The long line of truck stops, diners and motels at TUCUMCARI , the biggest town between Albuquerque and Amarillo, Texas, has made it a favorite I-40 pit stop, punctuated with neon signs. During the day you can while away an hour at the mind-boggling Tucumcari Historical Research Institute Museum , at 416 S Adams St (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 1-6pm; $2), which boasts one of the world's greatest collections of barbed wire. Literally hundreds of inexpensive rooms lie along this stretch of old Route 66; the Rodeway Inn East , 1023 E Tucumcari Blvd (tel 505/461-0360; $35-50), is a cut above the many cheaper dives. The Big Dipper , 101 Second St at Main (tel 505/461-4430), is an appealingly old-fashioned downtown diner.

FORT SUMNER , south of I-40 some way short of Tucumcari, means different things to different people. To the Navajo, it's where frontiersman and US Army colonel Kit Carson dragged them in 1864 after destroying their orchards and burning their villages in Arizona. What little is left of the reservation is now the Fort Sumner State Monument , seven miles east of the modern town (daily 8.30am-5pm; $1). To Wild West fanatics, Fort Sumner is a pilgrimage spot because legendary outlaw Billy the Kid was gunned down here by Pat Garrett in 1881. His grave stands behind the Old Fort Sumner Museum (daily 9am-5pm; $3), his tombstone shielded from memento-seekers by a steel cage.

Tucumcari and Fort Sumner

• Tucumcari and Fort Sumner

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