1 armadillo, 2armadillo, 3 armadillo. . .

We have left Branson, the town at the confluence of the Bible Belt, the KKK, and the NRA! We saw a “ladies dress shop” with a “concealed-carry purse” displayed in the window in old Branson. Yes, there is an Old Branson and a New Branson. The difference seems to be that in new Branson there are shows, shows, shows and in old Branson there are shops, shops, shops.

I forgot to mention a very exciting part of our trip: our visit to the UFO Museum in Roswell, NM. UFOs are the main reason, I think, that Roswell has not dried up and blown away. Conspiracy theorists abound in Roswell and somehow have raised enough money to fund the UFO museum. There you’ll see original accounts from “reliable witnesses” about alien abductions, flying saucer sightings, and how the government has covered up all those abductions and sightings. Especially about Area 51 where, supposedly, all kinds of strange things are going on. THAT I believe! If the spy planes like the SR71 and others were invented over 40 years ago, I can only surmise that many, perhaps unbelievable but nonetheless real, aviation inventions have happened in the military aviation world since then. And a lot of them probably happened in Area 51.

The government has apparently bought up every possible vantage point for taking photographs around Area 51, which, by the way, is not in Roswell but in Nevada. Overflying the area is NOT ALLOWED. In short, it’s a very intriguing place. And you and I will never know what goes on there. And none of it has anything to do with UFOs. Nor does it have anything to do with Roswell, other than the conspiracy theories that seem to go hand in hand with UFOs!

Traveling north from Branson, MO, to Lincoln, NE (our next stop on that long trip to Victoria), has an interesting range of terrain if not climate. Except for a bit of rain that cooled it off some—it’s been in the mid-90s with humidity in the mid-60s)—the only thing that has changed is the rolling hills of Missouri have morphed into the flat plains of the “bread-basket” of America in Iowa and Nebraska. This is why I like to drive through the US: I get to see the changes in the land that are impossible to understand when seen from 35,000 feet. We will eventually leave this breadbasket country and start climbing the Rockies and eventually get to the Pacific Ocean (in four more days). How cool (literally!) will that be! Tomorrow will be Laramie, WY. For me that conjures up images of cowboys and cattle drives and sheep wars and John Wayne and Gary Cooper.

Oh, yes, the title of this chapter of my blog? What is 1 armadillo, 2 armadillo, 3 armadillo. . . Well, I don’t know how there can be any armadillos left we have seen so many dead in the road! Poor things, just trying to cross the road and squished into armadillo pancakes. There’s a wonderful book—I suppose, I haven’t read it, it just has an intriguing title—called Flattened Fauna, all about roadkill. Someday I must read it!