Tucumcari, NM

I got in bed last night to find the mattress hard as a rock!  We are at 4000 ft, and the sleep number had moved itself to 100!!   Yikes!  Need to remember to deflate it going into elevation!  The same condition has given us a morning in the low 60's, though it is slated to hit 97 degrees today.  The wonders of elevation.  The terrain changed dramatically about an hour from the Texas border yesterday, the first sign being a gash in the flatness, which soon gave way to gullies, then upheavals and tumble weeds.  Clem hooked us up last night, then went and inspected a few of those to see if they might be something of use for trees for his trains!

Tucumcari is a fun stop on the old road, and we made a quick one just for photos on a previous trip.  Home to the wonderful old Blue Swallow Motel, which even gets a 5 star rating on trip advisor, as much for its nostalgia, and the charm of its new owners.  A young couple has lovingly restored it, kept its original flair, right down to the chenille bedspreads, and are apparently wonderful hosts.  A huge Mexican hat, and the Teepee Curio shop, in addition to some great murals, the likes of James Dean and Marilyn, are also attractions to this city that says it is 2 blocks wide, and 2 miles long.  

The blog RV Ramblings has photos of the best museum, and Heading East has photos of Tucumcari.  

We need to get out of here early, not only to get some miles in, but to get out before the heat sets in!

I went back and pulled a couple of these from
fall 2011.  We had planned a different route, but
there was snow in the passes in Colorado already that year, so we detoured onto 40, which is old 66, and hit a few places we had missed on our very first trip.