So What Really Happened at Roswell on July 7 1947?

Over 60 years ago, something fell out of the sky and crashed on a sheep ranch near Roswell, New Mexico.  But was it a UFO manned by aliens?  Or was it just a weather balloon?
Lt. Walter Haut, a bombardier navigator stationed at Roswell Army Air Field and acting as PR officer wrote the first report about the incident, describing a "saucer" made of some sort of unknown metal.  The next day, General Roger Ramey pooh-poohed this version and told the media the saucer was really only a weather balloon.  But according to W. Glenn Dennis (who was working at the Ballard Funeral Home in Roswell) members of the military had been asking around trying to find youth-sized caskets.  And a friend who worked at the base hospital said he'd seen doctors examining something that was alive, but not human.
The military closed ranks, as only the military can.  For over 30 years, nothing more was heard about the matter.  But in 1980, "The Roswell Incident" by Charles Berlitz and William Moore appeared and the world has been fascinated ever since.
There was so much interest in Roswell and what did -- or did not -- happen there that Haut and Dennis had the idea of establishing a UFO Museum, which opened in 1991 and logged its one-millionth visitor ten years later.  About 150,000 people visit the UFO Museum every month, which is impressive, as Roswell isn't exactly on the beaten track.

The UFO Museum's exhibits include extensive information -- including statements from witnesses, copies of original newspaper reports, a radio announcement and documentation describing the subsequent cover-up -- as well as fascinating material about crop circles and alien abductions. There's also some "fun" stuff, like the flying saucer and animatronic aliens that flash blue lights and belch smoke every hour or so.  And sets from the Showtime Movie, "Roswell".  My personal favorite was the cartoon wall, featuring dozens of cartoons concerning Roswell.  One of them depicts a General asking another General, So why have we kept a weather balloon on a life support system for the past 60 years?
The evidence is pretty overwhelming.  There was a cover-up.  But why?  We're presented with a whole list of reasons.  The government was afraid there would be a panic.  The government was afraid it was all a Russian plot.  The government didn't want to offend people who believed in God.  None of these reasons are very convincing.  So what really happened?  We still don't know.  But as they say, The truth is out there.
Whether or not you believe in UFOs and alien abductions, the UFO Museum at Roswell is definitely worth a visit, even if it involves going miles out of your way.  It is fascinating, and it is fun. There is also an annual UFO Festival, held early in July.  That sounds like fun, too.  And there's quite a good selection of motels (most of them dog friendly) and restaurants in Roswell if you decide to stay over, which we did.
Xingxing toured the Museum in his stroller, and was unimpressed -- probably because there weren't any dogs involved.  If he could have asked a question it would probably have been something like, Why didn't they bring their dogs along with them?  But he cheered up enormously when we reached the gift shop and he was presented with a little green stuffed alien, which he chewed on happily as Christopher and I shopped for souvenirs.

White Sands National Monument

It's called White Sands National Monument, and Christopher expected little more than a statue.  (I don't know what Xingxing expected) But what we found was nothing less than  the largest gypsum sand desert in the entire world.
The white, gypsum sands really are white, spectacularly so. They are arranged in undulating dunes which are constantly on the move, traveling as  much as 38 feet in a single year.  The gypsum comes from the surrounding mountains.  It is leached out by the rain, and flows down the sides of the mountains to collect in pools, where it forms soft crystals as the pools dry out.  The crystals are light enough to be blown about by the wind, and when this happens, they break up into smaller and smaller particles, eventually forming fine, white sand.
People climb the dunes and slide down them and take photographs, but I suspect it wouldn't be all that difficult to get quite lost here, and quite quickly.  Once you're out of sight of the road, it all looks pretty much the same.  Because the dunes are continually moving, the road has to be plowed regularly.
Prevailing winds blow the sands across the flat basin and gradually, as the winds grow weaker, sand accumulates and grasses and other vegetation take root, forming a boundary of sorts. Animals live here -- mostly small, and mostly nocturnal.  We didn't see any of them.
Christopher climbed a dune to see what was on the other side -- more dunes -- but Xingxing and I were less adventurous, sticking to the boardwalk which has been constructed to give visitors a feeling of the desert without the risk of losing themselves in the white vastnesses.
Driving along past all these huge, white mounds of sand was a bit unworldly -- which I guess was a good preparation for our next stop: Roswell, and the International UFO Museum.

Xingxing Hits the Road Again

Our Australian friend Christopher recently paid us a visit.
While he was here, he said he'd like to visit Roswell, Santa Fe and Acoma, all of which are in New Mexico.  So last Saturday we hit the road. Although Xingxing has done one-day car trips -- to Mexico and to San Diego -- he has never actually done a road trip.  And sometimes, he does get car sick.  This is happening less and less as he gets older, but I truly didn't know how he'd handle having to get back into the car and travel for several hours at a stretch, day after day.  I also wondered how he'd feel about having someone else in the car with us, sitting in his seat. However, there was only one way to find out.
Our first day's drive was the longest, from Scottsdale to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  This is a good, solid six-hour drive at the best of times, about the same as amount of driving that it takes to get from here to San Diego. We got a late start and ended up stopping for lunch in Tucson, which made the trip even longer.  Xingxing didn't have lunch (he never does) but he did have a few nibbles of bread and butter, which he absolutely loves.  He also had a drink of water.
This -- I realized after the fact -- probably wasn't the greatest of ideas. But Xingxing was amazingly, incredibly good.  I'd put a little doggy bed in the back seat, and when he wasn't curled up in it he was sitting on Christopher's lap, having a cuddle.  Here in Arizona, it is against the law to drive with a dog sitting on your lap, so simultaneous driving and snuggling was a new experience for him.  He definitely liked it. AndChristopher is a dog person who quite enjoys dog kisses, so everyone was having fun.
Even so, that first day was a long drive.  At dusk, it began to drizzle.  I don't see very well at night, so Christopher took over the driving for the last stretch.  Coming into Las Cruces, there was roadwork, as well.  Really poorly lit roadwork. The last little bit off the exit ramp was like an obstacle course.
By the time we got to the motel it was two hours past Xingxing's usual dinner time -- and he'd missed his afternoon walk.  (It was also an hour later, because Arizona doesn't have Daylight Savings Time and New Mexico does -- but dogs don't have to worry about these human-made technicalities)
Xingxing was unfazed by any of it. He ate his dinner, drank some water, had his walk, did what dogs do, curled up in bed next to me and went happily off to sleep.

United Airlines: Hell in a Very Small Space

We'd booked First Class flights from Halifax to Newark, and then from Newark to Phoenix.
Several weeks before we left home, I got an email saying the flight from Halifax had been changed, and was now a tourist class flight.  I called United Airlines to find out what was going on, and spoke to a representative (who of course, did not possess a surname) who assured me that I would get a refund for the First Class flight I no longer had, and that I still had my bulkhead seat.
Not true.  None of it.
Xingxing and I were crammed into a space so small that if I put both of my feet on the floor in front of the seat there was no room for Xingxing.  There was barely room for me.  They knew I was traveling with a service dog -- suppose he'd been a Labrador?  Where would they have put him?  In an overhead locker?
The airplane wasn't full. I could have been given two adjacent seats -- but a young man (clearly a friend or relative of one of the snotty cabin attendants) carrying one of those huge backpacks -- no way that would fit in an overhead locker -- was given those two seats to himself.  He and his illegal backpack were given every consideration.  I was treated like a piece of dirt.  One of the cabin attendants did her best to step on Xingxing's tail every time she passed.  Xingxing was a really good sport.  Xingxing is always a good sport.
I'm not going to dwell on the Dantean horrors of Newark Airport, or the hostility and unhelpfulness of each and every United Airlines employee we encountered during our very long stay there.  United Airlines employees are not happy people, and they take it out on United Airlines customers.  
Hours and hours and hours later, we were finally in our First Class (but not bulkhead) seats on our United Airlines flight from Newark to Phoenix.  Did I want dinner?  Absolutely.  All that's left is pasta, I was told.  We go by priority.  The other passengers have priority, so they got first choice.  You get what's left.
I always thought a First Class ticket was a First Class ticket.  Silly me! But there is nothing on the United Airlines website explaining that there are different priorities of First Class service.  I didn't realize that I'd paid top dollar for a low priority First Class ticket.
United Airlines doesn't have a Vice President for Customer service.  Instead, they've got a Vice President for Customer Experience.  And he doesn't answer his mail.  He passes it on to underlings, who are as snotty and unhelpful as everyone else.
If you want a "customer experience" fly United Airlines.
As for me, one "customer experience" was enough to last a lifetime.  I will never fly United Airlines again.  If you're smart, you won't either.  Especially if you're traveling with a service dog!

Wet Rocks and an Amazing Work of Art

It's raining, now.
We have the same driver as yesterday.  His name is Mike, and today he's wearing a kilt.  On the way to Peggy's Cove, he tells us how lobster traps are constructed -- with two sections -- and other interesting things about lobsters.  Here, lobster is cheap and common.  Lobster is what you eat when you can't afford anything else.
By the time we get to Peggy's Cove, it is pouring.
Peggy's Cove is a straggle of little wooden houses scattered around a road that winds down to the waterfront where it ends at an enormous restaurant-cum-souvenir-shop surrounded by a parking lot.
Nobody actually knows why it is called Peggy's Cove, or who Peggy was, or even if there ever was a Peggy.
Unlike most of the surrounding area -- which was carved out by the retreating glaciers -- Peggy's Cove sits on a solid granite base, as does the lighthouse for which it is famous.  The red and white lighthouse, the massive granite cliffs and the beach below must be very picturesque when the sun is shining.  Mike tries valiantly to put a good slant on the rain, saying that it adds mystery and atmosphere to the scene.
Xingxing is intrigued by the rain.  He has never seen rain.  He keeps looking up at the sky, and trying to catch raindrops on his tongue.
There are half a dozen tour busses, and a large number of intrepid Japanese tourists with umbrellas swarming over the wet rocks that lead to the lighthouse and stopping every few steps to take photographs of one another.  There's a path down to the base of the cliffs, where there are tidal pools full of sea creatures.  But it's too wet and too crowded to tempt me.
Amazingly, there is absolutely nobody at William Degarthe's house, an unprepossessing wooden structure set down in front of a 100-foot long granite outcrop.  Degarthe was born in Finland, but came to Canada as a young man and became an important artist and sculptor.  He owned an advertising agency in Halifax, but spent summers here at Peggy's Cove.  When he was 70 years old, he decided to "do something" with the granite outcrop in back of his house.  His plan was to create a monument to Canadian fishermen and their wives and children.  Using hammers and chisels, he set to work.  Although he died before he could complete the work, its larger than life-size figures and depictions of fishermen at work and their families presents a poignant and incredibly moving picture of life here at the edge of the sea.  Under Degarthe's hands, the granite comes to life.  I find it much more impressive than the lighthouse.
When you've seen one lighthouse, you've more or less seen them all.  But Degarthe's sculpted masterpiece is utterly unique.  I linger for quite a while before making my way down the road to the restaurant and parking lot.
The time has gone so quickly.  I can't believe this is our last day!

The Halifax Explosion

Our last day in Halifax, and it's cool and overcast.  We've got one, last tour this afternoon.  But our morning is free, so we head for the waterfront and the Maritime Museum.
This is a fascinating museum.  Anchors and mastheads and models -- I was intrigued by the equipment they used to step the masts.  One nice touch is that the museum floors are made of wood, and the wood creaks underfoot, as if you're walking on the deck of a ship.  Xingxing was happy to ride in his stroller, and we ambled happily through the exhibits, ropes as thick as my legs (and that's saying something!) and wonderful, hand-carved bowsprits.
Everyone knows about the Titanic -- although I didn't realize the men who rescued the survivors and brought back the bodies of those who didn't survive for burial sailed out of Halifax harbor.  Or that it was the Halifax cemetery where they were laid to rest that inspired James Cameron's film.  The Maritime Museum features a huge display about the Titanic.  But we didn't get to see it because we got waylaid by the Halifax Explosion.
I have to admit, I have never heard of the Halifax Explosion.  Have you?
It happened in December, 1917.  And it was the largest, man-made explosion to occur on the face of the earth until the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, nearly 30 years later.  Large portions of the city of Halifax were totally wiped out, and thousands died in the conflagration.  It was one of the great disasters of the twentieth century -- and I'd never heard a word about it.  But when I went to school, we mostly studied American history and European history.  I don't recall ever hearing much about Canada. We knew it was there, but that was about it.

It was during the first World War. Halifax harbor was where the convoys gathered to set out across the Atlantic. What happened was that two ships collided in the narrowest part of the harbor.  One of them was a munitions ship, heavily loaded with explosives and waiting to join a convoy across the Atlantic. The other was a merchant ship.  When the ships collided, the crew of the munitions ship clambered into life boats and rowed furiously for Dartmouth, the settlement across the harbor from Halifax.  They were terrified, because they knew what was about to happen.
The ships caught fire, and burned spectacularly.  It was early morning -- people were going to work, kids were going to school.  Half of Halifax ran down to the waterfront to gape at the spectacle.  The two burning ships drifted slowly towards the Halifax shore. And then the munitions ship exploded.
It was as if an earthquake had hit the city.  The shock wave knocked down row upon row of the little wooden houses that lined the shore and fires from stoves and fireplaces swept through the wreckage.  It was total, utter disaster.  The desperate city officials sent out a plea for help and one of the first respondents was the city of Boston, which sent a trainload of supplies and personnel, includig doctors and nurses.  And every Christmas -- to this day -- the city of Halifax presents Boston with a huge Christmas tree, a token of the city's gratitude and appreciation.
By the time we've worked our way through the series of rooms documenting the explosion and its aftermath -- including recorded accounts from the survivors -- it's time for lunch.  We find a waterfront restaurant -- Murphy's -- and I decide I've had enough lobster, so I order a Fisherman's Platter.  It is the best Fisherman's Platter I have ever eaten anywhere, ever in my whole life.  Fish doesn't turn Xingxing on, but he enjoys the bread and butter.
Now, it's time for our tour to Peggy's Cove.

The King George Hotel in Halifax is Super Dog-Friendly

The description of a hotel as "dog friendly" can mean anything from "dogs allowed" to "dogs welcome".  Many hotels and motels that say they're "dog friendly" will put you in a room where the frayed carpets stink of tobacco.  That's not exactly what I call friendly. And if you arrive at some places without reservations, you're likely to be told that the rooms "where dogs are permitted" are already taken.

At the King George Hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia, dogs are definitely welcome.  When you check in, you are presented with a "goody bag" that contains a brace of dog dishes (one for food, one for water) a fluffy flannel blanket, dog treats and poop bags tied up with a gold ribbon.  There's also a sign you can personalize with your dog's name and hang on the door of your room if you have to go out and leave your dog behind.  (Most places won't even allow you to leave your dog in the room)
But what's really special are the travel tips that focus on natural remedies.  Is your dog stressed out from travel?  Try a pinch of ground valerian root mixed in with food.  Or soak a doggie treat in chamomile tea.There are suggestions for the kinds of minor ailments that might occur during a trip, as well.  Yellow dock treatment kills ear mites.  And echinacea tea is good for minor cuts on a paw.  Urinary tract problems can be warded off with dandelion root. (I never knew that) Sprinkle several drops of the tincture or a teaspoon of ground root on your dog's food several times a week.  And you can boost your dog's immune system with a pinch of antioxidant herbs, which include oregano, dill, thyme, peppermint, sage, lemon balm and cinnamon.
Xingxing loves cinnamon.  I use it at home, to control ants.  If you sprinkle a bit of cinnamon where you see ants, the ants disappear -- unless your dog gets to the cinnamon first!  But I never knew it was an antioxidant.  Did you?