These Boots Were Made for Walkin’ (Country Remix)

Clovis, NM

There’s no substitute for a good pair of boots. And if you’re looking for Cowboy, the southwest is the place to be.

In Clovis, I found 16,000 pairs at Joe’s Boot Shop.

You can pick your color and style (Blue Alligator!). Snakeskin, Ostrich, leather, it’s all here. Row by row you can find any type of cowboy boot you can imagine, and even some that are beyond what you'd think anyone would dream up.

In the back of the store, you can buy tack or learn to rope. If you’re there on the right day, you can participate in special contests, from calf roping to the Clovis first chuck wagon cook-off.

They also have 12,000 belts, 10,000 hats, 5,000 candles, and a trailer parked out front.

It happened to be a bit breezy that day (60 mph winds), which meant blue skies and clouds of dust. If you’d rather not walk against the wind, you can always call in and request delivery (the online store is a bit lacking).

Oo-oo I look just like Buddy Holly

Clovis, NM

The home of the Clovis Man, the Clovis culture, and the Clovis sound: Clovis, NM is a little big town with people who enjoy naming things after their city.

If you go a few miles west, you’ll be in Texas. A few miles south, and you’ll reach Roswell. In between are miles and miles of desert.

While you might not be able to travel through space, you can certainly take a trip through time in Clovis. At Blackwater Draw you can view the famous (and recently controversial) evidence of what is generally accepted as the earliest culture in North America. If you aren’t ready to travel that far back, take a look at the 7th street studios, where Buddy Holly recorded “Peggy Sue” to take a trip through Rock ‘n Roll history.

If you’re traveling, you might want to take the bus. The Clovis Area Transit System (CATS) where you can pay 50¢ to have a bus pick you up and drop you off (curb to curb). Kids can even buy a $25 summer pass to travel to and from any location while school is out.

That’s right, the stops are where you make them. Their new transit home will eventually become the center of a standard fixed route service. But for now, it is quite convenient to be shuttled door to door when you need it.

Just make sure you make your reservations at least a day in advance.