Our Family Visits Area 51

Once a month my family and I head out to Area 51. We go out there to take pictures for the website, see if anything new is going on, and most importantly to spend quality time together for the entire day. This past Saturday (3/7/09) we headed out to Area 51. We leave around 11am and our first stop is always Alamo. We check the Sheriff sub station to see which bus is parked there and take a few pictures of it. The Area 51 worker's bus was parked there along with one white workers truck. After checking out the white bus, we headed directly for the Chevron Station for a much needed bathroom break. My eleven year old daughter loves the mini burritos at the Chevron, so we had to purchase a plate for her and a corn dog for my youngest daughter. Once we filled up on snacks it was serious time. We were going to go the warning signs on Groom Lake Road. It was important that we did this before my parents come next weekend for a visit. We wanted to take a picture of me standing at the warning sign wearing a tin foil hat giving the international peace sign. Now, I normal don't make fun of anything down in this area, but we thought it would be a fun birthday present for my dad. I take the restricted area very serious and don't mess with the "Cammo Dudes". On a typical stop at the signs, I step out of my vehicle quickly and take a few shots. I never spend any length of time there. I know the "Cammo Dudes" want me out of there so I usually make it a quick stop. This time I had to wear the tin foil hat. I think the pictures actually turned out well. As we turned the last corner of Groom Lake Road, I noticed there were two cars at the signs. One car belonged to two English guys who took a few photos and then left. The other car belonged to two interesting individuals. One of the men was a retired Air Force veteran who had a few papers worth of material he was going to read on camera. The man running the camera was "Cosmo". He introduced himself as Cosmo and said he has an internet TV show dealing with UFO's. Once I put the tin foil on my head and went to the sign for a picture, Cosmo wanted to join me. I was not surprised. He and his friend seemed like really nice guys. I wanted to stick around to hear what they were going to read on film, but I never like to spend a lot of time at the border of the restricted area. We left and headed down Groom Lake Road towards HWY 375. We made many stops on Groom Lake Road for my wife to take pictures of the Joshua Trees. She has a real eye for capturing beautiful photos of nature. Our next stop was Rachel Nevada. We always stop for an Alien Burger. There were a few people in there and the burger was outstanding. Just before we left, Cosmo and his Air Force friend came into the Inn for a little snack. I wanted to stop and talk to them but we had one more stop to make. We headed up to Caliente next. Some day, my wife and I plan on retiring there. We at Pioneer Pizza. The pizza was very good. The small town was nice and quiet. We can't wait to end up there some day. After pizza, we headed back to Las Vegas. We arrived at our door at about 10pm. It was another great day at Area 51. The entire way driving back to Alamo from Caliente, I looked for those lights that I saw Tuesday, but saw nothing. I guess you don't really need to see anything in the sky to have a great time!