Pies, Pies, Pies and More

As promised, yesterday Ric took us to Pie Town.  I do have to say that it was a very long way to go for a piece of pie.......so we each had two pieces!  One of the nice things about being old is that we can eat what we want, when we want, and we did. 
This is the Pie Town Cafe, but Ric decided we should eat at Pie-O-Neer Pies, which we did.

The picture on the right is what you see when you come in the door.  You pick up a tray and select the pie you want.  On the first round I just got a piece of yummy, warm banana cream pie, and Jim, of course, got chocolate cream pie.  I had wanted to get Boston Cream Pie, but since that is not really a pie, they don't offer it.  Alas, I will have to make my own.  The next one I got was starry blueberry pie......and Jim had another piece of chocolate cream pie.  Both Jim and Ric had to have the same tee shirt, which I will show in a minute.  Since I bought myself a tee shirt in Hatch last week, which I was wearing yesterday, I decided I really didn't need another new tee.  After we got home, Jim tried his on, and Janice took this picture of us.

As you can see, his shirt says "Peace of Pie" and amusingly, the mirror image would say "Pie fo Peace".  I'm wearing my chili pepper tee, and matching necklace and earrings!!!


But now I have gotten a bit ahead of my story.  To get to Pie Town, we drove north on I-25 to the town of Socorro, then drove west on Highway 60.  It is a very beautiful drive through some really amazing countryside.  There is an area where we saw some antelopes, but they were too far away to get a picture of them.  There were also warnings of elk crossings, but Ric says one is more likely to see them around dusk.  I had seen signs that we were approaching VLA, so I asked Ric what that means.  He said it stands for Very Large Array.  I was still confused.  The area is a huge open area where the government has set up a few dozen items that look like satellite dishes, for the purpose of listening for sounds from outer space!

This is a row of the devices as seen from the road.  I asked if they had detected any sounds, and Ric said yes, but mostly like explosions in space......not any little green men chatting.

Although it started out quite chilly, it was a really beautiful day, and the sights were wonderful.

We stopped on the way to read this historic marker.  I hope you will click on it so you can read about an amazing lady.
We stopped in a little store/cafe in Datil, which rhymes with Cattle, and used the restrooms before we went the rest of the way to Pie Town.  Besides the wonderful pies, there was some neat art work at the Pie-O-Neer restaurant.

 I was amused to see the silver, rotary dial phone on display here.
 I guess one man's art is another man's trash, but it was interesting.
On the left is a painting of one of the VLAs pointed at the moon.  I guess somebody wanted to hear the man in the moon talking.

This sign was outside the door at the Pie-O-Neer.  It should also have said that pie makes people very happy and sociable, because the folks there were a very nice group of individuals, both workers and guests.  They even had us sign into their guest book!
They also had an interesting collection of windmills outside, and an old car............kinda rusty though.

On the way back, we stopped for lunch at the Eagle Cafe in Datil, the same place we stopped on the way to Pie Town.  I am NOT a "heads on the wall" kind of person, but since there is a lot of hunting in this area, I guess the people here are.  

The bar area had an interesting way to display their glassware.  I got a kick out of the horse shoes!  And I guess this must be the first "Million dollar bill" they ever received. 
Anyway, after lunch we got back on the road for home.  

This is in Datil, and Ric thinks it had been a bed and breakfast place, but looks vacant now.  Ric said he'd love to buy it for a summer home......but I think he really just wants to live closer to Pie Town!  The next town we came to was Magdelena.  It's just a small town, but one with much history.

 

This is an example of the folk art we saw here.  Ric also drove us by the very old and historic Hotel Magdelena which we got some nice pictures of.

Apparently some very influential people have stayed here in the past.

We saw this unusual looking building as we were leaving Magdelena.  We were also surprised to see more than half a dozen police cars going west, towards Pie Town as we were traveling east, but I didn't think they would want me to take their pictures!

As I have said often, the landscape is quite amazing wherever we drive in New Mexico.  I am always surprised by all the color you see if you just stop to notice it.

I think we saw this when we got back to Socorro, just before we got back on I-25 to come south to our home in Arrey.



Today I also want to share something with you that I had forgotten about for quite some time.  Back in February, we went to the Good Sam Super Show in Avon, Arizona.  One of the seminars we went to was about a product called Kanberra Gel.  It is made in the USA from Australian tea tree oil.  Anyone familiar with tea tree oil knows it has a recognizable scent to it, but it is a very clean scent.  They gave out small samples of the gel at the seminar.  She told us the small sample could kill orders and mold or mildew in a room (like our RV bathroom) for a week.  We bought the hand soap which is very nice, and the 4 oz. size jar of the gel which is supposed to work for about a month.  Jim came up with a great cost saving idea.  He suggested that instead of opening the jar to air (it dries out as it is exposed to air), we should simply put one teaspoon full of it into the sample size jar and use that for a week. You might use any similar small size container, like a tiny spice jar or a tea candle saucer.  We have been doing this every week since the beginning of March, and as of now, we have used less than 1/4 of the jar that was supposed to only last one month!  I don't know any retailers that sell Kanberra products, but if you are interested, you can Google search it and order it online.  I can say that we are very happy with how clean and fresh the bathroom smells, and you do get used to the tea tree oil scent.  We do think it is an excellent product and worth the price.  I can't tell you the price though, because they gave us special pricing at the Super Show.                                                                
Anyway, it is time to close up, but I do want to mention that this week we had our RV and car washed and waxed by Sal's Mobile Service, and they did an amazing job.  The car hasn't looked this good in several years.  We had Larry's Mobile RV Service here to install the EZ connectors and fix my oven door (the spring came off and we couldn't get it to close tight enough).  His prices are not cheap, but his work is also excellent.  He is coming back next week to do a mobile oil change and a repair to our refrigerator.  We are willing to pay a reasonable price for good service.  We feel blessed that we have been able to get good people to come out here, which is about 20 miles from TorC and 50 miles from Las Cruces, to do mobile work for us when we need it done.  
I had the wonderful pleasure of talking to our very dear friend Sherrie from Fountain Valley, CA this week.  We had not seen her and Ron since last September when we went to see Jerry Benton do his farewell performance at the Elks in Garden Grove before retiring.  We have kept in touch by email, but it was simply fantastic to talk to her by phone.  She made the observation that she didn't know how I can stay upbeat when several unexpected calamities have befallen us this year.  It made me stop and think.  Somebody (I don't remember who so I can't give credit) once said life is 10% about what happens to us and 90% about how we react to it.  As I see it, it wouldn't do us any good to wail and moan and ask why is all this happening to us.  There is always a bright side to things if you look for it.  Because of the breakdown in Deming, we decided to spend more time here in Arrey, New Mexico.  Because we decided to stay here longer, we have made some wonderful new friends, and have found our "home" park for when the day comes that we can't travel anymore.  Everything happens for a reason.  I hope our longer stay here has been a comfort to Ric, even if he does pick on me terribly.  I know he is just teasing and he loves us.  My advice to one and all is, when life doesn't go as you planned, remember that God has a plan for you, and it is ALWAYS a better plan.  If circumstances seem impossible, give your problems to Jesus.  All things are possible through  Him.  We may not understand His plan now, but it will be revealed to us when we need to know.  Take care and keep a positive outlook, because nothing good will come from being a Gloomy Gus.  Life IS amazing, so enjoy everyday of it!