New Mexico- Tucumcari & Route 66

 What a trip down memory lane!  Ok, I'm not quite old enough to have done this trip, but every nostalgic item, sign, mural all seem very familiar!  And I'll say right here that the radio station KQAY, 92.7 ROCKS!  They've played great music the whole time with very few repeats.  I found the morning 'what's happening around town' reports to be very entertaining and informative!

We pulled in here on Sunday and are camped at an RV park about a half mile from the main part of town.  The owner said, " 5 nights?  Really?What are you going to do?"  Well, we've had no problem filling up our days.

 We did a bit of exploring outside of the main part of town, but mostly we've stayed close.

Tom's been out birding every  morning searching for several different quail to no luck.  I have been exploring the streets and buildings of Tucumcari and thoroughly enjoying myself.

There's a feeling of rejuvenation here.  Like many small towns that have been affected by the local interstate moving into the area  and taking the travelers away from the main drag, this one is no different.  There are many vacant buildings.

But there are many that are a going concern!  In fact, on my last drive around town I wandered away from the main commercial area.  I soon realized that I have seen NO for sale signs on any homes!  I finally found one, outside of the main part of town by about 3 miles! Once I realized that, I kept looking.  Soon Tom joined in the search.  We didn't see any!  In talking with a couple of  the grocery checkers, and a couple of different shop owners/employees there is a great positive attitude and vibe around town.  Hmm.. maybe someplace to hang our hats for a while?

We did find lots of old cars and truck and pieces of each.  If you ever want to tinker with an old, old car... this might be the place to find it!

And just to make us miss La Paz and the 'cow store'... we find Del's has a steer of it's own!

If you're ever in town, be sure to stop here for their green chile, chicken taco soup!  It was great, as was the rest of the meal.  I'd go back just for the soup!

I did get a personalized tour of the historic train station.  The town was a hub for the Southern Pacific Rail road back in the late 1800's.

 At one time it had a roundhouse for repairs.  The curator, " Chief Conductor" Mike Lucero, was going between buildings when I showed up.

Mike Lucero, head volunteer showing me the controls of a train.

 I was just going to look around the outside, but he gave me a private tour of the museum.

They have a good thing going, but a long way to go to get there!  It sounded like he's doing most of it himself!

And just as I was leaving a train screamed through the station at 70 mph! Unfortunately, there are no stops at this station anymore.

This stop in our travels was for some rest and down time. Speaking for both of us, we enjoyed it.  We both took a few naps, as well as early morning shoots and even a couple of night time forays into town.

We have explored the town north to south, and east to west, daybreak to sunset. We're moving on to Albuquerque for the hot air balloon festival - a bucket list item for me!  Stay tuned, and do a good weather dance!  The forecast is 50/50 for the time we're going to be there!