Alien Adventure Tour

I am attending the Rider Coach professional development conference hosted by Harley-Davidson's Riding Academy, in Las Vegas, NV.  Yeah, I know, it's tough to have to go to Vegas on business.  At any rate, and in the spirit of every ride an adventure, I thought I'd craft this ride to celebrate the rich history of alien encounters along the route.  Check out  the research below the SpotWalla map for some details about the stops along the way.  Be sure to check out the pictures by clicking on the camera icons as I stop at the Alien Encounter way points.

SPOT Gen3 SpotWalla Map

Mon/Tue/ 3/24-25:  The ride to the Thing was great with nice weather.  I spent the night in Lordsburg, NM.  Not much to note other than I'm not so used to taking my time while riding.  I could get used to it....nah!  After reaching the Marfa Lights viewing area I stopped for the night in Alpine.  Had some cheap Chinese then to bed.  By the time I got home Tuesday afternoon around 3pm I had traveled almost 3,100 miles on the Alien Adventure Tour!  Every ride an adventure....

Sunday, 3/23:  On with the Alien Adventure Tour.  On the route today Sector Seven storage facility where the Decepticon Megatron and the AllSpark were kept in the depths of Hoover Dam.  Then, on to "The Thing" east of Tucson. 

Saturday day, 3/22:  The Harley-Davidson Riding Academy conference, Saturday, was packed with great stuff.  Afterwards,  several of us went out to eat and do some people watching over on Freemont Street.  That was fun.  But, I can't tell you about it, cause "What happens in Vegas....stays in Vegas!"

Friday, 3/21:  Happy Spring!  Easy ride down to Las Vegas for a couple days of....business.  Dinner at the pool at 6pm. Glad I brought a flowered shirt.  Then, conference all day tomorrow. 

Thursday, 3/20:  Burrrrrrr....18F in Flagstaff this morning.  Think I'll wait an hour or so for the sun to get a little high in the sky.  Riding through some scenic and remote areas on the way to Area 51, the ET highway and stopping for the night at the Little A'le'inn. 

Good riding today.  Temps warmed up and the skies were clear.  I was keen to see if the BubblerGPS Pro app on my Samsung GalaxyS4 worked in cell dead areas. As can be seen by the map above it worked beyond my expectations.  Check out the picture at the Utah/Nevada border, in the middle of no where.  Sucking on a beer, at the bar in the Little A'le'Inn  as I'm typing this.  It's tough being unemployed on a fixed income.  Tomorrow, Las Vegas.....

Wednesday, 3/19:  Got a string of close encounters on the way to Flagstaff.  It was cold and windy leaving Roswell.  By the time I was crossing the mountain range it was 21F.  Didn't warm up to the 40sF till I reached the Very Large Array.  I'm doing a relaxed ride pace to spend time along the way.  Got to Flagstaff relatively early and decided to ride the 7 miles up the road to the NASA lunar training site.  Spending the night back in Flagstaff. 

 
Tuesday, 3/18:  On my way early to get through rush hour traffic in Austin and maybe the DFW metroplex.   Wow, had a nice tailwind riding north to Aurora.  Got the pix and headed west into the wind.  It was blowing about 20 to 30 miles per hour.  By the time I got just southeast of Lubbock I received a "Sand Storm Warning" on weather radar via my Garmin GPS.  Never got one of those before!  Sure enough, it quickly developed into a 1930s dust bowl event.  I plowed through it, as the radar showed it ending in about 100 miles.  By the time I got to the NM border is was clearly up nicely.  The bike was a mess so I power washed it after arriving in Roswell.  Remaining over night. 

----------------------Background research of the Alien Adventure Tour way points---------------------

"The Truth Is Out There"  A lot of folks, "UFO deniers",  don't believe that we have been visited by extraterrestrial beings...from another world no less.  What with all the conspiracies about how the government is covering up incidents, popular subculture has documented many things fit for the "X-Files".  Below are just a few, which happen to be on my way to Las Vegas.

Alien Adventure Discovery Tour

Dallas Morning News

Aurora TX:  This is one of the first documented UFO incidents in the United States.  The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident is a UFO incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, a small town near Dallas-Ft Worth.   The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) reportedly resulted in a fatality from the crash. The alleged alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local cemetery.  Check out the report in The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897.

Roswell NM:  The Roswell UFO incident took place in the U.S. in June or July 1947, when an airborne object crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Explanations of what took place are based on both official and unofficial communications. Although the crash is attributed to a secret U.S. military Air Force surveillance balloon by the U.S. government, the most famous explanation of what occurred is that the object was a spacecraft containing extraterrestrial life. Since the late 1970s, the Roswell incident has been the subject of much controversy, and conspiracy theories have arisen about the event.

Valley of Fires & Trinity Site

Valley of Fires NM:  Approximately 5,000 years ago an alien spacecraft of immense size landed and subsequently blasted off from the area near Little Black Peak.  The fiery exhaust caused the ground to open, heating the earth's crust which erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin, filling the basin with molten rock. The resulting lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.  If you look at the satellite image you can see how the molten rock from the hot exhaust flowed outward from the point of the launch of the alien spacecraft.  Note the proximity of the Trinity Site to this ancient UFO incident.  Coincidence? Some think not.

Trinity Site, 2011

Trinity Site NM: The Trinity Site, location of the first detonation of an atomic device, has long been associated with UFO phenomena.  The theory is ETs saw earth's entrance into the nuclear age as a threatening step in the technological evolution of our species.  An ET scouting mission probably resulted in the famous Roswell UFO incident. The actual Trinity Site is not open to the public. Now, the closest one can get is the historical sign on the highway.  I did manage to sneak my way in during the Land of Enchantment Rally in October of 2011. 

Very Large Array

Very Large Array NM: As seen in the documentary "Contact" the VLA was where astronomer Dr. Eleanor Arroway received the first message from an ET civilization.  Hidden in a virtual radio free zone this government facility is at the leading edge of extraterrestrial contact.  While on the Land of Enchantment rally I needed to take a picture of the radio receivers, getting at least three dishes in the photo.  I arrived around midnight so it took some doing, but I got the picture and bonus.

April, 2007

Meteor Crater AZ:  This large hole in the ground was produced by a very large meteor some 50,000 years ago.  Although, little or no pieces of the original projectile has ever been found.  UFO enthusiasts have speculated that the crater was created by an alien craft slamming into the earth.   The absence of any fossil remains is evidence of a recovery effort from the alien species.  At any rate, it's a cool place to visit on any adventure.  

Lunar SurfaceTraining Site AZ:  Long thought by moon landing conspiracy theorists to be the location of the faked Apollo 11 moon landing.  You can see from the pictures why.  NASA took great pains to duplicate every crater on Cinder Lake, just north of Flagstaff, to match exactly those the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface.   

July, 2010

Extraterrestrial Highway NV:   Designated by the governor of Nevada this stretch State Route 375 is noted for its UFO sightings.  A must stop on any alien discovery adventure.  

Area 51 and Little A'Le'Inn NV:  I passed this way back in July 2010 returning from Alaska and the northwest doing the IBA National Parks Tour.  I promised myself I'd arrange an over night stay at the Little A'Le'Inn and do some UFO spotting.

Las Vegas NV:   Lots of alien activity in Las Vegas.  The International UFO Congress holds their annual convention there to the delight of the local tourist board.  There have even been documented UFO sightings as your can see by this YouTube video of strange unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over Las Vegas.  

Hoover Dam:  Documented in the movie Transformers, Hoover Dam is the site of the Sector Seven storage facility housing the Transformer Allspark.  It is no coincidence that strange UFO sightings have occurred in this area.  As the photo on the right shows a UFO hovering near the entrance to the lower parts of the dam complex where all manner of ET artifacts are housed. 

The Thing:  Long thought to be an alien creature from another world, "The Thing", or what's left of it, rests in a tourist trap on the east bound side of Interstate 10 just east of Texas Canyon.  Of course, some will say it's not the creature cooked by electricity by those Air Farce guys and scientists way up near the arctic back in the 50's.  But, I've heard the government, in an attempt to cover up the incident, changed the appearance of the remains and gave it to a roadside hustler as part of the dis-information campaign. 

Marfa LightsTX: The last ET stop on the Alien Adventure Tour is the prime viewing location for unexplained sites.  Located between Marfa and Alpine Texas off US 90 this place is noted for its strange lights in the far off distant dessert to the southwest.  These sightings have been recorded going back as far as the late 1800s.