Day 07 - Mayhill, NM

We awoke Saturday to another beautiful day in the piney mountains.

Before I forget, I have a clue for the Mileage Madness. In all the trips we took while we were at Kathy and Vernon's, we rode in their red Hummer. So you don't want to figure out any mileage for trips to church or to Cloudcroft because we were in their car and not racking up mileage on Wilma.

During the day on Saturday, John stayed home with our furry children, Fannie Mae and Kathy and Vernon's Pomeranian, Gizzmo. We drove to look for some letterboxes. First, we went to Cloudcroft and were successful in finding a letterbox right downtown underneath the very place that the clue said it should be. If you are interested in finding out more about letter boxing, you can go to atlasquest.com, or just Google letter boxing.

We also went to Alamogordo to a pistachio grove. The one we chose had a talking cowboy right outside the door. All you had to do was press a button and he would start talking to you. Linda made a short video clip of Vernon and Kathy standing on each side of the cowboy. You can view the video clip by clicking here. (Just close the YouTube window and you will return here.)

Linda got some pistachios that were the flavor John likes, which is plain. Then she took a photo outside of the largest pistachio in the world. At least that is the claim and we have no reason to doubt it. It's in the photo gallery.

We also took a trip that day to High Rolls, NM, where Linda had a clue for another letterbox location. Alas, we could not find a letterbox, but it was an interesting location. It was right beside a tunnel and there was a historical marker there pointing out where some Indians had made a protected area to stay in a mountain across the way. Remains of a moccasin have been found at that site. The timeline was from several hundred years ago.

We got back to Mayhill and again received a good report on the behavior of our furry children. We relaxed for a while and then it was time to go to dinner at a fancy place in Cloudcroft called The Lodge. Vernon and Kathy said they wanted to take us out to celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary which would be occurring the next day. The restaurant at The Lodge is named "Rebecca's",  after a ghostly presence who is still said to inhabit the Lodge. She was a former employee who was caught in bed (by her boyfriend) with a lumberjack.  Shortly after that, she disappeared, only to reappear as a friendly ghostly presence.

The Lodge is next to a beautiful golf course that Linda has fond memories of going to with her parents and grandparents when she was elementary school age. At that time she was amazed at how very green a golf course could be. It was quite different from what she had seen in Plainview and Denver City, Texas.

Our dinner at the lodge that evening was a gourmet delight. Kathy and Linda had pistachio crusted trout, asparagus and a salad. John had a ribeye steak, asparagus and potatoes. Vernon had the special of the evening, which was shrimp and lobster with a spinach pasta. Vernon had warned us that we were getting dessert and to save room. The two special desserts are bananas foster and cherries jubilee, which are both prepared at your table. All four of us chose cherries jubilee. It was quite entertaining to see it made and extremely delicious to eat. We decided it was just the right combination of tart,  sweetness and texture. All this was accompanied by lovely music from a grand piano played by a talented entertainer. 

All in all, it was a day that would be hard to have improved upon.

You can view today's photo gallery by clicking here.