Apr 14 Lubbock TX to Las Cruces NM

The plan was to go to the American Wind Power Museum but they did not open until 10am. So a long walk to find coffee was the first order of business. The temperature, even first thing in the morning, was wonderful. I have to say, that this part of Texas has very wonderful folks, everyone very chatty. I would not, however try walking across a street, with or without the crosswalk lights. Pedestrians are not a priority.
I got to the museum 10 minutes before it opened and the nice lady let me walk around with her as she turned all the lights on. She has worked there for 13 years and knows everything there is to know about these windmills. A woman Home Economics professor at Texas Tech in the 1950's was making the rounds of the farms in Texas and noticed a lot of defunct windmills. She asked if she could have them hauled off and the answer was many times yes. She collected a lot of them and found another guy restoring them in Nebraska with a huge collection. A deal was struck with those two, the city of Lubbock, and Texas Tech to create a non-profit to start a museum. It is a real piece of Americana. They have two full time mechanics who restore these and keep the ones outside on the grounds (there are a lot) spinning. As a mechanical engineer it is really exciting to see how complex and different all the different designs were.

She walked me through the whole place and took me over to meet the guys building the new exhibit, which deals with trains. They point out that the trains all needed fuel and water every 30 to 50 miles and so there is a town every 30 to 50 miles and each town needed water for the trains, hence all the interest in water pumping windmills.They will have model trains running floor to ceiling in this new new space, and they have an army of volunteers to pull it off. One woman, who has built models of all the old western buildings, donated all of her last 30 years of work to the museum to go along with the trains. Nice community effort.
So sadly I said goodbye and told her I was going south to Midland. She advised against it since it is too boring and told me about a route to Clovis that was more interesting (but not much). Anyway, I put 420 miles in, even with the late start. I went to Clovis and then Rt 70 all the way to Las Cruces. I have been on some of these roads before, including San Dunes Park and the missile range, but it is still a nice ride with this warm 70-80 degree weather.
Almost no traffic and plenty of small towns to stop and take breaks.

Good night.