Yesterday we drove from Tijeras to Tucumcari, New Mexico. The rise in elevation up to the Continental Divide had inflated our Sleep Number bed to 100 every night and we had to bring the number down when we went to sleep; last night it was deflated to 85, because we're down to 4,000 feet. It was an easy drive all the way, with grasslands and colorful cliffs and mesas.

Today we explored Tucumcari. The Route 66 theme runs through Tucumcari along with the road. A few motels have the recognizable features. The one most elaborate was the Blue Swallow Motel, with colorful murals in some of the garages, and neon swallows on the walls between the units.

Motel Office with vintage autos

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Motel units

Tucumcari is full of wonderful murals - some of them related to Route 66, and some about the history of the area, and activities on nearby reservoirs. This is one of the large format murals about cattle ranching. In all of them the colors, perspective, and light rendering is perfect. You can see how large this mural is by noting the yellow parking barriers on the lot in front of it.

Mural of cattle ranching (the windmill is wooden)

This old "camper" was found near the western entrance to Tucumcari, on Route 66. The cafe is no longer there, and who knows about the owner of this rig?

Somebody's grand idea

What we've discovered about Tucumcari, and several other towns on Route 66, is that unless the town is prosperous in other areas, Route 66 is barely hanging on as a tourist draw. Many old motels are boarded up or crumbling, the interstate freeway has chopped up the towns or bypassed them, and all the souvenirs look the same. Things change.

This is the last remnant of Route 66 that we will be near, because we leave I-40 tomorrow, heading up US Highway 54, crossing the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles to Liberty, Kansas.