March 14…. I finally made it

Last night we stayed up late watching the lunar eclipse. It never really turned red like we expected, but was interesting nonetheless.

Today we slept in, and then went to McGinn’s Pistachioland outside Alamogordo, home to the World’s Largest Pistachio. Four years ago I tried to come here with my son Ray, but they were closed and we couldn’t wait. I finally made it back.

It’s a working pistachio farm, the first in New Mexico, planted back in 1980. Those original trees are still growing and producing pistachios.

Interestingly, pistachio trees won’t grow in the soil here in NM, so they graft a pistachio tree stem onto an oak tree stump, and then it grows just fine. See how the base of every tree looks a bit different??

After going through the enormous gift shop (because of course there’s a gift shop) we drove up into the mountains to Ruidoso NM. It had snowed up there last night. It’s a ski town mostly, and not a lot else. There is a casino, but it looked rather quiet when we went past. Nothing quite like a tourist town out of season. 🫤

New Mexico isn’t just desert. Who knew? 🤔