Desperately Seeking Water

Road Trip--------that's the answer to everything in New Mexico.  Since our area has had .04" of precipitation so far in 2011 (not a typo--I mean  4/100ths of an inch of moisture falling from the sky) and that was all from the February snowfall:

we decided to go in search of big water.  Last Saturday we walked along the Rio Grande but that didn't quench our thirst.  So Thursday we filled the car with gasoline (OUCH!!!!)  and headed North on I-25.

The first stop was Percha Dam State Park.  The brochure looked so nice but the reality was not the pictures----good marketing job by the state.  It's a nice oasis after 50 miles of the desert scenery of the Jornada del Muerto .  But it wasn't the water view we craved.  We left Percha and headed north to Caballo Lake.  Now this was more like it:

boat ramp

looking east to the Caballo Mountains

view to the South

We walked around the picnic area by the lake----our thirst had been slaked.  It was approaching the noon hour and since we were already more than halfway there we proceeded north for a feast:

the sign says it all

The waitress was attentive and the cook brought out the order promptly.  The burger overflowed from the bun, the chile was hot, the onion fresh, the lettuce and tomato a perfect balance to the green chile:

ahhhhhhhhhhh  a masterpiece

Lest the reader think we are craven carnivores, we also had veggies---the chile, lettuce, onions, tomatoes on the burger.  And the side order:

green chile cheese fries

Other than the cheese, a vegetarian plate---potatoes, green chile peppers.  Admittedly not the same as what we get from Emily and Charley in the Friday afternoon harvest boxes:

contents of a harvest box

local lettuce

But, whatever.................And at which purveyor of gastronomical delights did we partake of this feast??

 

I'll leave that to the reader to puzzle out from the picture above.  (Hint: what kind of bird?)