UFO's and bats

I don't remember having heard of Roswell, New Mexico (but then there are a lot of things I don't remember and haven't heard of), but that doesn't mean that Roswell isn't famous. Just outside of Roswell in 1947, a flying saucer is reputed to have crashed and three bodies of small humanoid figures to have been recovered. The event was immediately hushed up by military authorities, but in the meantime, there have been a number of people peripherally connected to the event who have either testified to having seen physical evidence of the crash or to having had some connection to the coverup.

In the meantime Roswell has become the center for research into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) sightings around the world, and we visited the museum which is part of this center.
  

Milt at UFO Museum, Roswell, NM 

In addition to displays related to the testimony of various people connected to the event in 1947, we also viewed a very professionally done docudrama which interspersed interviews with people connected to the event in 1947, with dramatizations of possible key elements of the event. It was a very stimulating morning and certainly left one with the feeling that we may, indeed, have been visited by beings from a more advanced civilization in outer space.

From Roswell, we continued our way south to Carlsbad Caverns and took a cabin in a campground just south of the town of Carlsbad. For $40.00, the cabin included not only the usual appurtenances but also a microwave, a refrigerator, and a TV/DVD player with the privilege of choosing one free DVD to watch.

We arrived at this campground in time to settle in, relax and read for a bit on the front porch of our cabin, and then take off for Carlsbad Caverns.

We arrived at the amphitheater in front of the cave entrance at 6:00, just in time to see 500,000 bats (the number is not a misprint) emerge from the cave in waves and then spiral off into the distance in search of their evening meals of moths and other insects within a 30-40 mile radius. It's hard to believe that there would be enough insects even within a 30-40 mile radius to feed half a million bats, some of whom consume up to half their weight in insects every night, but apparently there are. We watched swarm after swarm of bats emerge from the mouth of the cave for over half an hour. The number then slowed down with pauses of several minutes between groups of bats heading off to the southeast, where there was water and consequently more insects. We left shortly after that, but the ranger told us that the exodus of bats often lasts for as long as two hours. A couple hours before sunrise the bats return to hang upside down in one room of the cave during the day until the next evening. In November, the bats begin a flight to Mexico where they winter before returning to Carlsbad in the spring. This flight of the bats was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen!