In search of pie

Our next stop was Grants, New Mexico, the plan, was to visit Chaco Canyon NHP, needless to say the weather didn’t co-operate, it turned cloudy and a lot cooler.   A couple of people also staying on our campground tried to get there and had to turn back because of rain and washed out roads.   So once, again our plans to return to Chaco were abandoned, one day!

 

Instead we decided we’d head over to Pie Town and try some of the famous pie.  I always thought we were nearer to Pie Town when we stayed at Kiva RV Park, in Bernardo but DB said he thought we were closer in Grants (more of that later).

 

It was a cloudy, chilly day and as our route took us along NM177 to Quemado we filled up with diesel and coffee before we headed off.   It’s a long, lonely two lane road that takes you through El Malpais, past the Sandstone Bluffs and La Ventana, a beautiful natural arch, along The Narrows where the lava flow almost seems to lap like waves against the sandstone cliffs and then out across the wide open plains.

 

We stopped, briefly, in Quemado, it was so cold we took our photographs of the church out of the truck!  

We turned for Pie Town, getting quite excited at the few glimpses of sun through the clouds, thinking it was going to warm up, needless to say it didn’t, but then again we were at 8,000 ft.

Due to its strategic location travellers have always stopped at Pie Town for rest and refreshment, the pies made by the first merchant in town became famous because of their quality.   Locals and travellers alike started to refer to the town as Pie Town and the name stuck. 

We stopped at the Pie-O-Neer Café,

The counter inside the café.

So which one should we choose?

After much deliberation Mike had peach pie and I had New Mexico apple with green chile, pine nuts and huge dollop of ice-cream both were very nice.

There is also a windmill museum in Pie Town, but it was so cold and windy that we literally ate our pie, drank our coffee and left.

This is when we discovered it was going to be a much longer drive back to Grants than we’d planned.   Our return route short cut was along what turned out to be dirt roads, probably because of all the recent rains they’d become rough and washboardy, we thought if we carry on, the road might get better, wrong!

After a few miles of being bounced around, DB said he’d had enough, and I must admit so I had I, not to mention the fact that it was probably going to take us much longer to drive back that way than we’d thought.   So we bounced our way back, (we really are fair weather dirt road travellers!) to the main road and returned the same way we’d come along nice smooth paved roads.

 

While we enjoyed our trip to Pie Town, I have to admit, had we realized quite how far it was from Grants we probably wouldn’t’ve gone.

 

Have fun, we are!