Billy the Kid Museum

October, 2017, Bonnie and I purchased a new Mazda CX-5 SUV. Four months later we realized the car badly needed a "shakedown cruise" since so far we had not had it out of the city and had less than 1,000 miles on the odometer. So we decided to take a trip to the Billy the Kid Museum in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico, roughly 540 miles from here. We spent the first day on the road, the second day at the museum and the third on our return drive home. The most interesting thing we learned at the museum was that Billy the Kid wasn't the murdering savage that everyone thinks. Actually, for that era he wasn't a bad fellow at all. Check this page for just about everything there is to know about the Kid. Also, you can click here for an interesting timeline of Billy the Kid's life. Note that there is a LOT of reading on these two sites, but if you have the patience to read it all you'll learn that Billy the Kid was maybe not such a bad person!

As for the car, it performed perfectly during our shakedown cruise and we were perfectly comfortable for the long trip back and forth. What's more interesting is that when using cruise control, the car would actually slow down and follow traffic at a safe distance rather than creeping up on the traffic in front of us. There is a built-in radar sensor in the car's grill, which seems very accurate, returns the car back to its cruise control set speed when changing lanes. At one point there was some light snow which turned to slush when it hit the road. The cruise control cut out and we saw a message on the display telling us that the radar was obscured. At the next stop we wiped off the sensor and the cruise control returned to normal once we hit the road again. That same radar will supposedly cause the car to automatically brake itself if you are about to run into another car or other obstruction. Needless to say, we did not test this! :) Anyway, as far as the overall performance of the car . . . there were no problems and we're very happy campers!

Keep in mind that this trip was mainly about driving the car, not the destination, which explains why so few photos were taken. Below are our pictures ~ enjoy!

This is our 2017 Mazda CX-5.	We stayed at a motel on Historic Route 66 in Santa Rosa, NM, about 50 miles from Ft. Sumner.	Bonnie relaxing after a long day on the road.	The next day we drove into Ft. Sumner, best known as the town where Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid.
	The Sweet family has owned and operated the museum since 1953.	The museum was actually more about the old west than Billy the Kid.		Late 1800's blacksmith shop.
			What is this? An ancient torture device?
	The museum included a large gift shop. We purchased a refrigerator magnet and 2 souvenir coffee cups with our names stamped on them.	There were a number of early 1900's vehicles on display.		At the museum there is a replica of Billy the Kid's tombstone. His actual grave was located about 6 miles from the museum, which was our next stop.
It wasn't easy to find, but we finally located Billy the Kid's (and pal's) graves.	The cage around the graves is explained in the last picture.			The full explanation for the caged grave sites.

You may use any of the above pictures for any purpose and may do so without giving me credit. Note that these pictures have been downsized for those with slow connection speeds. If you'd like copies of the original JPG pictures, send me an E-mail telling me which pictures you want and I'll be happy to send the original pictures to you at no charge!