FORT SUMNER NM–BILLY THE KID– FLOYDADA TEXAS!

After travelling from Truth or Consequences NM to Fort Sumner NM on highway 60 East, we pulled into a nice but no frills campground right off the highway. $20 a night for FHU but no showers or restrooms. Valley View Campground. Nice long spaces, plenty of room for The MotherShip and my Trailblazer!

Across the road was a great restaurant, FRED’S RESTAURANT where I ate the best ever blue corn enchilada and Chuck had a smothered burrito. YUMMY! One block east of the campground is the Billy The Kid Museum!

The museum was more than expected. So many artifacts of the old west!

Mr. Sweet is the owner of the museum and this man knows his history! His family has lived here many generations!

At the entrance, mill stones or grinding stones are displayed. I have never seen so many in one place!
                                   
Chuck pretending to be Billy the Kid!

There were cases full of spurs…. who knew there were so many differently designed spurs for different purposes?

There were rooms lined with all kinds of guns, one of them really belonged to Billy the Kid!

The museum is a lot larger than it looks! It spreads out through several rooms!


This case had nothing to do with Billy, but it interested me the most. Found in a cave in Silver City…  to me it looks like a dragon with wings but the sign below says:

Whatever it was, it was interesting!
We left the museum and headed back to The MotherShip. It was noon and we were ready to hit the road! We got back on Highway 60East headed to Clovis where we also picked up Highway 84S.
We also picked up the wind and the dark threatening clouds and the cold! It went from 60’s that morning to the 40’s within  an hour on the road! It was hell on wheels and no other words are available to describe it.  Wicked winds fighting our steering wheels the whole three 1/2 hours we were on the road!
We usually check the wind map that gives good solid information about winds on your route! We did not, but here is the link so you have it.
http://hint.fm/wind/
I keep it on my desktop ready to use, now I just have to remember to use it!
We followed 84South to Muleshoe Texas where we picked up 70 East which brought us here to Floydata and the great little city FREE campground!

From the west, you enter Floydata on Highway 70/North 2nd Street, the campground is on the right at Taft.

The Texas D.O.T. is right next door, just east of campground entrance. 


I apologise! Yesterday I told you that it was free here for 4 nights WRONG! It is free 2 nights and you can stay an additional 3 night for $5.00 per night!
But there is the 5 night stay rule and you must leave! No Showers, No Bathrooms. But the city of Floydata gives you water and electric and a dump station for free! It’s a cute little town and they want to show off. Folks who camp here seek out the restaurants, gas stations (there is a gas station and a propane station nearby) A good example is the family camped next to us last night, they came back with arms full of grocery bags and Dollar General bags! This nice little campground encourages the tourist dollar to stay and visit Floydada awhile! Certainly helps the local economy!


There were 3 of us camped here last night, and room for several more.

                  
There was frost on the ground earlier this morning, but Radar and DoogieBowser never noticed! Their noses were on the ground reading all the doggie news!
With all the wind and rocking and rolling we were doing yesterday on our drive here, we were not too surprised to find one of our cupboard doors had opened and dumped the contents out on the floor…..
INCLUDING 1/2 quart of honey that leaked out all over everything else that fell out and all over the floor!  It was cold and wickedly windy outside, everybody wanted to come in…. but I had to clean up the sticky mess as much as possible before we could let the dogs come in!
What a mess! We have decided to stay in Floydada one more night so I can finish cleaning up the sticky mess and so Chuck can fix our step on the MotherShip. The top bolt has come loose and needs to be replaced!
From here…..  still not sure what tomorrow brings…
there is a turn in the road that we are considering!


Happy Trails from The MotherShip and her crew. Chuck, pilot. Geri, co-pilot and our navigators DoogieBowser and Radar.

Leaving Truth or Consequences, NM

                      On The Road Again

T or C has been our home base since 2009. I started writing our blog in 2008. Chuck and I have visited a lot of beautiful places in our time on the road… we were not ready to give it up which made our decision to go full time living in our RV, The MotherShip!  But we could have not lived in a town that suited us better than Truth or Consequences NM.
 http://phunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2012/02/truth-or-consequences-new-mexico-usa.html
We are down to 3 days before take off! Emily returns from Kansas Tuesday. Wednesday 10/16/2013 we sign the papers turning the mobile home over to Emily.

Wednesday has come and gone! Papers signed sealed and delivered!  Emily now has a new home near her son, Jim! Her daughter, Juno, also seemed to like T or C very much… so just maybe we will see her leaving Kansas also for the uniqueness that is Truth or Consequences NM.

  We say goodbye to Jake, general manager and imagineer for the beautiful Riverbend Hot Springs.  Our favorite soaking place!

Jake provided us with our first workamping job and once here, we fell in love with Truth or Consequences!
http://www.riverbendhotsprings.com/

Thursday we got on the road headed east to Florida!  We don’t do interstate travelling very much.  You can’t see the heart of America from the interstate!  I will try to post every night and show you our camps. 
We drive by the RV Geezer 2-4- 4Rule, 200 miles, 4 hours or 4 pm.  Whichever comes first, we pull off the road. 10/17/2013 we stretched the rules  a bit.  4.5 hours, about 230 miles and we pulled in around 3:30pm. We landed in Fort Sumner NM, very close to the Texas border, near Clovis NM.  We left T or C on I-25 to Socorro and highway 60East joined I-25 for awhile the veered off the interstate and headed east. From the I-25, highway 60 meandered through ranches and desert roads until we came to Mountainair NM. A small town that looked like it would be fun to explore…  but we drove on! From there Highway 60 ran parallel to the busiest train tracks I have ever seen. Trains pulling endless miles of containers…. full containers headed east and empty containers headed west.  Some of these trains were following each other only a mile or two apart!
Highway 60 East from I-25 starts out as very good road, newly paved and wide shoulders. After Mountainaire we lost the new pavement and wide shoulders but the road was still very good and well maintained.  We encountered very little traffic and made good time, but we had to make 3 doggie rest stops along the way. No pictures, hard to drive and take photographs! I am driving my Chevy TrailBlazer loaded to the hilt leading Chuck and the MotherShip back east.
The campground in Fort Sumner is right on Highway 60 and impossible to miss. Large clean sites, nothing fancy but for one night very suitable and with Full Hook-ups $20 a night.
Today we will walk next door and visit the Billy The Kid Museum, located next to the campground . Billy is buried nearby and apparently created some history in this small town!  I will post some pictures tomorrow.
Today we are headed to Floydada Texas.  We will camp at our favorite FREE city park campground.

City provides  FREE full hook-ups for 4 nights!  They want you to visit and explore their town, eat at their restaurants, fill up your gas tanks, buy groceries and enjoy your stay in Floydada!  I will post more photos of the park later! It’s a very nice one!


I just wanted to post to let family and friends know that we are on the road and loving it!

So long from the crew of the MotherShip!  Chuck, Geri and our navigators DoogieBowser and Radar!
Happy Trails to you until we meet again!