

Adoption isn’t that far out of this world!” Hard to resist that logic. “We have great animals ready to protect you from the Area 51 aliens. “Come storm our shelter,” the invited in a Facebook post. One Oklahoma animal shelter jumped on the “storm Area 51” bandwagon with an ask of its own: instead of heading to the Nevada desert, people should get themselves to the animal shelter and “raid” their ranks, taking home new pets in need of homes. The organizing group has also launched a website to go with their plan, noting that “something big is coming.” But as of publish, the site is mostly a place for them to sell merch associated with the proposed Area 51 raid. That said, local officials are preparing for an uptick - because even if a tiny fraction of the event’s attendees actually do show up, it’s still much more than the rural area is used to, as local news is reporting. On Wednesday, the hotels nearest the Area 51 Alien Center, the official starting point identified on the Facebook event, all told TIME that it’s business as usual for their reservations in September. At the same time, there’s still plenty of availability in local AirBnBs and other lodgings, like Timbers Lodging, which has been expecting more reservations because of the event but hasn’t yet noticed any difference.

20: one alien-themed establishment and the Alamo Inn on Highway 93, as TIME confirmed. But at least two small hotels in the area are booked solid for Sept. Most people seem in on the farcical nature of the joke. “Any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous,” a spokesperson shared in a statement to various news outlets on July 16, noting that Area 51 - also called the Nellis Test and Training Range - is technically just “an area where the Air Force tests and trains combat aircraft.” Hotels preparing for visitors Thanks to the widespread popularity of the plan, the Air Force itself went so far as to clarify that any prospective attendees should definitely stay away.
