Last days on the road for this trip

We decided to break up the trip into shorter travels on the way home, so we tried this park, 81 Palms RV in Deming. Very close to a train or two, one woke me up at 3 a.m. and I wondered what the heck was going on! They did have a nice library, bring one, take one, and all filed by fiction genre and alphabetically by author. I told the owner that I appreciated the order! I even found a Jack Reacher novel for Cary that he hadn't read yet.

For the second day in a row we went out for Mexican food. This is in front of the Si Senor on Pine Street.

A view from the park toward the southeast

Beautiful sunset

Now begin the plans for our next outing!

Santa Rosa Route 66 Museum and some rain in Alamogordo

Of course we had to make a stop here at the Route 66 Museum in Santa Rosa on Tuesday!

Before and after pictures of this cabover, Cary's comment, "off the hook." Engine was in that open hatch.

This Ford woody was his favorite.

'56 El Camino, lots of before and after pictures, as well as some from "in progress." Well executed, Cary says.

A '37 Pontiac turned into a sedan delivery

A Lafayette, a relative of the Nash

There are about 30 cars in the museum, about 75% owned by the proprieters. Bozo, as he goes by, has a garage across the street where he works on them. Some are for sale. You can see our truck and 5th wheel in the background!

Here we are in the Boothill RV Park. We had rain off and on for quite awhile, even some hail. The temperature was perfect.

Wednesday morning we took a walk around the park, enjoying the great weather.

Then we located a quilt shop (Homestead, not just Stead) in town that actually opened an hour earlier than I expected. It has wonderful things, and yes, I bought some. The owner is very nice too!

Before we left Kansas

Pictures from the Gunsmoke RV Park, our spot was on Matt Dillon Drive. We found a willing tourist to snap our photo before we left.

From Dodge City we went to Meade, home of the Dalton Gang hideout, more picture opportunities. But we didn't take the tour.

We are currently back in Tucumcari at our favorite RV Park--the Cactus. It is on the grounds of a former Route 66 Motel.

The owners are great; there is free wifi, and the price is very reasonable. No frills, but all we need.

From Dodge City

No pictures. We got here to the Gunsmoke RV park about 2:30. It was too hot to go out and we had no plans to unhook. The town reminds me of Tombstone, even Benson, with the railroad tracks across the road from the town. Lots of kitschy western stuff for tourists. A guy we talked to (who was curious about our HitchHiker, since he has one), is from the area and thinks we ought to stay, but it is on to Tucumcari tomorrow. I might take a picture in the morning!

Oh, and yesterday we saw gas prices go from $3.06 to $2.99 (not diesel), thinking it was a sign. However, this morning when we went to get fuel in Abilene before we left, all the stations had raised their prices to $3.16!! Maybe it was "on sale" for the Chisolm Trail Days, a one-day-only special! Diesel was $2.69, and  higher the rest of our travels today.

Chisolm Trail Days

A few pictures to show the kinds of things at the festival we attended on Saturday.

Farmers' market where we did get a cherry pie!

A car show, of course!

When I lost track of Cary, I knew right where to look. Pam is checking out the old books!

This being Kansas, there were more tractors represented than cars!

                        Our first tractor pull. Lots of science and math go into figuring out the winner.

This guy was making sorghum; he had to duck under the branch every time the horse went past him. Cary joked that he had a fulll head of hair when he started the process!

Ladies were also making lye soap, weaving, selling sorghum, and so on, all dressed in pioneer clothes..

We went through the telephone museum; apparently  Abilene is where United Telephone got its start. There were phones from all eras and even from other countries on display here too.

We finished the day back at the trailer having cherry pie that Pam bought. Yum. A perfect day.

Eisenhower Library

Our friend Pam came from Peabody to spend the day playing tourist in Abilene. First stop, the Eisenhower library and family home. Ike was born in Texas, but his family lived here from the time he was eight. He had five brothers (and anoother who died at age 10). The house was considered modest, but compared to Hoover's, I would say it was pretty luxurious!

All of the furnishings are from his family, left the way they were when the last of the family lived here.

There was so much to see and digest in the museum, that I have just included some random pictures.

Mamie got this dress from someone in Hawaii when it became the 50th state to join the union.

Ike played a large part in the start of the space program, which is why a replica of the Friendship 7 is here. It didn't go up till Kennedy was in office.

Mamie was considered quite the fashion conscious woman, so several of her outfits, including hats, shoes and jewelry are on display.

This dummy was used on D-Day. Notice the explosive attached to its back; when it landed it exploded, causing the enemy to think the Allies were in one place and they were actually in another.

I will continue the rest of our day in a new blog, or I will edit this one. We went to lunch then back to town for the Chisolm Trail Days. It has been a great day, but now I am exhausted!