Day 3: June 17, 2025 Rio Rancho NM to Fort Sumner NM

Up and ate a hearty breakfast. Then spent the morning visiting with our friends and helping with some yard work. We were pleased to wear our new gardening T-shirts which they gave us as gifts. We bid them a fond farewell as the road called to us.

The landscape changed, as we climbed over the southern end of the Rockies. A half an hour later, we were on the Great Plains. This would stretch for a thousand miles. We were delighted during one area to suddenly see miles and miles of bushes with purple flowers in bloom. We finally found a place where we could pull over and Patti picked her way through the prickly dried up grass. She was surprised to see they were some type of a cactus, maybe in the cholla family.  They were stunning. We looked them up and found out that they were indeed tree or cane chollas. They were quite similar to plants that we had seen in southern California at Joshua Tree National Park. Gorgeous!

Today’s drive took us only about 160 miles to Fort Summer NM. Once we checked into our hotel, Dick joined in on his family’s zoom call and got caught up on family news.

Then, we spent about an hour at the Billy the Kid Museum. At first we thought this would be cheesy, but the reviews were positive. We agreed and found it worth our time. Dick mused that it was very eclectic. There was everything from some of the belongings that Billy the Kid had, to a replica of his gravesite, to all kinds of old historic things that people had donated at various times. We talked to the founder’s grandson. He told us much of the items of the museum had been brought with people when they came out here to homestead. It was a quiet, but enjoyable visit.

We unpacked our luggage at  our hotel and then had a relaxing dinner at Esther‘s. This was basically the only restaurant in town that was open, so it seemed a good choice. This town is definitely off the beaten path. You can drive through here on your way to other places, but not so many people seem to stop off to enjoy the small towns pleasures, even to see Billy the Kid in the town where he often lived and was killed. Once we had dinner, we settled into our air conditioned room for the night. Love that ac!