Clovis, New Mexico

December 28, 2019

Dakota, Sloane and Ruger 

Clovis, New Mexico

From Colorado Springs, Kathy drove to Clovis, New Mexico to visit and assist our friend Dakota. Once upon a time, Dakota had been Kathy’s mentee as part of Monroe County’s Take Stock In Children program and she has since that time become a defacto family member and good friend. She recently relocated to Clovis, New Mexico where her husband, Andy was stationed at Cannon Air Force Base. They also celebrated the birth of the first child about seven months ago, just before having to move to New Mexico.

 

With Andy going on his first deployment since the arrival of the baby, Dakota was pretty much on her own with a full-time job and a baby, so Kathy decided to head out and spend a few weeks assisting with the baby. At least that was the story she tells, I believe she just wanted to spend time with an adorable baby.

 

Sloane certainly fits that bill, at eight months old, she is as cute as can be and Kathy really had an amazing time in Clovis hanging out with Sloane and their golden retriever, Ruger, and she got to spend a lot of quality time with Dakota as well. They would facetime live video with me at least once a day, so I did not feel left out. As much as I missed having Kathy here during the run-up to the holidays, I am really glad that she was there. I think she really did help out.

Clovis is an interesting little town on the eastern border of New Mexico and Texas. Begun in 1909 as a railroad town, a stop on the westward expansion of the US. It is still a fairly small town, mostly agricultural and of course home to a large Air Force base that helps drive the population. 

The town has an interesting link to early rock and roll history as famous early stars such as Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox, Roy Orbison and other early rock and roll greats recorded some of their hits at the Norman Petty Studios located downtown. The recording studio has been turned into a museum, the Norman & Vi Petty Rock & Roll Museum. It features memorabilia from those early days of rock music and a glimpse into what the recording studio was like as much of the original equipment is present.

Kathy had the opportunity to explore Clovis while she was there as well, visiting the small, somewhat sad Clovis Zoo. The Hillcrest Park Zoo which has been open since 1930, and unfortunately not updated too much since, is run by the city of Clovis. The zoo is small, but still ranks as the second largest zoological park in the state of New Mexico.

The zoo houses a tiger, a couple of giraffes, wolves, zebras, a variety of raptors and a bunch of ducks and peacocks that call the park home. It is somewhat surprising that such a small community would have a zoo at all, but it certainly doesn’t measure up to many zoos that Kathy has visited.

Kathy spent a total of close to three weeks in Clovis and was sad to leave, but she wanted to get back to Key West in time for Christmas and she had a four day drive across the country to get back.  I know she would have liked to stay in Clovis longer and I suspect that perhaps there is a return trip in the near future.