Roswell, NM to Clayton, NM

I left Roswell first thing in the morning and headed to Vaughn, NM north on US 285, and then northeast on US 54 through Santa Rose, Tucumcari, and Nara Visa, NM and on up State Route 402 to Clayton.  I stopped in Tucumcari to see the town's historical museum (unfortunately, closed on Monday's) and its Rail Road Museum. Well, the railroad museum is under construction and looks to be so for the foreseeable future, but here's a pic of the outside:

It looks like it's going to be pretty nice once it's completed.  Tucumcari is astraddle the old Route 66, and so there were a lot of old buildings on Main Street that had been motels, hotels, and restaurants on the good ol' days when there was no Interstate, but most of them were closed and in pretty sorry shape.

After extracting as much local history as I could, I headed on up US54 to Nara Visa, about 80 miles south of my destination, Clayton.  There wasn't much to Nara Visa either, except I expect there was "Nary" a Visa in sight.

I arrived in Clayton at our friends' house, Al and Karen Brown, around 2:30 and we just had a really nice visit.  Al is all of 92 years old and is sharp as a tack.  He's a former WWII B-24 pilot and was an engineer with Hughes Aviation and Motorola for some 40 years, plus having his own engineering company for some period of time.  He also, at one point, owned a 26,000 acre ranch east of Phoenix.  Quite a remarkable gentleman.  I had a wonderful visit, and we headed over to Texline, TX for dinner last night and again for breakfast.  The little place is called "Maria's" and Karen and Al are regulars.

I had a very nice visit with the Browns and headed out Tuesday morning towards Enid, Oklahoma.

Miles today:315
Total: 6,874