This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Roswell, New Mexico UFO Crash Incident. For the past two decades, the American UFO fanatics have been gathering in Roswell every 4th of July Independence Day weekend.

Since extraterrestrial life and UFO occurrences are not well publicised and many times reluctantly talked about in the German Media, I decided to take matters in my own hands and visit the mystical city during the annual UFO Festival. Even in the early stages of the planning process, it was clearly evident that this trip to Roswell will not be an easy task to accomplish, especially by car while also getting to know the American terrain and people.

The distance from my office in Midtown, Manhattan to the UFO crash site was exactly 5008 miles. The entire journey was 7 days, with a pit stop in Denver, Colorado where I met a few of my business partners. After doing some math, I calculated that we had to drive roughly around 10 – 12 hours a day to be right on schedule.

Embarking on this trip alone would have been a difficult challenge to accomplish, so I decided to search for a copilot. My immediate circle of investment banker friends were not available for this journey as they work around the clock, moving and shaking the global economy.

Beginning of the journey at 49 Street

Out of the blue, a new ally who is native to New York emerged and was excited to join this adventure. Zoya was very enthusiastic to get a chance to visit the famous crash site, giving her a chance to escape for a few days the hectic pace of the busy city.

In all honestly at first, I was quite skeptical that a woman could master enough stamina for this unusual journey. I haven’t been acquainted with her for too long, hence my initial hesitation was specifically concerning her driving skills and endurance. During our first meeting I explained that this particular trip, would be very different from the luxury lifestyle we are used to in NYC (limousines, high end hotels and champagne would not be included). I lightly hinted that we might even have to camp out and sleep in the car for a night or two depending on our trip progress, especially if we wanted to stick to our 7 day schedule. I asked her if she was afraid of extraterrestrial life and also mentioned that there could be a possibility that she would be kidnapped by the aliens if we encountered them. On the contrary she couldn’t wait to meet and befriend them! She seem to be completely on board, and not in the least intimidated by the task at hand.

Zoya is a Russian American New Yorker with a Mongolian ancestral background. She grew up in the United States, where she attended both high school and University. At the current stage of her life she is looking to experience new adventures and explore new places, giving her a much wanted change from the daily grind of the financial and data business.

After going over all the associated risks of my project, she didn’t seem to be discouraged and was still enthused to accompany me as my 2nd in command /copilot.

One of the first things she told me that piqued my interest was the fact that typically Americans go through a lengthy process of signing a million insurance and contract agreements prior to collaborating on such a journey, but we settled on foregoing these unnecessary legal proceedings and instead just jumped in the car, put the music on and pressed gas.

Park Avenue West

Main Street Market in Roswell at night

Sun goes down

Enjoy the sunset