Here's a copy of the article that featured in the Rochdale Observer.
ADVENTURE-loving couple, Lee and Julie Bradshaw, are enjoying the trip of a lifetime which will take them sightseeing around the world.
But they just couldn’t bear to be without their Rochdale Observer, even while visiting a remote area in America believed to have been visited by aliens.
The Bradshaws of Whitworth travelled along ‘Extra Terrestrial Highway’ – a lonely stretch of highway officially named in 1996 because of many supposed UFO sightings. And they took the Observer with them for the ride.
After stopping for an ‘Alien Burger’ at the ‘Little A‘Le Inn’, which featured in the documentary show ‘Lois Thereoux’s Weird Weekends,’ the pair visited the mysterious Area 51 in the middle of the arid Nevada desert north of Las Vegas.
Also known as ‘Groom Lake’ and ‘Dreamland,’ Area 51 is off limits to the public and is rife with stories about UFOs and alleged US government cover-ups.
Lee and Julie, who started their trip in Vancouver, Canada, in April and finish in Hong Kong next April, are keeping a diary of their travels on their website ‘Lee and Julie’s Round the World Tour.’
They said in one entry about their Area 51 adventure: "As we approached, security personnel watched our every move from the top of a hill above us.
"They are authorised to ‘use deadly force’ if they catch anyone trespassing and will not hesitate to use it.
"Photography isn’t allowed, but I did manage to get a few quick ones as we drove off... very quickly!"
The Bradshaws, who married on 24 May last year, celebrated their first anniversary at a restaurant in Washington DC.
Julie, a hairstylist at Gregory Couzens salon in The Walk, is 27 on Monday.
To mark the occasion the couple, who are travelling in a vintage 1962 VW campervan, are going up in a helicopter over the Franz Josef glacier, the steepest and fastest flowing in the world, on the south island of New Zealand.
Last week they did a skydive from 12,000 feet in Taupo, New Zealand.
Then they will fly to Wellington to see the chart-topping band ‘Black Eyes Peas’ in concert.
Next on the agenda is Australia and South East Asia.
Lee, the director of an internet marketing company, said in an email to the Observer: "There’s been so many highlights of our trip, it’s hard to say one.
"Skydiving and a flight above the Grand Canyon do stick out. Also, meeting so many great people has made it an enjoyable trip.
"We’re both missing family and friends back home, especially now we’re on the other side of the world.
"We’re almost halfway through our trip so you could say it’s all downhill from now!"
Thanks to Katie Hopton at the Rochdale Observer.
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