Hi all,
I have thankfully left Las Vegas this morning and headed to a part of America that the is truth is still unknown, yep I’ve been to the edge and back and made it! So where have I been? “Groom Lake”? nope never heard of it, well this area is best known as “AREA 51″ OK so you can’t see the worlds longest run-way, in fact all you can see is some hills and some guards sitting in pick up waiting for you to step over the line and gun you down and then hand you over to the local Sheriff in bits (who by the way must be fed up with processing obsessed UFO fans that try to get further into the area than they should)

Before all that I drove down the “ExtraTerrestrial Highway-375″ to “Rachel” the home of the “Little A’Le’Inn” where you can dine and enjoy the company of the friendly staff who will point you in the direction of Area 51, tell you stories and sell you tons of stuff with (guess what) Aliens on it. Thanks to Betty for making my lunch, the chat and the directions, they worked a treat! (only one mile out) and the guards didn’t even get out of there pick-up truck to welcome me and the fellow 2 brits and an America that were already there (shame on them!)

One big disappointment was that the worlds largest KFC logo has now been removed from the desert (bummer) but here’s the link if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about:

http://www.kfc.com/about/pressreleases/111406.asp
http://www.kfc.com/about/pressreleases/111406/popup_satellite.asp

So what about the photographs? well due to the fact that I was sworn by the guards never to reproduce the photographs of the site and the surrounding area ever you will never see them, but below are some images I took before I swore an oath to America.

Remember the Alamo? Well this place is the first hint that you are getting close to Area 51, don’t talk to the locals they are all cloned robots that are Government controlled! Alamo has two sides to it’s front. 1) The bus picks up the locals and takes them to work at Groom Lake 2) It’s almost your last stop to get gas before you run out like the idiots at I met at Little A’Le’Inn! (make sure you have a full tank before driving in the desert!)

Hold on to your hats! Low Flying Aircraft (that you may or may not recognize)

Welcome to the “Extraterrestrial Highway”

Rachel.

“Little A’Le’Inn”

And now for the fun stuff, the photographs that your not meant to see:

The end of the road for you and me.

The sensors keeping an eye and ear on you.

The watch tower keeping an eye on you.

Me at the edge.

I found this abandoned camp site complete with massive telescope just 1 mile from the guards!

Well I hope you have enjoyed today’s update, I’m off to Salt Lake City tomorrow.

Take care

Jonathan Fridlington

Yesterday I headed south to Albuquerque (a short drive at just over 60 miles) this section of Route 66 has nothing worth photographing on it so I just headed for the town. Having got here around 10.30am I went into the Tourist information center located in the middle of Downtown (I suggest that you don’t bother as the staff seem more on what they did last night than helping new people in town) luckily they had a guide on the table. The downtown area of Albuquerque is just full of offices, bars and restaurants, not really much in the way of shopping.
After reading the guide I went in search of the “old town” to try to find some history, well as you can see from my following photographs the old town is a tourist shopping heaven. The streets all full of shops selling your usual tourist gifts (a little bit of a disappointment really)

The church in the old town of Albuquerque.

The Plaza Don Luis in the of old town of Albuquerque.

Ok so lied a little, there are some interesting side streets to wondering down but even these have tourist shops, Native American art galleries and bars.
Walking around the old town I did find “The National Atomic Museum” A very interesting place (if your interested in the history of Atomic energy and the bombs that wiped out Japan) There is a lot of information to take in, so be prepared to spend some time in here. www.atomicmuseum.com

A model of one of the bombs that cleaned out parts of Japan.

The rest of the day was spent on some me time, washing clothes, shopping etc.

Today (31st May 2007) I ventured down to “Roswell” yep that’s right folks the place of the Alien crash site in the 40′s, what else is there? well the “International UFO Museum & Research Center”
On the journey down to Roswell I noticed the sky changing by the minute. If you don’t know what these are in the sky, they are called chem trails (not con trails!) (to find out more information on what these are just type in chem trails in google search and be prepared to be shocked)

Chem trails spread out (these are not clouds) (note the clear sky behind)

Ok lesson out of the way, on the way down to Roswell you pass the turning to where the “UFO” crashed in the 40′s (no point in going as there is nothing to see)

Back to the museum, in my opinion you will find the information here on the internet, in fact you would find more. The museum does have a very large collection of books and videos made on UFO’s and other things, there are NO bits of the UFO that crashed on display! (I did buy a t-shirt)
After my disappointing trip around the museum I walked a little around the town, the place has nothing but cafe’s and gift shops for Alien hungry visitors (everything here is Alien!)
During my walk I noticed something strange, something that wasn’t right, yep you guessed it an Alien was trying to abduct “Rusty” well being a tough a metal chair he managed to fight of the Alien and save the day.

“Rusty” fighting off the Aliens in Roswell.

Back to everything is Alien in Roswell, well even the Wal*Mart didn’t escape

Alien Wal*Mart.

Rather than taking the same way back to Albuquerque, I decided to take the longer scenic route around the hills in New Mexico, the road is long and in places very twisty but more interesting to drive down. Eventually you will drive across a place called “The Valley of Fires” (I didn’t see and fires nor did I start any)

The Valley of Fires (with no fire!)

You will also past the famous test site where they tested the Atomic bombs and more recently missiles of all shapes and sizes (none were witnessed)

“The White Sands Missile Range”

Enjoy, hope you like the “Rusty” update there are more to come and plenty in the camera.

Take care

Jonathan Fridlington (just in case you forgot who I was)