Rambling out yonder: Pie Town

Pie Town requires its own post. The town consists of two cafes, a post office, several normal houses, and one very special Toaster House. If Pie Town were Seattle, the Toaster House would be all of Fremont on one lot. No one lives in the Toaster House, but Nita and her family have hosted hikers and bikers there since 1982. Since moving out of the house, they have left the door unlocked and pantry stocked for all who need a place to stay.

I took a day off there with Clement and Brooks, along with Ross, a hiker from Cincinnati who was letting his feet heal up. After showering and starting laundry, I accepted the challenge of cooking dinner on a wood stove (in a towel and rain jacket, of course, as everything else was in the wash). In the morning, we went out to breakfast at the only cafe open for breakfast, where we enjoyed eggs, giant pancakes, and a rotation of ranchers and the like that caused Clement to comment, "I thought this only happened in the movies..." One was even wearing functional spurs. We were later told that the crowd used to included an old cowboy that wore his Colt around town. After picking up our resupply boxes at the adobe post office, we spent a leisurely three hour lunch at the Pie-o-Neer Cafe, which also had delicious pie. Nita came by to say hello and gave us a tour of the local sites, including the local NRAO Very Large Array outpost and the Stool Bus.