Road Trip: Tucumcari

Our next stop was Tucumcari, which has been a popular destination for travelers since the early days of Route 66. We were actually staying the night at one of the most iconic places on Route 66, the Blue Swallow Motel.



Which was a really neat place to stay. The motel opened in 1939, and it still contains a few original features. Each room has an attached garage, where travelers could park their cars for the night (modern cars don't really fit in them now). Each room still has a rotary phone that still works, and some of the furnishings have been in the rooms since the 1940s. But the rooms have also been modernized and renovated, with comfy mattresses and wifi.

After we checked in, I had some time to head out and get a few pictures of the other Route 66 buildings in Tucumcari. The town contains a large collection of vintage buildings that were built between 1930 and 1960. Many of them are still open, like the old Buckaroo Motel:



Tucumcari is known for its many vintage neon signs, dating back to the Route 66 era. Most of those signs are for motels or restaurants that no longer exist, and they stand as rusty and silent tributes to that bygone time. One of those signs is for the Ranch House Cafe, which opened in 1952. I stopped to get pictures here as it started to rain, so I retreated back to the car. But then I saw a rainbow form in the sky so I rushed out of the car to get a few pictures:







Across the street is this old gas station recently painted with a few Route 66 murals, with a towering wind turbine behind it.



I then hurried down the road to try to get pictures of the rainbow with as many Route 66 signs as I could before it faded away. This is the sign for the Westerner Drive Inn. It opened in 1949 and closed in 2000. The building was torn down, but the sign still remains.



I stopped at the Motel Safari, which opened in 1959. It is still open, and was renovated in the 2000s.



I passed by the Blue Swallow Motel again, with its distinctive neon sign.



And just down the road is the Teepee Curio Shop, which is another iconic Route 66 location. The shop originally opened as a gas station in the 1940s. But when the road was widened, the gas pumps had to be removed. So it changed to a curio shop. To make it stand out, the owners built a teepee on the front that you walk through to enter the store. The neon sign was added around the same time.









And just down the road is the old Palomino Motel, which is still open.



After that, it seemed like the rainbow started to fade away. Which was good timing, since it was dinner time. So we headed down to La Cita, a Mexican restaurant that has been along Route 66 for decades. To go in, you walk under a giant sombrero. As we parked, the rainbow reappeared, and was even more vibrant. So apparently the treasure at the end of a rainbow is....tacos?





I headed out later that night to try to get some shots of the neon signs. Luckily I didn't have to go far to get pictures of the Blue Swallow Motel sign.







And one last shot of the Teepee Curio Shop and its neon sign, taken before I headed back to our room for the night.