More from Tucumcari, NM - murals and motels

No wind yet this morning. Hope it stays gone. Soccer on TV already this morning. Qualifying matches all over the place for World Cup games. Argentina won yesterday so they have sealed their place in the Cup. When we were in Argentina in 1978 (when we drove there in the RV – http://movingon1.com) The World Cup games were there and Argentina won. Talk about a celebration……

Fixed spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night. Well Bill made the sauce - every summer he makes a big batch of sauce and we freeze in meal sizes then use it when traveling. It is very very good. Also used my Pasta N More - forgot we even had one. Need to root out the manual/recipe book for it though as the pasta was a little too al dente. And Kyle won the race last night. Started on the pole, dropped back for a while with an evil car then came on at the end to win. His 11^th Nationwide win this year.

Went out to breakfast this morning. Then spent some time driving around town. As we were leaving I saw that the owner had moved his Man Cave teardrop trailer out front.

Turned down one street and saw a new – to us anyway – mural on the side of the pharmacy. It is in two sections – tributes to veterans.

And for the first time in a long time the Tee Pee Curios was open. Of course we had to stop.

One of the walls just inside the door. And believe it or not we got out of there without me buying anything!

One of the old motels on Route 66 – the Blue Swallow.

 From the Roadside America site. “Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Blue Swallow Motel is a treasure on Route 66. Construction began in 1939, and the motel first opened for business in 1942, after a delay because of the outbreak of World War II.

The motel is a typical motor court of the era, built with attached garages next to each room. It features a variety of sleeping configurations, including single queen beds, two double beds, and a two-room suite with beds for up to five people.”

One side of the motel with its James Dean mural. Love the old metal brightly colored chairs out front.

The back part of the U of the motel. Notice the garages for each room.

Inside the garages are murals!!!! I didn’t notice them until Bill pointed them out to me. Thank goodness. Aren’t they great?

The motel walls are textured with something like a shell design also neon blue swallows. A couple of pictures back you can see where they painted the wall of one unit green with the shell shapes in accent colors. 

The RV park owner told us the town was going to try to revive all the old neon signs for the shops and motels. Sure hope so – would look great at night.

Further along the same street is this old sign for The Ranch House Café [long gone] with a battered home made RV parked in front of it.

Then even further down the road is an “antique/treasure" store. Lots and lots of neat stuff there. I’d love to have an old gas pump sitting out in our front yard.

But don’t want one of these old washing machines. I remember when people had them.

The day has remained very nice out. Hope that lasts as tomorrow we’ll leave here and head towards Albuquerque or further….The next couple of days we’ll be at a much higher altitude – So don’t know how much we’ll be doing. Then on to Monument Valley for a couple of days. 

Will be watching the Cup race tonight.