According to their website, “the Travelodge story began when building contractor Scott King opened the King’s Auto Court motel in San Diego to coincide with the 1935 World’s Fair. The popularity of the fair resulted in the motel being fully booked for all of 1935. With the success of King’s Auto Court, Scott recognized the need for guests to stay close to their next great adventure. Leveraging his own background as a contractor, Scott decided to expand, and opened 24 locations across Southern California over the next five years. In 1940, the first motel named Travelodge was opened and, in 1954, the brand’s Ambassador of Adventure — Sleepy Bear — was introduced.” Below you can see an old billboard for the Albuquerque Travelodges, located on the outskirts of the Isleta Pueblo, right before you go north on I-25. You can also see some Sleepy Bear memorabilia, all found on eBay.

“Real Life” Sleepy Bear Mascots:

Postcards, ads, and items that would have been found in rooms:

Here are plush dolls of Sleepy Bear. You can see how he evolved over the years, the last few pieces date from the 1970s (the last one is from 2013)

Here are some of the Travelodges around New Mexico, with an old postcard(s) and google maps street view of the location today. You can see that the majority of them are still active motels:

Albuquerque (Nob Hill): now Hotel Zazz

Albuquerque (Central & High): now a Days Inn

Alamogordo: now an Economy Inn

Hobbs: now a Budget Inn

Deming: now the Deming Motel

Roswell: now a Budget Inn

Santa Fe: now a Motel 6

Farmington: now a Travel Inn

Tucumcari: a popular stop on old Route 66, the former Travelodge in Tucumcari became a different hotel. The image below is from 2018, at which time it appeared to be shut down

Carlsbad: the sign gone, it does look like the old structure was once the motel

Las Cruces: I’m unable to find its current location, as the streets appeared to have been renamed. It was along Route 80, which was replaced by I-10.

Lordsburg: I’m unable to find its current location, as the streets appeared to have been renamed