT OF THIS WORLD FRIES!”

We then headed to Dunkin across from McDonald’s. A giant alien with huge muscles held up the Dunkin’ sign. Once Patti finished her soft serve, we headed into the shop. It also had a Baskin Robbins inside, but I only wanted donuts. Patti was thinking we could get a couple of donuts. I took over the ordering of at least five of the donuts. (Future note: I, of course, ate all half dozen of the donuts because Patti could never eat her one donut.)

We went back to our room, and I ate one donut. This was the last night of the forward movement of the trip. In the morning, we would head back and visit different things along the way. This was the fun, spontaneous part of the trip that I dreaded most. Having only a vague idea where we were going was nerve-racking when our maps required an internet connection to work. We had one more morning in Roswell, but we knew we had to get on the road. Route 66 had more to visit, and it would not visit itself.