A couple buildings in Tucumcari, New Mexico

 

"The Tucumcari landmark Rock Island-Southern Pacific depot opened in 1927, when Tucumcari was enjoying the rise of auto traffic on old Route 66. Built in the Spanish Mission-style, this depot is massively long, encompassing both a large passenger area and a significant freight area under one roof."

(https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMM9TE_Rock_Island_Southern_Pacific_RR_Depot_Tucumcari_NM)

The second building highlighted here today (of many, many noteworthy architectural/historic buildings in Tucumcari) is the home of the Bowen Electric Corporation, with not simply one mural wall but all walls of the complicated building decorated with brightly colored, stylized Southwestern images. 

Oh, What Have They Done?

 

Caught through car window, on the fly, the best I could do -- . Have passed this spot before but never with cattle around the old ruin.

Our Continuing Beautiful Road

Rain on U.S. 54 Corona, NM, to Tularosa did not dim for us the beauty of mountains and plains, and absence of traffic added to our breathing space.

Thistle With a View

Morning, Daytime, and Night Lights Across the Southwest

Morning from motel room window, Flagstaff, AZ

Painted Desert - our second visit

Then into the Petrified Forest for our first time.

It's like another planet...

Still, residents somehow make a living.

Holbrook, AZ, world capital of petrified wood!

Spectacular scenery continues along expressway...

Then we reach a watershed point in the trip...

and after a while run out of natural light.

Coming into Albuquerque after dark...

looked like coming down to an airfield!

A Visit with Ducks in Santa Rosa

The minute we opened our car doors at the Blue Hole Fishing Ponds, these two ducks came looking for handouts, quacking gently but insistently.

As soon as snack time was over, they returned to their peaceful waters, apparently contented and happy with each other.

Seen Today in Sunny New Mexico

We were on expressways paralleling

old Route 66

from Joliet, Illinois, to

Albuquerque, New Mexico.

There were signs for the old road

in many places,

and stretches of it

can still be traveled.

Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM,

is a visit to America's past.

The strip of old motels

is faded but charming.

Some are boarded and closed,

others open and lively.

We stayed on the strip

and had breakfast there, too.

Best biscuits and sausage gravy

you'll find anywhere!

Signs in New Mexico are not limited

to towns, either.

We were shocked

by the number of billboards. 

But beyond the billboards,

there is no stopping the scenery.

It is spectacular

all the way.