Lllooonnnneeee Ssttaarrrr!!!!

16 April - Woke up reassonably early in order to get a bit of as start on the driving I had to do today. Said my goodbys to the nice people at the hostel and also to John, the surly attendant who wasn’t too pleased with me because I couldn’t tie the garbage bags to the bins properly because charlie prevents me from putting my right thumb and forefinger together but I was leaving so I wasn’t really too concerned. Made my way down HWY 285 south towards Texas which was a very nice drive that took me through Roswell, home of the 1947 flying saucer crash. I met one of the survivors at a rest stop just before the town, Steven Stevens, who, according to his drivers licence was born on the day of the crash and had a very pleasant brunch at the International House of Pancakes. I sat down and ordered and my accent piqued the interest of a family sitting next to me - Kerry, the mother was very friendly alhough her cowboy husband was a little surly but still very nice. We chatted about my plans and their son who was planning to head to Australia next year. After they left I went to pay the bill and found that they'd already paid for me. I don’t have to say something about the Americans I meet over here - occasionally some are rude and a little unpleasant but on the whole I don’t think i've met a more friendly and nice nation of people in all my travels. It's not the first time i've had people just buy me lunch or breakfast over here - it's a very novel experience. After that checked out the rther kitsch but very interesting ufo museum and research centre before getting back on the road and headin' for Texas. Made a small wrong turn that placed me near Carlsbad Caverns, which is supposed to be an increidble place to visit (largest underground caverns in the usa) but knew that would result in a couple of days delay and I needed to get to the home of GWB. Almost hit a roadrunner that scmpered straight across the road in front of me (and was also narrowly missed by the coyote that was chasng him on an acme rocket) - they're bizarre little birds - very cute but probably not very smart. Crossed the state line and another t.ime zone sometime around 2 (which made it 3) and drove on until it got dark where I crashed at a rest stop for the night - the good thing about this stop was that there was no sgns posted up saying that you had to pay to crash the night (not that i've done so whenever crashingthe car before) but there were trucks going by constantly and there was also a rather creepy looking guy hanging around the rest room (i can only imagine what he was doing there). Rocicante mk ii is more comortable than the first, but not by much. Another joyful night of twisting and turning resulted but in texas noone freezes inside their car which is a very good thing.