Area 51

There appear to be lots of conspiracy theories about Area 51, UFO’s and aliens so I thought ‘I’d go with a reliable source for this blog- The National Geographic.

It seems to be that the National Geographic is actually owned by Disney so should I believe anything about Area 51 when it is told to us by a man who created a six-foot mouse who wears shorts, gloves but no shirt.

So, area 51 lies low in the Nevada desert. The military have a large and ‘secret’ presence there (lots of empty desert surrounded by a fence) but it's mostly associated with aliens and UFO sightings. It created a lot of excitement, amongst the men, on the tour when we pulled into the Area 51 petrol station. Even more excitement was created by the sight of the cat brothel.

People (men mostly) flock from all round the world to hopefully to catch a glimpse of an alien. Or of the ladies in the brothel.

Many of the sightings have been discredited over the years. I confess I knew nothing about Area 51 apart from being able to whistle the theme from the X-Files, badly.

The road that Area 51 sits on, is known as the Extraterrestrial Highway

The truth, very boringly, probably lies in the experimental aircraft that are tested in the area. The secret activities were admitted by the USA government in 2013 and spoiled everybody’s fun. The  exact nature of the secret activities within the very active military base still remain exactly that- a secret.

 When one very high-tech craft (the A-12) was being tested and had nearly 3000 take-offs, its titanium body reflected the desert sun in a way that not many people had seen before. The reports of UFO sightings rocketed as much as the craft itself did.

The petrol station has a shop with 100s of tee shirts- mostly rude.

A diner, a brothel, a good coffee machine - all at prices that were remarkably fair.

The set-up at the petrol station is run by lovely men who seem themselves to be rather unworldly- they look exactly as you'd expect. An air of humourous disappointment follows in their wake,  one eye on the sky for something more exciting than a load of Brits emptying their coffee machine and buying polky hats ( ice cream- nothing to do with a probe), and looking at the model of the USS Enterprise.

The McDonalds in Roswell, New Mexico is shaped like a spaceship.

This one was my favourite....

So what do they want us to believe.

Cue Mulder, Scully and the music.

The truth is out there.