Camping, Princess Style

[Smithy]

48 minutes ago, Jacksoup said:

I remember the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum from way too many years ago as a teen.  I was very impressed with the outdoor animal displays and I believe some kind of otter display.  My fading memory may not be accurate.

 

They have a lot of indoor and outdoor displays, including one with otters...very entertaining! The place has grown considerably since its inception in, oh, 1952 I think, and they keep coming up with new displays and programs.

 

Getting back to food: I found a new area devoted to ethnobotany - what sorts of plants the native tribes used then, what the Spanish brought in later, and what grows now.  One garden area had a Mission Fig and an Indian Fig (which seems to be a spineless variety of prickly pear), a young pomegranate tree, a quince tree, and other plants I've forgotten. Someday I'd like to spend time learning about the traditional harvests in the area.  A docent told me about tagging along with the Tohono O'odham during the saguaro cactus fruit harvest and the subsequent syrup-making.  It's done in June, at the peak of summer, and it's hard, hot, slow work.  She said that after that experience she understood why saguaro syrup is so expensive. 

[Smithy]

I've written before about Columbus, New Mexico.  This small border town's claim to fame is that Pancho Villa and his men raided the town in the wee hours of March 9, 1916, killing some civilians and provoking a months-long pursuit into Mexico by General "Black Jack" Pershing and his men.  Pershing later said that the work and tests his group did with machinery (early tanks, prototype 4-wheel-drive vehicles) on that expedition helped get our army ready for WWI.  There are interesting museums here, both in the state park and across the street at the local Historical Society's Depot Museum.

 

Today we went 3 miles to the border, then crossed into the town of Palomas.  There's a good-sized parking lot for folks like us who don't want to drive across, and the town begins right on the other side of the fence.  We noted that Villa is a bit more of a folk hero there than here.

 

 

We went out of curiosity to see what this little village is like, but the main draw was a place called The Pink Store. (The name is self-explanatory, once you see the paint job.)  If you want Mexican dishes, glassware, placemats, basketry, pottery, blankets, tiles, or - well, the list goes on - this is a good place to come.  The prices may not be as low as one could arrange by bargaining at the sources, but they're much better than anything I've seen in the States. Best of all, you can sip a drink (margarita, coffee, beer, whatever) as you browse the store. Not a bad sales strategy!

 

There's also a restaurant. With a bar. And mariachis who will play and sing at your table if you ask.

 

 

They were fun to watch and hear.  These photos don't fully do them justice; their facial expressions were quite mobile, and the overall impression was of them smiling although it doesn't show well in these pictures. Their voices and playing were wonderful. 

 

The menu showed a wide variety of foods. Prices were marked in both American dollars and Mexican pesos, and you could pay (and get change) with either currency.  

 

 

While we dithered over our selections and enjoyed the mariachis, the wait staff indulged us with appetizers.  There was a seemingly endless supply of tortilla chips, with a nicely spicy salsa and - at our request - pico de gallo. Finally, we chose.

 

 

He opted for burritos with a tomatillo sauce; we think it also had green chiles.  I selected pollo soledad: grilled chicken breast with chocolate-chile mole. The mole was slightly bitter, very spicy, and a great compliment to the chicken. At the edge of the bottom photo you can just make out the tortilla-warming pouch.  It was well insulated and held a generous supply of very soft, very warm flour tortillas. 

 

We rolled homeward, happy with food, and have been satisfied with a handful of peanuts for dinner.

[IowaDee]

That meal is right up my alley.  We were talking about which cuisine we would pick if we were limited to only one.  Both agreed that we could live on and love Mexican food every day.  

[Smithy]

I wish I could show you a "before" picture.

 

 

During our previous visits, this has been a wreck of a building.  I don't know its entire history, but we've known it as a derelict-looking 'church' that might or might not still have held worship services.  We never saw activity around it, and I never deemed it worthy of a picture.

 

Now, this street corner has changed.

 

 

Wow!  A new restaurant!  Kittycorner from the park where we stay, at that!  One day when I was out strolling, the door was open.  I peeked in to see what it was like, and was greeted by a friendly young man and a darling little girl.  

 

"Sorry, we aren't open yet," he said. "We'll be opening this weekend."

 

"Ooh!" said I, "We'll be here for the grand opening!"

 

He smiled and explained that no, they weren't going with the fanfare of a grand opening. They wanted to work out the kinks, see what else they needed to be doing.  

 

"A soft opening, then?" I said, fishing around in my brain for the right term.  Yes, he said, that was it. It was scheduled for Friday.  I forgot to ask the hours, but said we'd probably see him soon.

 

On Friday we ran errands, then stopped by at the Borderland Cafe to see how things were going.  There were several cars parked out front, and almost all the tables were occupied.  The place was clean and bright: rich desert colors for the wall paint; large windows looking eastward along New Mexico's Highway 9; Mexican carvings adorning the wall.  The kitchen is open to the cafe, and the man I'd spoken to a few days before was busy at the grill.  A smiling young woman met us at the table we selected, offered us menus and asked what we'd like to drink.

 

 

We were parched and asked for water, then perused the menu.  (I had intended to show you the inside of the menu, but this was a draft for the soft opening.  I don't want to immortalize it here.)  The offerings weren't at all what I'd expected. This close to the border I'd expected a Mexican restaurant, but the Borderland Cafe offers a variety of burgers, pizza, wraps, salads, subs, and desserts such as a fruit parfait.  There are quesadillas, and ready-made burritos, but there's also a chicken strip basket.

 

We dithered.  So many choices!  Did my darling want the Pershing Burger (the basic All-American burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion) or did he want the Spicy Italian Sub with salami, pepperoni, ham, spinach, tomato, red onions, provolone and Creamy Sriracha Sauce?  I was ogling the Pancho Burger (topped with Mexican green chile, lettuce, tomato, onion and Mennonite cheese) but I was also taken with the idea of ordering a quesadilla.  Then again, they offered gyros.  Gyros?  In southern New Mexico?  I asked the waitress about it when she came back.  "Oh yes," she said, "they're very good."  She pointed to the cook: "He's from Jordan."  Hmm. I looked at the description again: beef and lamb, cucumber, spinach, tomato, feta cheese, tzatziki sauce.  I love a good gyro.  I had to try that.  My darling chose the Spicy Italian Sub.  We shared an order of fries.

 

We watched the action behind the counter and in the dining area.  A single family group of at least three generations occupied as many tables. We also had the view out the window.  Highway 9, a little 2-lane undivided highway that crosses the southern tip of New Mexico, is the designated route for oversized loads.  (Why Interstate 10, 30 miles north, is closed to such traffic remains a mystery to us.) While we were there a Very Heavily Loaded truck, and its complement of pilot vehicles, parked nearby for an apparent lunch break.  I'm not sure whether we or the children of the multi-generational family were more fascinated, but there was a lot of wandering over to look out the window at the heavy equipment.

 

Our food arrived.

 

These were excellent.  The bread was fresh, the sauces well balanced, the cucumbers crisp. The tzadziki sauce for my gyro had just the right tang, and my darling loved the creamy sriracha sauce with his sub. The fries were a bit soggy - oil too cool? - and we said so later.  Our 'waitress', who turned out to be the co-owner, thanked us for the feedback, with every indication of sincerity. We made a point of telling them also what was right, which was most of it. When she came back to ask about dessert, we demurred - but then to my darling's surprise, I ordered coffee.  It too was excellent: smooth and rich.  I thought I detected a slight cinnamon note, but forgot to ask what type of coffee it was. It certainly wasn't the Farmers Bros. or Arco stuff that's all too common in the cafes we visit. We paid our bill: $14 for the whole deal.  Good food, at a good price.

 

With a little more conversation we learned that Adriana is originally from Columbus but had moved away shortly after high school.  She and Lawrence had met in Austin, Texas, where he had operated a food truck.  Now here they are in Columbus, whither she'd never expected to return, opening their own restaurant.  The darling little girl I'd seen is their daughter.  

 

I was surprised at first not to see a pronounced Mexican theme to the food, but after some thought I'm glad not to see it.  The Borderland Cafe is right around the corner from Irma's Kitchen, about which I wrote two years ago.  I want to see both places succeed: Columbus is a nice town, but struggling, and it needs more business. This way, the cafes fill different niches.  The Borderland Cafe seems to have a good location, situated as it is at the intersection of two state highways with plenty of parking. Given the amount of truck traffic along this highway, they should do well when the truckers discover them.

 

I enjoyed chatting with Adriana and Lawrence that day, and the next day when I went back to try their burritos.  (Those also were good, and now I have a better idea of how to wrap mine.) I hope that next fall, when we come back through, we'll see their business flourishing.

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Nice write-up.  It's wonderful to see a hard working couple become successful.  The front looks very inviting and the word will soon spread through the community.

Wow, $14 for all that lunch.  $14 gets you a burger and fries of that quality around these parts!

[Smithy]

I've had a bee in my bonnet about trying Hatch Chiles thanks to topics like Hatch Chili Peppers and Celebrating New Mexico: traditions surrounding a fall chile roast, not to mention the posts of avid fans of the pepper like @Shelby.  My web surfing turned up no possibilities for finding the chiles in shops in Hatch this many months after the harvest season (see later note), but I found The Hatch Chile Store in Las Cruces. Its shipping expenses, while probably justified, were prohibitive for us. We decided to stop by. Maybe the direct-pickup prices would be lower. We made plans to stop for the night at a campground between Hatch and Las Cruces and drive in to Las Cruces without the trailer.

 

 

Then, we looked at the map again. The most direct routes to the campground involved interstate freeway(s) through Las Cruces and possibly El Paso. Alternatively, we could go north through Deming, take a lesser highway toward Hatch, then follow yet another lesser highway southeastward along the Rio Grande to the park we'd chosen.

 

We went north.  Deming is the place we do most of our errand-running, but only on this trip did I notice a little park with benches and shade and a fun fountain.

 

Once through town we turned northeast, along a highway that was in better condition than our road map had suggested.  We skirted the edge of hills, looking down onto range land, until we saw this:

 

 

Fellow campers had told us that Sparky's was THE best place to eat burgers - "their green chile burger is the very best!" they had said - but it was too early for lunch.  On the other hand, this sight induced us to pull over to the curb:

 

 

Why I didn't see places like this when I looked online I don't know. (Today, as I write, I DO see one or two .) We pulled over for a look.  It looked promising.

 

 

The gated courtyard at the side had the requisite equipment.

 

 

I went in.  The place was chock-a-block full of enticing pepper-related foods: spices, salsa, ground peppers, ristras, and the aromas to go with it all.  An alarm sounded from an adjoining room. After a few unlikely shrieks I realized it was a macaw or parrot: never seen to identify, easily heard to categorize.

 

 

It soon developed that the young woman's English was about as good as my Spanish.  There ensued a lively pidgin conversation in which she said yes, they had chiles roasted, peeled and frozen.  She took me to a back room and a chest freezer.  There were 5-pound bags of roasted, peeled and chopped peppers (the choices were mild, hot and extra-hot) for $9 each.  There were 5-pound bags of roasted, peeled and whole medium-hot peppers (perfect for stuffing) for $8 each.  Which would I like?  I dithered.  I knew I didn't want extra hot.  Would hot be too hot?  Would mild be too bland?  What the heck.  I took a bag of each. Who knows when or whether we'll be back this way?

 

 

By this time the dam of my self-restraint had burst.  I perused the bags of finely ground and coarsely crushed peppers, and selected a variety.  My darling perused the salsas, and chose two.  

 

 

I even fell for a ristra and a ceramic tile. She gave me a deal, unasked, on the last.  We'd probably made her sales quota for the day.

 

 

This was much, much, much more fun than finding a campsite, disconnecting the trailer and navigating our way into Las Cruces, even though Google Maps said it was would be easy to get to the Hatch Chile Store.  It was a great deal of fun to work through linguistic difficulties with a charming person who couldn't help me much.  I thanked her, we waved goodby, and resolutely went *past* the store next door.  I do love pottery.  I wasn't going to go there at the moment.

 

 

Best of all, we were able to scope out the chosen park, reject it and continue on our way into the middle of New Mexico.  We're going home by a different route than usual.  We'll be sorry to miss Texas, but we're seeing new country.

 

Edited April 19, 2017 by Smithy
Minor phrase tweak: added 'this many months' to 'after the harvest season' (log)

[kayb]

So, are your travels taking you through Arkansas? If you're coming through my 'hood, I'll definitely travel to meet you.

 

 

[Smithy]

3 minutes ago, kayb said:

So, are your travels taking you through Arkansas? If you're coming through my 'hood, I'll definitely travel to meet you.

 

 

 

I would love that, and I'm flattered! But no, this time we're staying to the west.  We had considered going via the Natchez Trace, and we'd considered going back via Arkansas as we've done before, but we've lollygagged too long in the western states to go so far east.  We plan to be home in northern Minnesota around May 1.

[kayb]

Just now, Smithy said:

 

I would love that, and I'm flattered! But no, this time we're staying to the west.  We had considered going via the Natchez Trace, and we'd considered going back via Arkansas as we've done before, but we've lollygagged too long in the western states to go so far east.  We plan to be home in northern Minnesota around May 1.

 

Well, maybe next year!

 

[Shelby]

Yes!!!!  Hatch chiles!!!!!!  Oh, I'm so glad you found some!!  I bet that salsa is amazing.  I can't wait to hear what you think.

 

 

I do not think I could pass up that pottery, though.

[suzilightning]

DAMN......I can't wait to do the "follow the birds" tour John and I have been planning....

Detroit...Duluth....SE Arizona...New Mexico....back to Hooks, TX to see if our singlewide trailer is still there then along the Gulf Coast then up to SC and home.  

Taking notes!!!

[Okanagancook]

The Hatch Chili store is so amazing.  What beautiful looking products they have.  Very clean looking and the jarred salsas look outstanding.  Great find.

[Smithy]

Here's the first report on the Hatch chiles.  We already had a jar of Hatch Chile red salsa, produced in Texas(!) and purchased in a grocery store in Deming, so we opened only the green salsa from the Hatch store. 

 

 

As you can see, we'd already made big inroads on the Mateo's salsa.

 

I selected two of the chile powders: a medium green and a medium red.  They both smelled pungent and delicious.  I dusted bite-sized bits of boneless, skinless chicken thighs with the powders (half one way, half the other), browned them lightly (I hate overcooked chicken), then deglazed the pan with pieces of roasted and peeled red bell pepper and tomatillos, along with their juice.  Simmered it a bit until the chicken was done...

 

 

...then poured the sauce over finely chopped lettuce and tomatoes, with tortillas waiting to wrap the salad.

 

 

At the table, we had slices of cheddar and asadero cheese, chopped green onions and celery, labneh and the salsas. He opted to eat the whole thing as a salad; I wrapped mine. His certainly looks better in the photo, but I'm convinced mine tasted better. 

 

We tried the salsas.  We knew what to expect with this particular red salsa: it's hot but flavorful.  We each tried the Hatch green salsa. Each of took a teaspoon and tried it straight.  AH-HOOA! That is powerful, hot stuff.  We reached for coolants. (This one's mine.)

 

 

The green chile salsa was more tolerable in the dinner salad than by itself, but we both thought the Mateo's red salsa had more flavor.  I thought it was sweeter.  We used both on our meals, but agreed that the green needs tweaking: maybe some vinegar, maybe some fruit to give it flavor, maybe something else to dilute it.  If we can't tweak it properly it will be relegated to small uses to heat up other sauces, until I decide to pitch it on the compost heap at home.  

 

I tasted some of the chicken bits on their own.  Now THAT was tasty: a pleasant amount of heat, not overpowering, with sweet and savory notes belonging to the powdered chiles.  Could I tell the difference between the red chile-treated chicken and the green-chile treated chicken?  Yes, I could.  Did I have a preference?  Nope. They were both delicious, and the roasted tomatillo/pepper sauce with them was a great match.  I'll be doing that again.

 

[Sue Chef]

That place in Mexico makes me want to cross the border myself.  Wonderful color!

 

[Smithy]

Three Rivers, NM is a small historic site with a couple of campgrounds nearby that fit our bill: inexpensive, not too crowded, out of the way.  The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is a very small campground with maybe a dozen campsites; two of them are reserved for RV's.  We lucked out and got one.  We planned to stay only one night, but stayed for several because the place is so pleasant.  Its big draw is a nearby series of low ridges with petroglyphs from around 900 - 1400 A.D. There are around 21,000 petroglyphs, all documented.  One only has to walk to them, and look around. If you look out across the valley, you can see the White Sands of New Mexico.

 

 

We needed fuel and diesel exhaust fluid for our truck, so we drove into the little town of Tularosa to do that without the trailer.  Part of what we needed was on the old 'historic' street: two or three blocks of old buildings, some in good repair and in use as town businesses (like hardware); some repurposed as antique stores; some terribly rundown.  I've read that Tularosa has particularly good trees and flowers because of an extensive irrigation system that was installed when the town was built.  I don't know whether it's true, but we did enjoy seeing the flowers.

 

 

Truck missions accomplished, we went for lunch. I was angling for chiles rellenos - see how the locals do it - but I didn't get my way this time; we stopped at a Subway instead.  Subway hasn't been getting much love over on this topic lately, but in our experience it's a fairly reliable sandwich chain. Maybe it has to do with the places we travel.  He picked a Spicy Italian sandwich; I chose to "Be An Italian Hero".

 

 

These sandwiches are huge and, to us, delicious.  We appreciate being able to customize them - spinach instead of lettuce, pickles or not, and so on.  We each ate half there at the Subway.  As we ate we admired the poster about their waste reduction and recycling efforts. The other halves went home with us: his was lunch for him the next day; mine was split again into lunch one day and breakfast the next.  Not a bad deal for $14.

 

We needed "a couple of things" (ha) at the grocery store. We walked into the Lowe's (a grocery chain, not the home improvement chain) there, having admired the chile roaster outside.

 

 

It seems to be more than a mere decoration! Just inside the door was a hot deli case with the usual roasted chicken and other goodies, but also with containers of hot, freshly roasted and peeled, green chiles.  I picked up a package and put it back two or three times.  These were hot! Fresh! They were also from Mexico, and we have 15 pounds of frozen Hatch chiles in our freezer. I resolutely put them back, and left them.

 

We needed fresh produce.  In this topic, certain members are lamenting the sky-high cost of cauliflower whilst others are saying it isn't more expensive than usual.  This data point suggests that there is no current shortage among the suppliers to little Tularosa, NM.

 

 

We headed back toward camp with our groceries.  At the turnoff to our campground this 'trading post' had caught my eye, so we stopped.  

 

 

The arts and crafts inside were a spectrum of sculptures, paintings, rope art, some very fine Navajo weaving, handmade jewelry, and so on.  One set of dishes, not locally produced, was strikingly handsome to me.

 

 

Railroad china!  Replicas of the service used on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Line diner cars! No, I didn't need it.  No, it isn't practical for the trailer and we have plenty of good dishware at home.  But I loved the designs, so evocative of this area.

 

 

I looked in vain for price tags.  One can dream, can't one? Finally I asked.  It turned out that the woman consults eBay to see the going price.  This line of china (in burgundy color) is going out of production, and when it's gone, it's gone.  A very small plate might be $18.  I sighed, fantasized about a large platter or bowl, and checked on the stuff when we got home. For more information, check out Mimbreno China, made by Pipestone China using the original designs. I'll just have to admire it from afar.

[FauxPas]

@Smithy, HF Coors in Tucson is making the Mimbreno line. They are a wonderful local company and they make a quality product. Their prices are a bit high, but you can save some money by shopping at their First Saturday offerings - the first Saturday of each month, they open up the back factory area and sell off seconds and discontinued products and so forth. You can find some good buys there! But it's popular - you have to get there early to get the best deals and be prepared to move fast and aggressively.

 

I have a set of the Mimbreno mugs and I adore them. I have toyed with the idea of buying some of the other pieces, but I don't really need another set of dishes right now. Still, I love them so much! 

 

I bought a set of 4 mugs in the store shortly after they first started making them as they were offering them for $20 each instead of the usual $25 and then I checked the First Saturday sale and managed to find one there for a couple of dollars. It's a second because of the tiny bluish mark on the top left, if you can even see it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

@FauxPas, thank you for that information - I think! Fortunately for my bank account we're away from Tucson for the season, so I'll have time to think about whether I really need how to justify buying one of those big bowls or platters. Or cute little plates. Or creamers, just to have some of the china. Or... well, anyway, how cool that you have those mugs!

[FauxPas]

I'll also mention that HF Coors has more in their store than they have on the website, so an in-person visit might be in order when you are back in southern AZ. And they do seem to be expanding the Mimbreno line - for example, the mugs I got are the 14 oz ones, but I see they also have smaller 11 oz ones now. 

[Darienne]

18 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

 

Choux-Fleurs?  In New Mexico?

 

[Smithy]

35 minutes ago, Darienne said:

Choux-Fleurs?  In New Mexico?

 

 

That is odd, isn't it?  The cauliflower was packed in Holtville, California, not far from the southern border.  Why the second language is French is beyond me.

 

Today we were in yet another grocery store (!) in Logan, New Mexico.  Their cauliflower was only $2.99.  The heads were slightly smaller than in this photo, but certainly respectable in size and quality.  Makes me think the $3.99 wasn't such a great deal after all.

[ElsieD]

I was in my local store today and noticed the cauliflower was wrapped.  Next time I'm there, which is almost daily, I'll check to see where it is from.  I'll bet it is in French and English because they export their cauliflower to Canada and all English lettering must also be in French.  That is also why we can't get some products here that are readily available in the US.  It isn't worthwhile for the exporter to pay for the translation.

[Anna N]

 

25 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I was in my local store today and noticed the cauliflower was wrapped.  Next time I'm there, which is almost daily, I'll check to see where it is from.  I'll bet it is in French and English because they export their cauliflower to Canada and all English lettering must also be in French.  That is also why we can't get some products here that are readily available in the US.  It isn't worthwhile for the exporter to pay for the translation.

The carrots in Smithy's photo are also bilingual. 

[ElsieD]

24 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

The carrots in Smithy's photo are also bilingual. 

 

I'll check them out too.  

[Smithy]

Maybe we should have stayed in Three Rivers another day.  

 

At the top, the sunset of our last evening there.  At the bottom, what we saw all day at our next stop. It was windy, grey and cold when we arrived.  We knew it would be.  The wind was supposed to die overnight.  It didn't.  Some hardy fisher folk still went out on Ute Lake, where we're camped, but a lot of boats stayed on shore.

 

I had used part of our last day in Three Rivers for what may be my last baking before we get home.  A couple of those sourdough rolls became sandwiches for our traveling lunch. Celery, radishes, grapes and asparagus made up the rest of our road food.

 

 

We watched the countryside change as we drove northeast through Corona, Santa Rosa, then Tucumcari, and finally to Logan, New Mexico.

 

 

We knew we'd be driving into the north wind, and that it would be relatively cold.  My darling groused about having to put on long pants after months of being able to wear shorts during the day.  "I hate to be leaving our winter behind!" he quipped. Desert winter is a lot different than Minnesota's winter. The weather is supposed to warm considerably in the next day or two.  We had thought we might spend them here in Logan before proceeding farther north. But the scenery, and to some extent the unpleasant weather, make Strike 1.

 

We didn't know this place would be so stickery!  That might sound odd, coming as it does from months spent near cactus and other thorny vegetation.  Those plants are forthrightly prickly, however, and easily spotted.  The grasses and low stickery weeds around here are sneaky and difficult to avoid.  Here's a small sample of what's been tracked into the trailer and found later with someone's bare foot or paw.

 

 

Strike 2!

 

To top it all off - here comes a first-world complaint - our mobile data connection is painfully slow.  Strike 3! We're out of here in the morning.  

 

We went into town to explore and see what Logan had to offer, and went into a grocery store. Despite having bought groceries a couple of days ago there were things we needed. (Talk about bad planning!) Besides that, it's fun to see what's available in different towns.  This time I struck paydirt.

 

 

I have only seen this particular mustard at a HEB in Texas.  It's tart and bright, with a pleasant bite quite unlike, oh, horseradish mustard or some of the more bitter Dijon mustards I've tasted.  When we ran out of our last purchase I checked Amazon.  Nuh-uh, not going to pay that much, with prices all over the map for that item.  (One vendor says $8.99, another says about the same for a pack of 2.  Huh?) Here, it was $2.79/jar.  Yippee!  I know, it's more stuff to lug home in the trailer and unpack to the house, but we like this mustard. A lot.

 

One downside to skipping Texas is that we haven't had a chance to get any barbecued brisket.  We'd asked around at the park and been told that the local grill had stopped serving 'cue recently. During our driving around this place caught our eye.  "Look!" I said, "the flag says BBQ!"  We were famished.  We pulled in.

 

 

We spent time, bemused, pondering the side of the place opposite its entrance, before going in.  Take a good look.

 

 

See that trailer tongue? I'll tell about it...in another post.  Mama T's must wait for a better internet connection.

[Darienne]

Wonderful to relive some of our long ago trips through your blog.  

But those horrible evil Goat Sticker Thorns.  I could write a short story about the h*lls of those things and our dogs and our wagon which we used to pull our old handicapped pup.  Hate them with a passion.