The Blue Swallow Motel
After a long day of driving along the winding stretches of Route 66 from Albuquerque, photographing everything along the Mother Road, I arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico, utterly exhausted. My destination: the iconic Blue Swallow Motel, its neon sign a beacon of nostalgia glowing in the desert night. Despite the fatigue pulling at every muscle, I had one goal in mind—capture this historic motel in a way no one had before.
The Blue Swallow Motel - Tucumcari, New Mexico
The night air was cool and dry, carrying the faint scent of sagebrush and asphalt. Route 66 stretched out like an old ribbon of memories, and the sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra played from a distant speaker. The neon lights of the motel flickered vibrantly, bathing the classic cars in the lot with a dreamy blue and pink glow.
Setting up my camera and tripod on the sidewalk, I framed the shot. The iconic sign, the vintage motel office, the dark sky stretching endlessly above—it all came together perfectly. But just as I leaned in to adjust the focus, headlights washed over the scene. My heart skipped. Someone was pulling into the lot, and toward me and my camera, quickly.
Thankfully, they saw me, and stopped in time. It turned out to be some fellow photographers, stopping to do the same thing I was.
I wasn’t about to let exhaustion or near misses stop me. With a few final adjustments, I snapped the shot. The neon lights glowed against the deep desert night, the colors vivid and surreal. I had captured it—the Blue Swallow in all its timeless beauty, glowing against the vast New Mexico sky. It was a dream realized, a piece of Route 66 history, forever frozen in time.
I packed up, had a nice chat with the proprietor, and checked into room #1 for the night. I got the best night's sleep I've had in a motel in many years.