Pie Town, New Mexico - 05/12/16

Thursday – May 12, 2016
Pie Town, New Mexico

In April 2015, we visited Pie Town, New Mexico for the first time. It is a small town, probably less than a 1/4 mile in length, with a population of 153, located on the Continental Divide of New Mexico, at an elevation of 7800 feet. We learned about Pie Town while watching a segment on CBS News Sunday Morning that was broadcast on November 30, 2014. We really enjoyed our first visit to this, small, quaint, New Mexico town and put it on our list of places to revisit. So… here we are again! Let's have a slice, or two, of pie!!!

Our Home Base - Jackson Park Campground

Aerial View of Jackson Park Campground

Last year, three establishments served homemade pie: PIE-O-NEER, Pie Town Café and the Pie Source Homestead Café. On this visit to Pie Town, a fourth establishment, serving homemade pie, opened for business in June 2015: The Gatherin' Place for Pie -N- More.

The pie shops schedule their days and hours of operation to accommodate one another.
PIE-O-NEER: Thursday-Friday-Saturday / 11:30 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.
Pie Source: Monday through Thursday / 9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Pie Town Café: Sunday through Wednesday / 10:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.
The Gatherin’ Place: Open 7 Days / 7:30 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.

The Pie Shops of Pie Town

Pie Town has a total of six business establishments: Four pie shops, the U.S. Post Office, and a home builder (Log, Stick & Steel). The town is 1.4 miles in length on U.S. Highway 60, measured between the Pie Town eastern and western sign posts.

Aerial View of Pie Town

Many families have been baking pies in Pie Town since the 1920’s. In 1995 the Knapp family, while traveling through New Mexico, happened upon Pie Town. They stopped at the local pie shop to get a piece of pie. Much to their dismay, the shop was closed with a sign on the door that read: "There used to be pie in Pie Town, but there ain't no more — FOR SALE."

Wendi Knapp and her mother had a rich tradition in pie making from their days of baking all kinds of pies at the Cozy Corner Café in Rochelle, Illinois. On November 11, 1995, the For Sale sign was gone and three generations of the Knapp family (Wendi, Kathy, Mary – mother, daughter, granddaughter) started baking pies in Pie Town. This was the genesis of the pie shop: PIE-O-NEER. It is located near Mile Marker 56 on the north side of U.S. Highway 60.

The saying "If You Build It, They Will Come" eventually came true. Word of mouth, a CBS News Sunday Morning broadcast, Albuquerque, NM news segments, and several Travel magazines, all featuring Pie Town, bring people from around the United States and the World to this unique piece of Americana. Every second Saturday in September, Pie Town hosts a Pie Festival. As many as 3,000 people attend this one-day event. Vehicles park on both sides of U.S. Highway 60, for a mile in each direction, according to one pie shop owner, and wait in long lines outside of each of the four pie shops for a slice of pie.

We look forward to an enjoyable multi-day event, sampling pies from each of the four establishments!

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

Historic Buildings of Pie Town

Relics of Pie Town

Travel Details:
Departed: Holbrook, Arizona
Departure Time: 7:40 A.M.
Arrived: Pie Town, New Mexico
Arrival Time: 10:30 A.M.

Campground: Jackson Park
Type: County
GPS Coordinates:
Latitude: N 34.29755
Longitude: W 108.12993
Elevation: 7788 feet
Camping Fee: Free (3-night limit)
Campsite: GPS Coordinates
Campsite Hookups: None
Campground Amenities: Port-A-Potty Toilets, Trash Barrels, Water Spigot.
Total Campsites: Several unmarked campsites.

Cellular Service: Verizon - 3G, 2 Bars with Signal Booster
Internet Service: Verizon Jetpack – No Service Available
Dish TV Satellite Service: Excellent

Total miles traveled today: 138
Route Traveled:
East on U.S. Highways 180 / 191
East on U.S. Highway 60 to Pie Town, NM

Painted Desert - 05/11/16 - Holbrook, AZ

Wednesday – May 11, 2016
Painted Desert
Holbrook, Arizona

We sent a delightful day on Tuesday exploring the Petrified Forest National Park. Today we explored the Painted Desert, which is part of the Petrified Forest National Park. The Petrified Forest National Park lies within an area south of Interstate 40. The Painted Desert lies within an area north of Interstate 40.

The Painted Desert is marked by mounds of colorful clays, statuesque hoodoos, and rippling sand dunes. Mostly dry streambeds scratch its surface, but buried in the rock is a world-class store of fossils dating to the Age of the Dinosaurs.

The Painted Desert is home to a fascinating variety of living animals and plants, some unique and all supremely adapted to the high grass and shrub desert. It is also home to the Hopi and Navajo people.

The Painted Desert remains a relatively unstudied and little known area. It is treated as a stepchild of the Great Basin, one of the four great Northern American drylands. Botantists consider the Painted Desert an outlier of the Great Basin because of the plant life they hold in common. Plants however, are few and far between here. Vegetation maps, officially show the Painted Desert as "barren land" because greenery conceals less than five percent of the surface. Shrubs only large enough to shade a jackrabbit, and grasses, make up most of the ground cover.

The Painted Desert is a veritable outdoor museum of fossilized treasures. Great stores of petrified wood have made it famous, and in places the ground is littered with chips of these 225 million-year-old trees glistening in the sunlight.

Within the Painted Desert resides the Painted Desert Inn. Built of petrified wood and other native stone was the vision of Herbert David Lore. Lore registered the inn with the land office in 1924, fulfilling his responsibilities under the Homesteading Act.

For almost twelve years, Lore operated the "Stone Tree House" as a tourist attraction. The Stone Tree House was an oasis in the Painted Desert. Visitors could eat meals in the lunchroom, purchase American Indian arts and crafts, and enjoy a cool drink in the downstairs taproom. Six small rooms were available for two to four dollars per night.

Unfortunately, the inn was built on a seam of bentonite clay. As the clay expanded and retracted in response to changes in moisture, the foundation of the inn shifted, resulting in cracks forming in the walls, with resultant water damage.

Petrified Forest National Monument purchased the Painted Desert Inn in 1936. In the 1930s the Desert Inn was redesigned to a Pueblo Revival Style construction, featuring stuccoed masonry, thick walls, earth tones, flat roofs, and projecting roof beams. During the 1930s, the civilian conservation core (CCC) rebuilt the inn to its present design.

The Painted Desert Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

Petrified Forest - 05/10/16 - Holbrook, AZ

Tuesday – May 10, 2016
Petrified Forest National Park
Holbrook, Arizona

We spent a delightful, sunny day, with the temperature in the middle seventies, exploring the Petrified Forest National Park. Visitors to the park follow a 28-mile park road for an amazing journey; reminiscent of a landscape on another world.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation creating Petrified Forest National Monument. The monument became a national park in 1962.

Ancient Arizona was a hot, humid, lush green environment. During the Triassic Period, 225 million years ago, this was a tropical landscape with abundant vegetation. Early dinosaurs and reptiles roamed the area; fish, clams, snails, and crayfish moved through rivers; giant, 180-foot conifers reached to the skies.

Over the past 200 million years continents moved, regions uplifted, climate changed, and the river system, along with its plants and animals, was buried by layers of sediment. Wind and water have continually molded, sculpted, and peeled back these layers, providing a glimpse of the once tropical land that occupied this region of Arizona.

Petrified wood, remnants of a prehistoric forest, sparkle like precious gems in the sun, as they dominate the landscape in some regions of the Petrified Forest National Park. Colorful specimens, from small shards to massive trunks are strewn across the landscape. In some areas of the park, fossilized trunks are visible, in other areas they remain hidden, still buried under layers of soil and rock. As the trees died or were knocked down by wind or water, many were carried downstream and buried by layers of sediment. The sediment consisted of: silt, mud, sand, and volcanic ash, which protected them from decay. Mineral-laden ground water percolated through the layers, carrying silica from the volcanic ash and other trace minerals. The absorbent dead wood became saturated with these minerals. The silica, or quartz, crystals slowly bonded with the cells of the tree replicating the organic material in perfect detail. Eventually, silica replaced the wood material. The different minerals create the rainbow of colors seen in many specimens.

The Petrified Forest National Park protects hundreds of significant archeological sites. Humans have been living and working here for the past 13,000 years. The record of human occupation ranges from small single-room field houses to villages where hundreds of people lived. Phenomenal rock art sites are scattered throughout the park.

The Petrified Forest National Park is considered the world’s largest concentration of highly colored petrified wood.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

Holbrook, AZ - 05/09/16

Monday – May 9, 2016
Holbrook, Arizona

We spent a delightful six days exploring Prescott, Arizona, while camped at the White Spar Campground in the Prescott National Forest. The weather was pleasant upon our arrival on Tuesday and remained so through Thursday. Sunny skies with temperatures in the seventies prevailed through Thursday, then a cold front entered the area on Friday, plummeting the temperature into the low sixties, with partly sunny skies. Saturday and Sunday were equally chilly, with overcast skies and intermittent rain showers. It is time to move on to northern Arizona where sunny skies and temperatures in the middle seventies await our arrival.

This segment of our trip takes us to Holbrook, Arizona. This will be our home base while we spend a few days at the Crystal Forest Campground, exploring the Petrified Forest National Park.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

Travel Details:
Departed: Prescott, Arizona
Departure Time: 6:50 A.M.
Arrived: Holbrook, Arizona
Arrival Time: 12:20 P.M.

Campground: Crystal Forest Gift Shop
Type: Private
GPS Coordinates:
Latitude: N 34.792559
Longitude: W 109.890737

West Side of Road: $10.75
Campground Amenities: Electric, Picnic Tables
Our Campsite: 7
Campsites: 10

East Side of Road: Free
Campground Amenities: Picnic Tables Only
Campsites: 5
No Water, Trash Dumpsters or Sewer Dump at Either Campground

Cellular Service: Verizon - 4G, 3 Bars
Internet Service: Verizon Jetpack, 5 Bars
Dish TV Satellite Service: Excellent

Total miles traveled today: 208
Route Traveled:
East on Arizona Highway 69
North on Arizona Highway 169
North on Interstate 17
West on Interstate 40 to Holbrook (Exit 285)
East on U.S. Highway 180 to Petrified Forest Road

Prescott, Arizona - 05/05/16

Thursday – May 5, 2016
Prescott, Arizona

We spent a delightful day touring Prescott. Since we arrived on Tuesday, 5/03/16, the weather has been delightful. We have enjoyed sunny days with temperatures in the middle seventies.

Prescott, Arizona was founded in 1864. The city was named after historian, William Hickling Prescott. The city is the county seat of Yavapai County. The Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe reservation is located adjacent to and partially within the borders of Prescott. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the population of the city is 39,843.

In 1864 Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona Territory. The Territorial Capital was moved to Tucson in 1867. Prescott again became the Territorial Capital in 1877, until Phoenix became the capital in 1889.

Prescott, together with other towns within Yavapai County, comprises a population of 211,073 as of the 2010 United States Census Bureau. This is the third largest metropolitan area in Arizona, after Phoenix (4.2 million) and Tucson (1 million).

Prescott has a large, beautiful town square, showcasing a historic courthouse in the middle of the square. A variety of shops, bars and restaurants reside within the Town Square. One of the streets on the square, Montezuma Street, has long been known as "Whisky Row" for the numerous saloons which one lined the street. On July 14, 1900, a disastrous fire started by a miner’s candle destroyed the four blocks around the square. Within a few days of the fire, new construction was underway in brick and masonry. Most of the buildings on Montezuma Street were rebuilt between the fall of 1900 and 1905, in the styles typical of early 20^th century buildings.

Prescott’s cooler climate, at an elevation of 5,368 feet, is a popular destination for visitors from Phoenix, Tucson and other southern areas of Arizona during the summer months. They come to Prescott to escape the triple digit temperatures from their region during the summer months.

Prescott is a tourist friendly destination. There are lots of things to do: Hiking, Biking, Walking Tours, Shopping and Dining. There are weekly and ongoing events. Every weekend, cultural events are scheduled within the Courthouse Plaza. While we were there, the 30^th Annual Prescott Fine Arts & Wine Festival was taking place.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

Prescott National Forest - 05/03/16 - Prescott, AZ

Tuesday – May 3, 2016
Prescott National Forest
Prescott, Arizona

We spent a delightful seven days in Las Vegas and enjoyed our time sampling the cuisine from four restaurants featured on Diners, Drive In’s and Dives in March 2016. Now, it is time to move on to explore out other interesting places.

This segment of our adventure takes us to Prescott, Arizona. In a recent survey of the best cities to retire, Prescott was voted as number two on the list. While we are waiting for the weather to warm up in northern California, Oregon and Washington, we will check out Prescott.

Prescott is a small town with a population of 39,843, according to the 2010 Census. It is located in a mountainous region in central Arizona, at an elevation of 5,368 feet, somewhat surrounded by the Prescott National Forest.

We will spend six days exploring Prescott, while camped at the White Spar Campground in the Prescott National Forest.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

Travel Details:

Departed: Boulder City, Nevada
Departure Time: 8:05 A.M.
Arrived: Prescott, Arizona
Arrival Time: 12:45 P.M.

Campground: White Spar
Type: National Forest
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: N 34.50900 Longitude: W 112.47700
Camping Fee: $14.00 (50% discount with Golden Age Passport)
Campsite: 12
Campsite Hookups: None
Campground Amenities: Vault Toilets, Trash Dumpster.
Free Dump Stations: Affinity RV Dealer in Prescott, Prescott Water Treatment Facility, Affinity RV Dealer in Prescott Valley
Total Campsites: 59

Cellular Service: Verizon - 4G, 3 Bars
Internet Service: Verizon Jetpack, 5 Bars
Dish TV Satellite Service: Excellent

Total miles traveled today: 227
Route Traveled:
South on U.S. Route 93
East on Interstate 40
South on Arizona Highway 89 to White Spar Campground

RoadKill Grill - 05/02/16 - Las Vegas, NV

Monday – May 2, 2016
RoadKill Grill
Las Vegas, Nevada

We saved John Mull’s RoadKill Grill for our final dining experience, before departing Las Vegas. When we viewed the segment on the RoadKill Grill, featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in March 2016, we were intrigued and looked forward to a visit to Las Vegas.

The RoadKill Grill cannot be categorized as a restaurant. There is no inside dining, all food is consumed on the outside, at picnic tables. But do not let that inhibit you from visiting this establishment. The BBQ is outstanding!!!

As you enter the RoadKill Grill, there is a narrow isle, you order the BBQ and sides on one side and order fresh cuts of Beef, Pork, Lamb, Rabbit, Buffalo Patties and Frog Legs on the other side of the isle.

I ordered the Brisket Dinner with sides of Mac & Cheese and Cole Slaw.

Sharon ordered the Pulled Pork Dinner with sides of Baked Beans and Cole Slaw.

Oh… did I mention we ordered a slab of BBQ Ribs to-go? Yep... we did!!!

The RoadKill Grill is located in a residential neighborhood. We were getting a bit concerned that our GPS coordinates were incorrect. We were being taken on a serpentine route through one residential neighborhood after another. But, in the end, our trusty GPS guided us directly to the RoadKill Grill. It was indeed, located within a residential neighborhood!

Across the street from the RoadKill Grill is a home with three horses, grazing in a very small grass yard. Adjacent to the grass yard is a small, circular, sand-based, exercise yard for the horses. It was interesting to see this scenario in a residential neighborhood.

The BBQ was outstanding! RoadKill Grill will definitely see us again on our future visits to Las Vegas.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.