Windmills, Waylon, and a Tribute to Mules

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When I think of windmills, I immediately think of Holland, but then we learned about The American Windmill Museum. It’s one of those places you read about in a tourist brochure and then wonder if it’s worth visiting. It sounded interesting, so since we were in Lubbock, we decided to give it a visit. It was wonderful.

David will extol the virtues of windmills and wind turbines and associated mechanics, but I was more enthralled with the sheer beauty of them... rising high in the fields, catching the wind, spinning effortlessly. The yard outside the museum was a lovely sight… tens of windmills turning and churning, a blur of color as the wind coaxed the vanes to spin.

Inside the museum there was more than just windmills. There was a G-scale (Garden scale 1/29) model train system with about 3400 feet of stainless steel track including sidings and a spiral helix. The trains run on two circuits including the world’s largest spiral helix with 10 levels on a 2% grade rising about 9 feet, equivalent to 260 scale feet. There was so much detail to take in as the trains raced around. I particularly liked the 1940 vintage downtown dominated by a custom-built replica of the city’s first train station as well as the Lubbock Hotel.

There was also an area devoted to miniature houses. These were not the usual, run-of-the-mill dollhouses. This collection by Alta Reed is absolutely amazing. Photos weren’t so great because they were all behind glass, but once again the attention to detail was outstanding… little bags of dog food next to Fido’s tiny dog dish, teeny-weeny plates and silverware on miniature dining tables, potbelly stoves, braided rugs and Orientals, chandeliers and desk lamps, a half-written letter on a desk. Some houses were themed like the Hallowe’en witch house shown. Some were formal affairs and some were modeled after the local ranches.

The museum occupies 70,000 sq ft of space on 28 acres. I was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer number of windmills erected inside the huge metal buildings. I felt a carnival-like atmosphere as we walked among the nearly 200 windmills on display… like we were walking down a midway with amusement rides spinning around us. It was the ultimate eye candy with every single structure and particular facet vying for our attention. I loved it.

Within the collection of windmills, there were other collections related to windmills. Like windmill weights, for instance. I had never noticed them before and now I was searching the windmills I saw for distinctive weights.

The day was cold and blustery and after spending a couple of hours inside, we opted to return the following morning to take a better look at the outside displays. David's fascination with the wind turbines, as he’ll discuss in his next blog, was evident.

Wind turbines are enormous!

Time to head out of Lubbock and start heading east into New Mexico. We now have a new appreciation for windmills we see.

We’d opted for a secondary highway with a pass through Littlefield, Texas, hometown of country-western singer, Waylon Jennings. I’d read about a small Waylon Jennings museum run by his brother, James, and his sister-in-law, Helen. The unlikely venue for the museum was the WayMores Drive Thru Liquor Store. We passed by it twice before we found it.

Waymores Drive-thru Liquor and Waylon Jennings Museum

James was not around, but Helen was pleasant and chatty and setting out a new shipment of Waylon t-shirts. The one-room ‘museum’ was more a shrine to Waylon, with lots of photos and memorabilia crowded in midst the souvenirs.

We continued on our way through the city of Muleshoe… where there was, coincidentally, a very large muleshoe… the world’s largest muleshoe, in fact, located near the town heritage center, a restored Santa Fe railroad station.

World’s largest muleshoe

Muleshoe is also home to the National Mule Memorial. I know… we didn’t realize there was a national memorial to mules either, but there is. It is said to honor the mule for its service in WWI. Here’s proof.

National Mule Memorial

We crossed over the Texas border into New Mexico with no fanfare, no welcome or leaving signs, just a noticeable change in the road surface at the state line. We’re on our way back home now. Enjoy David’s take on the American Windmill Museum next. Then join us for our last couple of nights on the road and a doozy of a dust storm in my next blog.