Day 04 - Tombstone - Mayhill, NM

Leaving Tombstone at about 6:37 AM. It's bright and sunny here and it's nice and cool.

We had originally planned on having breakfast at the Longhouse Restaurant before leaving Tombstone. However, when we checked Wilma's navigation system in the motel parking lot, Wilma reported that it would take over nine hours to get to Kathy and Vernon's house. So, we decided to leave Tombstone and catch breakfast on the highway somewhere. What we didn't realize was that Wilma's navigation system will lie to you if you are not already on a designated highway (parking lots don't count). Once we pulled out onto the highway, the travel time became five hours instead of nine hours. Whew!

Since we had already left Tombstone, we just kept going and stopped in Benson, Arizona at a small family restaurant. We often pick restaurants by how many cars are in the parking lot. In this case not only were there a lot of cars, but most of the people in the restaurant were construction workers. That's always a good sign. It was a very homey place with funny signs and postings for local events.  They had a NO SNIVELING sign (we used to have one in our print shop).  John had eggs & trimmings, Linda had a big bowl of fresh fruit.

Since we had left Tombstone so early, by lunch time we were already in Alamogordo, New Mexico. That's pretty close to our final destination for the day. We stopped there at a McDonald's for lunch and then headed on our way to Kathy and Vernon's.

The climb from Alamogordo to Cloudroft is from just over 4,000 feet elevation to around 8,600 feet elevation. From Cloudcroft to Kathy and Vernon Norris' home in Robin Hood Park, you drop down to about 7,700 feet elevation. Big deal. John reports that there is very little oxygen in the air at this elevation.

We arrived around 2:30 PM. One of the first things we did was to introduce Fannie Mae and Gizzmo (picture of Gizzmo in tomorrow's photo gallery). We took them out on a large back deck which leads down the stairs to a huge, fenced backyard and let them play and get acquainted. There was a "hole" lot of sniffing going on. The humans sat in chairs on the deck and enjoyed tall glasses of tangy lemonade. Fannie Mae is a miniature schnauzer and Gizzmo is a pomeranian.  What a relief that they hit it off fine from the get go. Kathy and Linda have known each other since they were 4 years old in Plainview, Texas. They have become better  and better friends as the years roll on. Within the last 10 years or so they have decided that they are cousins. Kathy found out that one of her great grandmothers was named Ayers (which is Linda's maiden name). Kathy and Vernon moved to Cloudcroft from Plainview full time at the end of May last year.

They bought their place 5 years ago and completely revamped it into a warm, comfortable and beautiful home, doing 98% of the work themselves (walls, paint, beams, fireplace, tile, deck, flooring, plumbing). They are both such hard workers and they love doing projects together.  Their next project is a greenhouse. They have prepared the foundation and will be erecting the greenhouse (a kit) during the next few weeks.        

Later on the evening of our arrival Kathy prepared a wonderful pork chop dinner for us. Along with the rosemary seasoned (from Kathy's garden) pork chops, we had some terrific green beans and a nice fresh fruit salad.

As reported in an earlier distribution e-mail, we were going to break our no TV rule on Tuesday and Wednesday evening to finish off American Idol. Unfortunately, we missed the Tuesday performance show as the Tombstone Motel does not carry the Fox Network. So we did not get to see the actual performances of the two finalists. The good news is this: it's on the DVR at home. However, Kathy and Vernon were kind enough to let us watch the finale on Wednesday evening. We were both happy to see that our favorite, Scotty  McCreery, won the American Idol for this season.

It was getting a bit late and after a long day's drive it was time for bed. In our travels, we were too occupied with getting to our host's home and visiting with them to do any photography. So, there is no photo gallery for today. But, just wait.