Day 5: Route 66

Mike: Today was meant to be a day off, but we already knew that when working with Producer Nic, these just don't exist. Instead we cruised around Albuquerque and the surrounding desert in the nice smart T-bird. It was a fun day.

Zeron: We drove out of the city limits to Route 66 to do some driving shots with the T-bird. Mike and I were having a "time out" from filming when a dog appeared from nowhere. To be honest the only time I noticed the dog was when Mike had dived into the camera van, locked the doors and then started screaming "Rottweiler" - cheers Mike! The beast was 6 feet from me and closing - thankfully the dog turned out to be friendly and I was able to stroke it eventually, when I regained control of my limbs.

Day 6: New Mexico

Mike: We drove to a small, almost dead end town called Alamogordo to visit our first air force base. It was just as you would imagine a New Mexico town to be: huge billboards in gaudy colours lined the route for miles either side of the town. The only visible signs of activity were the thirsty four-wheel drives, driven by Stetson wearing old men, rolling along the road at walking pace, and the occasional dog. To be honest I thought the whole place reeked of American tack but there were some saving graces. The people appeared to be friendly, the food was cheap and it had a great space museum with some of the rockets and paraphernalia that were used during the pioneering days of space exploration.

Zeron: We took a trip to the space museum. You have to understand the overwhelming feeling that standing in a place like this gives you. These are the instruments that have carried man off our planet and started our tentative steps into space exploration. The air was crisp, the sky crystal clear and the stars didn't twinkle like back home - they just shone. I counted three shooting stars. I felt tiny and insignificant.

I felt so comfortable in Alamogordo that later, after everyone else has gone to bed, I threw on my roller blades and took off for a night time discovery of the town, which turned out to be far more extensive than it had seemed at first.

Mike: To get to the air force base we had to drive a few miles out of town - past fly-ridden shacks, derelict bars and bullet-riddled signs. I spread myself out on the back seat looking at isolated caravans parked a few yards back from the roadside. Scrawny chickens scratched around in the dust; an old pick-up truck rotted slowly away in the small plot demarcated by torn wire mesh. A short distance away was a pile of rubbish smouldering pathetically after an attempt to burn it. I have never failed to be amazed at the squalid conditions and abject poverty experienced by so many citizens of the world's richest country.

Alamogordo Air Force Base is a self-contained town. Certain laws and rules apply here which don't outside the base. For instance: every day, at precisely 4pm, the national anthem is relayed over the base on loud speakers and every USAF employee stands to attention, faces the flag and salutes. After the anthem they simply carry on as if nothing had happened.

After the town, the air base was a revelation. It was clean, green and any hint of the scrubby desert was kept outside the perimeter walls. The brick built houses even looked like proper homes and the gardens boasted well-kept lawns. As we waited to be signed in at the visitor centre I read the base paper while a proud security guard told us that there was a library, a range of smart shops, restaurants, a bank, post office and huge new gym. I glanced around the gatehouse, still feeling awkward about visiting a US military base.

  < previous   next > Page 3 of 6

Content last updated: 25/08/2005