The Day Before Easter

Good Morning everyone,
Things are going as well as can be expected here in the land of sun shine and windy days!  We learned an important lesson from Ric yesterday.  You see, we are used to people showing up when they say they will, or doing what they say they will within what seems like a reasonable time frame.  However, Ric explained that we are in New Mexico now, and time has an entirely different meaning here.  As he put it, "when white folks say 'today' they actually MEAN today, but when Hispanics say 'today' they mean maybe today or tomorrow......or sometime soon."   Last Friday we called a nice guy named Manny to come look at the roof of our RV to see if we need it re-sealed.  He said he could come out Monday morning and we said OK.  Monday morning he texted me that he couldn't get here until early afternoon, and again we said OK.  "Early afternoon" turned out to be around 6 pm.  The good news is that we only have the beginnings of a few cracks, nothing really bad, and he will seal what needs to be re-done for a very reasonable charge.  He recommended a guy named Chip who can come out here to check out the gasoline leak we noticed twice when we were filling the RV gas tank........but he is booked up right now, so he can't come out until April 27th.  That's OK since we aren't going anywhere yet.

Big Al did most of the repairs on the car two weeks ago, but we were still waiting on one part.  He said it would be in on Friday, a week ago.  I said we could come in on Monday but he said to wait until Tuesday just to be on the safe side.  We went to TorC on Tuesday and he said he didn't go get the part yet, but for sure he would pick it up in Las Cruces on Wednesday, so we could come there on Thursday.....you guessed it................he still didn't have it Thursday.  He said he would go to Las Cruces on Friday and stop here at the park to install it.  Well yesterday he did go there, and he did get the part, and he did stop here (at 6:45 pm, long after we had given up thinking he would show up) however, he said the other part he needed to install was under the load of stuff he got in Cruces, and he couldn't find it now, so we still need to go back to his shop on Monday to do the rest of the installation.  Ric says this is what is considered in a reasonable time frame here in New Mexico!  Glad we weren't in any hurry to get out of here.  I am enjoying having days when we don't have to go anywhere and can relax with the furry kids and read books, etc.  Life is at a delightfully slower pace here, but it does take some getting used to.

This lovely lady is Debbie.  She has a health food store/restaurant in TorC called the Turtleback Oasis. 

When we worked at one of the hot springs in town, part of her business was that she delivered a limited menu of breakfast items to guests who requested them.  We occasionally enjoyed getting her delicious breakfast croissant sandwiches or breakfast burritos delivered to our RV too.  Last week we stopped in at her place to see her.  Sadly, in the two years since we were here last, she has endured some pretty major health issues, and if not for her wonderful and loyal staff she might not even still be in business.  We bought some of her yummy three berry jam, which I am enjoying very much.

Truth or Consequences (TorC) is a really unique little town.  
If I haven't told you its history, you can look it up on line to see that I'm telling the truth.  Many years ago Ralph Edwards put the word out that if any town was willing to change its name to Truth of Consequences (like the game show he hosted on TV) he would personally come to the town and broadcast his show from there for a week and hold a festival, and generally put that town on the map.  Hot Springs, NM accepted the offer and so began the town of TorC.  Part of the residents did NOT like the idea, but they had been out-voted, so they withdrew from the city and formed their own little town, which they named Williamsburg.  When you come north on I-25, if you take exit 75 you come into Williamsburg........and a few miles down Broadway you get to TorC.  In May we will finally get to see the annual festival that still takes place in Ralph Edwards Park and the crowning of the Festival queen and her court!

But that's not all that is unusual here.

 This is one of the lodging places in the center of town.
I don't know why the little trailer sits next to the Dude Motel, but it has been there as far back as when we worked here in 2013, so I guess it isn't going anywhere soon.   There are an assortment of restaurants in town such as a pizza place called A Slice of Heaven and a vegetarian place called Passion Pie, and an Asian Fusion place called Lattitude 33.  But my favorite place is still the A & B Drive-in where I can get THE BEST Philly Cheese steak Sandwich in the country! 
I can't remember right now if I posted a picture of that one, so I'll do that now.

 As you can see, you can order at the window and sit outside to eat.  Sometimes we take the dogs with us and do that.  Or you can sit at tables inside.  If it's too windy here we go inside.  We've been there three times since we got here last month.  Twice I had the Philly cheese steak with local green chilies on it.  Hot and yummy, and once I had a marvelous BLT.  I might also try their BBQ chicken sandwich sometime. I'm just sure everything they make is going to be delish!!!

Next Monday we are going to go back to the Motor Vehicle Division in TorC to begin the process of establishing our domicile here at the Arrey RV Park here in Arrey, NM.  For the time being we will still keep our mail forwarding service at the current address in Sioux Falls, SD, but the lady who runs this park is looking into what she would have to do to set up mail forwarding for her long term guests, like us.  If that works out, we will switch to her service.  My sister Donna had said we should give some thought to where we wanted to actually live when we decided not to travel anymore.  We are NOT ready to give up traveling yet, but we have decided that this area is where we would like to live when we do stop our happy wanderings.  We figured we might as well domicile here until that time.  I never expected to find the desert so beautiful, but it is, and it is an ever changing panorama of beauty.

Last, but not least, we would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter, and all the blessings promised to us by Jesus on this joyous day when He fulfilled His promise and saved us all from our sins.  Have a great week everybody!