Spring Break - Day 3 Capitan, NM Smokey Bear

Tuesday was a big travel day.  We drove to Capitan to see the Smokey Bear museum and then drove through Lincoln (Billy the Kid) to get to Roswell.  Chris said it was pop culture, history, and weird all in 1 day.

Emilia loved the Smokey the Bear museum!  They had a movie on Smokey's life and forest fires.  They also had a museum with facts on flip charts and we read every single one. Did you know that they had the mascot Smokey before firefighters from Ft. Bliss, TX found the little bear clinging to a tree that was rescued and went to live in the National Zoo in Washington?  He "retired" when he was 25 since that was 70 in bear years, the mandatory federal retirement age.  He stayed at he National Zoo but then died when he was 26 and was buried in Capitan.